This is a 36-month aged Comté from France, brought in from the affineur Rodolphe Le Meunier, one of the most respected names in French cheese. Comté is the raw cow's milk alpine wheel from the Jura mountains in Franche-Comté, AOP protected, and at three years it's a different animal from the younger wheels most people know. The paste is dense and golden, shot through with big tyrosine crystals that crunch under the knife. It breaks into shards rather than slicing clean, which is what you want. Flavor is super nutty, toasted hazelnut and brown butter up front, with a deep caramel sweetness that builds on the back of the palate and lingers for a long time. Opening a fresh wheel of this is something special, it's so fresh and so moist right out of the cave. This is one of those cheeses worth the splurge, right in the sweet spot where age and moisture meet.
