Washed-rind cheeses of Burgundy:Époisses, Soumaintrain, Ami du Chambertin

Three soft-paste, washed-rind cheeses are made in Côte-d’Or and the neighbouring departments: Époisses, Soumaintrain and Ami du Chambertin. Only one carries an AOP, another an IGP, and the third has no origin protection at all. What unites them is a gesture repeated throughout ageing: the regular washing of the rind.

What is a washed rind?

Washing a rind means rubbing or spraying the cheese’s surface regularly with a salted liquid, sometimes enriched with a local spirit, from the first to the last day of ageing. This repeated gesture does two things at once: it keeps white moulds from taking hold, and it feeds a surface bacterium, Brevibacterium linens, nicknamed the “red ferment”.

This bacterium synthesises carotene. It alone gives the three cheeses their characteristic orange-red colour : no dye enters the recipe. It also produces the sulphur compounds responsible for the powerful smell these soft cheeses give off at maturity, a smell often stronger than the actual taste in the mouth.

Époisses, the only AOP of the three

Production rules and growing area

Époisses earned its appellation d’origine contrôlée in 1991, then European AOP status on 21 June 1996. The production zone covers the Auxois, in the north-west of Côte-d’Or, plus delimited cantons of the Yonne and Haute-Marne. Every stage, from milk production to ageing, must take place within this zone.

The production rules require whole cow’s milk, an unpressed soft paste, and a minimum ageing period of four weeks. Each cheese weighs around 250 grams with a fat content of 24%. Washing happens one to three times a week, starting with brine, then progressively enriched with marc de Bourgogne as ageing advances : never pure marc from the outset, contrary to popular belief.

The washing gesture, step by step

Washing begins with brine alone during the first week, giving the rind time to firm up. Marc de Bourgogne then enters the bath in growing proportion, until it makes up most of the washing liquid during the final passes before shipping. This repeated gesture, done by hand in artisan workshops, shapes the colour, smell and sticky texture typical of the rind at maturity.

A modest sector, organised since 1969

The Syndicat de défense de l’Époisses formed in 1969, even before AOC status was granted, to organise producers and push for official recognition of the cheese. Today the sector counts around 40 dairy farmers, four production workshops (including one farm producer), a herd of roughly 3,000 cows, and a marketed volume of 1,342 tonnes in 2017. An artisan scale, far removed from the volumes of France’s best-known AOP cheeses.

From monks to near-extinction

The tradition dates back to the 16th century, attributed to a religious community settled in the village of Époisses. The cheese travelled through the centuries, reached royal tables, then nearly disappeared after the Second World War, as farm milk production collapsed and small holdings closed. The recipe was revived in 1956 by Robert Berthaut, a farmer from Époisses, and his wife, with a few producers, who reconstructed the progressive marc-washing know-how before the tradition was lost for good.

Soumaintrain, IGP since 2016

A zone straddling three departments

Soumaintrain takes its name from a village in the Yonne. Its production zone, recognised as a protected geographical indication in 2016 (after national registration by the INAO in 2014), spans parts of the Yonne, Côte-d’Or and Aube : at the meeting point of Burgundy and Champagne. The first written mentions of the cheese date back to 1631, but the practice is likely much older: as early as 1117, Cistercian monks in the region practised similar cheesemaking techniques, linked to dues paid in aged cheese to local abbeys.

Production: faster than Époisses

Soumaintrain stands out for its shorter ageing period: a minimum of 21 days, against four weeks for Époisses. It takes about four litres of whole cow’s milk per wheel. During ageing, the rind is washed in brine every two to three days, developing the same red bacterium and giving a rind ranging from ivory-yellow to ochre, over a fresher, more lactic paste than Époisses. The sector remains split between farm production (25% of volumes) and industrial production (75%).

Ami du Chambertin, a creation without an appellation

Born in 1950 in Brochon

Unlike the two previous cheeses, Ami du Chambertin is not a traditional cheese going back centuries: it was created in 1950 in a workshop in Brochon, Côte-d’Or, a few kilometres from the Gevrey-Chambertin vineyard whose name it borrows. Its cylindrical shape (9cm diameter, 4cm high) and its marc de Bourgogne washing process, over a minimum four-week ageing period, technically bring it close to Époisses.

Why no AOP protects it

Ami du Chambertin remains a commercial trademark, not an appellation of origin. There is no public set of production rules filed with the INAO, no geographical zone delimited by decree, no defence syndicate in the regulatory sense of the term. Any manufacturer following the recipe could in theory produce a similar cheese outside Côte-d’Or : something legally impossible for Époisses or Soumaintrain, protected by their zone. This is the practical difference between a terroir product under appellation and a regional product with no protection: the name guarantees an origin for one, not for the other.

Where and when to find them in Côte-d’Or

The best tasting period runs from May to October, when summer milk gives the pastes their richest aromas. Dijon’s Les Halles market, open four days a week, remains the simplest place to compare all three cheeses side by side and leave with a board put together on the spot rather than from a supermarket. The village of Époisses itself, in the Auxois, is worth visiting alongside lunch: allow half a day to combine the medieval castle with tasting.

One practical note before buying: the smell of an Époisses or an Ami du Chambertin close to peak maturity can be surprising in a closed car in summer. An airtight container is not a luxury.