Anniversary? Birthday? I wasn’t sure what to call it, but Roquefort is celebrating a milestone this year. That most iconic of French blue cheeses received the first AOC—appellation d’origine controlée—100 years ago this summer.
Until 1925, the appellation system that protects products from imitators did not exist. Before appellations, there were traditions but no enforceable rules. You could make a blue cheese from cow’s milk and call it Roquefort, and people did. (It’s all sheep’s milk now.) You could make Roquefort in Denmark, and people did. Appellations with the force of law now protect all sorts of products—including California wine—but Roquefort led the way. Even the French wine industry did not embrace appellations until 1936.
Today, throughout the European Union, appellations uphold cheese standards, ensure consistency and give consumers confidence. The system sometimes bows to greed and politics, but it’s better than no system. On this centennial of Roquefort AOC, I’ve gathered a few facts about this historic cheese you may not know.
AOC vs AOP vs PDO: Yes, it’s confusing. AOC is the French appellation system. AOP (appellation d’origine protégée) is the European Union equivalent. PDO is the same as AOP, just in English.
Who makes Roquefort AOC: Only seven producers, due to relentless consolidation. In the late 1800s, before the AOC, there were three hundred. The largest producer by far is Société, followed by Papillon. Some U.S. shops also sell Roquefort made by Coulet or Carles, the latter one of the smallest producers.
About the milk: More than 1,300 farms in the permitted zones supply raw milk for Roquefort, from Lacaune sheep, the only permitted breed. No dairy farms make their own Roquefort. That’s not allowed.
Cave dwellers: Société Roquefort
Key requirement: Every wheel spends at least two weeks in the natural caves in Roquefort-sur-Soulzon to bask in the local microbes. All seven producers have their own caves, with slightly different microbial environments, which in theory gives each brand a flavor signature. When the cave master determines the wheels are blue enough, they are taken out of the caves, sealed and stored in a chilled facility until release.
Best at what age? Not a good question, says Christian Gay, an executive with Lactalis, which owns Société. The goal at Société is for the wheels to taste the same year-round, no matter the age. That’s a feat. Roquefort can only be produced when the ewes are lactating—roughly December to July—and the minimum age is three months. Gay says the “magicians” who manage Société’s caves know which batches are maturing quickly and which ones are laggards and release them accordingly. I’d be surprised if an eight-month and a three-month wheel taste the same but that’s the objective.
What’s with the rye bread? According to lore, there’s a smidgen of rye bread in every wheel. That myth persists because some producers, including Société, use rye bread as a culture medium. They inoculate fresh dough with their preferred strains of Penicillium roqueforti (watch the process in the video below), incubate the dough and then extract the mold by a process that remains opaque to me. Added to the milk or sprinkled on the curds, that culture produces the blue veins. But there’s not a speck of bread in it; the mold is pure fungus and Société’s Roquefort is gluten free.
How’s the Roquefort business? Alas, not great. Demand is slumping, with production off by 10 percent since 2019. According to Gay, young people don’t appreciate the cheese’s strong flavor, and many French people no longer serve a cheese platter at the end of a meal. The key to Roquefort’s rebound, he argues, is to motivate people to use it in recipes.
What to drink: Gay suggests Rivesaltes blanc but good luck finding one in the U.S. Rivesaltes ambré is easier to locate and wonderful with blue cheese (or Gouda). Tawny port and Rainwater Madeira are good choices, too.