What a fruitière actually is

The French word fruitière has nothing to do with fruit. It comes from the idea of putting the fruit of the work in common. Centuries ago, no single Jura farm produced enough milk in a day to make one large wheel of cheese that would keep through the winter, so the farmers of a village pooled their milk and took turns. That cooperative is the fruitière, and around 140 of them are still working today across the Jura, the Doubs and the Ain.

This is not a marketing story. It is the reason the countryside looks the way it does: pasture instead of maize, hedgerows instead of open prairie, and a village dairy every few kilometres rather than one factory serving a whole region.

How Comté is made

The milk

Only two breeds of cow are allowed: the Montbéliarde, the red-and-white cow you will see in every field here, and the French Simmental. Each cow must have at least 1.3 hectares of grazing, silage is banned, and the milk has to reach the dairy within a collection area no more than 25 kilometres across. That last rule is why the fruitières are small and numerous instead of few and large.

The wheel

It takes about 400 litres of milk — roughly a day's milk from twenty cows — to make a single wheel. The finished wheel weighs around 40 kilos. The milk is heated in a copper vat, curdled, cut into grains, then pressed into a mould for several hours before being salted and sent to the cellar.

The cellar

Comté must age at least four months, and most of what you will want to buy has spent far longer: 12, 18 or 24 months, sometimes more. Wheels are turned and rubbed regularly during that time. The long-aged ones develop the crystalline crunch and the nutty, almost caramelised flavour that people come back for.

A detail worth knowing at the counter: each wheel is graded, and the best scores earn a green band around the rim. A brown band means the wheel passed but scored lower. Neither is a bad cheese — but if you have a choice, look at the band.

Why no two Comtés taste the same

This is the part visitors find surprising. Comté is not one flavour. The same fruitière will produce noticeably different cheese in June and in January, because the cows are eating fresh grass and flowers in summer and hay in winter. Summer wheels tend to be more yellow and more floral; winter wheels are paler and more milky. Add the altitude of the pastures, the ageing time and the cellar itself, and you get a cheese that genuinely varies from one village to the next.

The practical consequence is simple: taste before you buy, and taste more than one. Any fruitière shop will let you.

Visiting a fruitière

Most fruitières have a shop, and many have a viewing window onto the make room. Cheesemaking starts early — the vats are usually working between about 7 and 11 in the morning — so if you want to watch rather than just shop, go early. Afternoons are for buying.

It costs nothing in most cases, it takes half an hour, and it is one of the few activities here that works just as well in the rain. Children tend to like it more than their parents expect.

Three near our gîtes

• Fruitière du Mont Orgier, in Orgelet — the closest to our properties, in the village itself.
• Fruitière de la Bresse Jurassienne, at Desnes, north-west towards the plain.
• Fruitière des Moussières, up in the Haut-Jura, worth combining with a day in the mountains.

Beyond these, there are fruitières scattered across the Premier Plateau, the Petite Montagne and the Haut-Jura. If you pass a sign saying fromagerie or fruitière, it is almost always worth stopping.

The other cheeses you will meet

• Morbier — a semi-soft cheese with a dark line of vegetable ash through the middle, a reminder of when the morning and evening milk were separated by a layer of soot.
• Bleu de Gex, also called Bleu du Haut-Jura — a mild blue from the mountains, far gentler than a Roquefort.
• Mont d'Or, or Vacherin — a seasonal soft cheese sold in a spruce box, available roughly from late summer to early spring. Baked in its box with a splash of white wine, it is a meal in itself.
• Raclette and tomme, plus the local butter and cream, which are worth buying simply because they are better here.

What to do with it

Two things the Jura does with Comté that are worth trying at home in your gîte. The first is the simplest: a wedge of 18-month Comté, bread, and a glass of Jura white. The second is the regional classic, chicken in a cream and morel sauce, finished with grated Comté — and, if you are feeling brave, a splash of Vin Jaune, which is what the recipe is really built around.

For a cheeseboard, a long-aged Comté, a Morbier and a Bleu de Gex cover the whole range, and all three are usually available in the same shop.

Practical notes

• Opening hours. Fruitière shops often close for a long lunch, and some close on Sunday afternoon and Monday. Check before making a detour.
• Taking it home. Comté travels well. A vacuum-sealed piece keeps for weeks in a fridge, and the shops will seal it for you if you ask.
• Markets. If you would rather do it all in one stop, the local markets have farm cheeses, charcuterie, honey and vegetables side by side — and a gîte kitchen to cook them in.
• Combine it. Poligny is both a Comté town and a wine village, which makes it the natural place to do cheese and wine on the same day.

Where to stay

Our gîtes are in the Orgelet and Lake Vouglans area, with the Fruitière du Mont Orgier in Orgelet itself and the plateau fruitières within a short drive.

• Our studio in Orgelet, a few minutes' walk from the village fruitière.
• Gîte Cadet Roussel and Gîte du Sapin, both with a proper kitchen for cooking what you bring back.
• Our gîte with private spa and sauna, for a slower kind of week.

Cheese and wine go together here more literally than in most places: our guide to the Jura wine route covers the vineyard, Vin Jaune included, and passes through Poligny. If you are planning a first trip, start with the first-timer's guide to the Jura, and how to choose and book a gîte explains how renting works here.

Questions before booking? The easiest way to reach us is by email: write to us in English and we will reply in English.

Question fréquentes Comté and the fruitières: your questions