Extra Aged Comté - A Deli Holiday Exclusive

Excerpt from Ari’s Top 5 enews

Incredible raw mountain cheese from eastern France

Comté is one of France’s oldest cheeses and one of the last really strong bastions of traditional cheese making. Switzerland’s Gruyère is appropriately recognized as one of the world’s best cheeses. Comté is its lesser known French cousin — while Swiss Gruyere has more of a nose and is a bit sharper on its edges, a great Comté like this one will be more buttery, softly nutty, and excellent without going over the edge.

All our Comté is selected just for us from Marcel Petit, the firm that’s been maturing cheese in the region for over fifty years. The connection comes to us through my late friend, Daphne Zepos, who came to love their cheese and worked to get it to us. (You can read more about Daphne and her recipe for a great life in the Epilogue of Part 3 of the Zingerman’s Guide to Good Leading: A Lapsed Anarchist’s Approach to Managing Ourselves.)

This extra aged Comté is wonderfully delicious, radically and ravishingly good, yet gentle. Makes me think of Nick Drake’s music (Or try James Elkington’s music if you want something more modern)—really gentle, but so powerful in its quiet way, and weirdly but wonderfully unforgettable. Extra aged Comté is buttery, has a light nuttiness and just the tiniest whisper of smokiness. I could honestly eat this cheese all day!

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