Béarn High Pasture Cheeses

Every year in June, around eighty shepherds from the three valleys of Béarn (Ossau, Aspe and Barétous) lead their flocks of sheep to the rich mountain pastures on the French side of the Western Pyrenees. For three months they live in small isolated stone huts, often difficult to access, and produce traditional tommes: pressed raw milk cheeses which can weigh over five kilograms.
Over the past 10 years, thanks to significant financial investments, the facilities in which this age-old artisanal cheese is produced have been refurbished and brought up to European hygiene standards.
Native sheep of the “Basque-Béarne” breed are particularly well adapted to the mountain environment and provide all the sheep milk used for cheesemaking.
The sun-drenched pastures at an altitude between 900 and 2000 meters grow mountain flowers in an array of colors and aromas. Alpine clover together with mountain thyme give the cheese a delicate nutty flavor. Some shepherds, particularly in the Aspe valley, also bring a few cows to the pastures and continue to produce an older style “mixed” cheese by mixing two parts of cow’s milk with one part of sheep milk—it is more delicate, but still soft and intense.
After aging at least four months in humid premises, the tommes assume an attractive beige-orange color. Their outstanding quality is due to the animals’ natural diet, the skill of the shepherds, who make no more than two or three cheeses a day, and the slow, carefully controlled aging.
These cheeses are soft and even after aging develop a delicate aroma of milk, nuts, mushrooms, vegetables, together with persistent flavor.
The cheese from each mountain dairy is unique; the non-refrigerated milk keeps the pasture’s microbial flora, which gives it a characteristic taste.