Sometimes it seems like my brain is at capacity. If a new cheese name goes in, another one gets pushed out. In last week’s post about great French Basque cheeses, I inadvertently omitted the newcomer that got me thinking about Pyrenees cheese in the first place. Former cheesemonger Steve Jones alerted me to Tomme per Diou (above), and there aren’t many cheese people I trust more. I can’t wait to share this raw goat’s milk wheel in my classes (which reminds me: the 2024 World Cheese Tour class schedule is online) and to see more retailers stocking it.

Tomme per Diou is made in the mountain village of Aydius, near the Spanish border. I can’t tell if Aydius actually lies within the boundaries of the Basque region, but if not, it’s close. And it doesn’t matter. According to the importer, the hamlet is a stronghold of farmstead goat tommes in a part of France better known for sheep cheese.

If you made Ossau-Iraty with goat’s milk, it would taste like this—silky, creamy, profoundly nutty and concentrated in flavor. Matured for six months and repeatedly washed with brine to develop the rind, the six-pound Tomme per Diou provides a lingering taste experience—not pungent or piquant but intense, like a well-reduced stock.

The U.S. importer gets this cheese from Les Saloirs de Louis, a cheese-aging enterprise started by a former Basque shepherd. Working with about 40 small farmstead producers in the region, he buys their wheels young and matures them in his cellars.

It costs a lot to build a proper facility and babysit cheese for so long, which is why this affinage system makes sense. The farmers get paid quickly and can focus on their animals and their cheesemaking, while leaving the aging and marketing to a pro. In next week’s Planet Cheese post, I’ll be featuring a superb new American cheese that reflects the talents of the affineur, a rare profession in the U.S.

I reached out to Louis Madec, the affineur, for an explanation of the tomme’s curious name. I know “tomme” is a generic French word for a cheese, typically (but not always) an aged wheel made on a farm. But who was Diou? What could per Diou mean?

According to Madec, in Béarnaise dialect the phrase is comparable to “by God!” The local shepherds use it often to express joy, surprise, anguish…or just about any emotion. So, in that spirit, I’ll just say that, per Diou, this is heavenly cheese.

Look for Tomme per Diou at the following retailers—mostly West Coast for now but let’s hope for broader distribution soon:

Bon Vivant Market & Café (Los Angeles)
Cailloux Cheese Shop (Solvang, CA)
Dedalus Wine (Burlington, VT)
Liberty Heights Fresh (Salt Lake City)
Milkfarm (Los Angeles)
Oh La Vache (Long Beach, CA)
Paradise Pantry (Ventura, CA)
Petaluma Cheese Shop/Barber's Cellar (Petaluma, CA)
Rainbow Grocery (San Francisco)
Sonoma Cheese Factory (Sonoma, CA)
Staff of Life (Santa Cruz, CA)
Union Larder (San Francisco)