Les Caves de la Tzintre

Parc naturel régional Gruyère Pays-d'Enhaut - The Alp cheesemaking season is short. Between April to October, alpine farmers make between two and three wheels of Alp cheese every day. The process involves heating milk in huge 800-litre capacity copper vats; twelve litres of milk are needed to make one kilo of cheese. The altitude and position on the mountain slope of the alpine farm as well as the surrounding flora and the cheesemaker’s expertise are what lends each cheese its unique and distinctive character. It is precisely this diversity that sets Gruyère d'Alpage AOP apart.
Because Alp cheeses must be turned and brushed every day, in both summer and winter, they cannot be kept in the mountain ripening cellars for the entire 24 months. The armaillis [mountain dairy farmers] move the wheels to the La Tzintre ripening cellars (Charmey) in the valley below. These facilities, which accommodate 7,000 wheels of both Gruyère AOP (approx. 150 tonnes) and Vacherin fribourgeois AOP (20 tonnes), offer the best possible storage and matur

ing conditions.