Banon cheese
A Provençal goat cheese wrapped in chestnut leaves.
Banon, also called Banon à la feuille, is a French cheese from the Provence region near the town of Banon. This circular, unpasteurized goat’s milk cheese measures about 7 cm across and 2.5 cm tall, weighing roughly 100 g. Its fine, soft white pâte is pungent, uncooked, and unpressed. Before shipping, the cheese is wrapped in chestnut leaves and tied with raffia. A local specialty, fromage fort du Mont Ventoux, is made by placing a young Banon in an earthenware jar, seasoning it with salt, pepper, vinegar, and eau-de-vie, then fermenting it in a cool cellar to develop an increasingly fierce taste that can last for years.
Quick Facts
- Country
- France
- Source
- Goats
- Texture
- Soft-ripened
- Aging
- at least 3 weeks
- Certification
- French AOC 2003, PDO
Facts from the source article.
Did You Know?
- Small goat's cheeses have been made in the dry hills of Provence since Roman times.
- The cheese as sold today was first made by a couple in the village of Puimichel near Banon.
- Since 1993, the village of Banon has organized a festival celebrating its goat cheese every May, canceled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Manufacture
Banon cheese undergoes a two-week aging process before being submerged in eau de vie and encased in chestnut leaves. These leaves, harvested when brown during autumn, are first softened and sterilized by boiling in a water and vinegar mixture. Seasonal workers collect them across the Albion Plateau, the Cévennes, Corsica, and Ardèche. The Fromagerie de Banon, which handles 60% of total production, uses about 5 million leaves annually.
The finished cheese is a 100-gram disc, 8 centimeters across and 2 to 3 centimeters tall. It is best when produced between spring and autumn. In July 2003, Banon became the first cheese from the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region to earn the Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée (AOC) label. This designation covers 179 communes across four departments, where all milk production, cheesemaking, and aging must take place.
With only eighteen farm producers and two artisanal processors, annual output is just 75 tonnes—80% from dairies and 20% from farms. Ten milk producers supply the two artisanal companies, while the Banon Cheese Factory itself contributes barely 50 tonnes per year to the market. This low volume makes it one of France’s rarest and smallest AOC cheeses.
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