This is a 30-month Comté, the raw cow's milk Alpine from the Jura in eastern France, aged way past the standard wheel. AOP protected, made the old way, and then held in natural stone cellars for two and a half years before it ever leaves the region. The paste at this age is dense and dry, breaks into slabs under the knife with a real crunch from the tyrosine crystals that build up over the long maturation. Color goes deep golden, and the rind comes out rough and dusty brown from all that cellar time. Flavor is in a class of its own at 30 months: toasted hazelnut and brown butter run through the bite, wrapped in a fruity, caramelized sweetness, with a long savory pull on the finish that sticks around well past the swallow. If you already love Comté at 12 or 18 months, this is the flex version. Drier, more concentrated, more crystals, more of everything the long age gives you. These guys nailed it.
