How to Create the Best Alpine Cheeseboard

Alpine cheese isn’t just for fondue. This winter bring the alps to your cheeseboard (no skis required!).

Alpine Cheeseboard photo credit L Balslev

Enjoy the taste of the European alps with a cheeseboard that showcases a variety of Swiss, French, and Italian alpine cheeses. From the valley floors to the mountain peaks, myriad regions produce an expression of alpine cheese: whether it’s the semi-hard, nutty round cheese, such as Grûyère, Comté, Beaufort, Raclette, and Fontina, or the soft, washed rind cheese, such as Reblochon and Taleggio, or the oozy bark-wrapped cheese, such as Vacherin Mont d’Or or the unpasteurized version, Vacherin Haut-Doubs. At first glance, these cheeses share many similarities (if not name), yet they are notably distinctive, influenced by their unique terroir.

What are Alpine Cheeses?

Alpine cheeses are traditionally produced by the farming process of transhumance, by which cow herds graze from lush pastures in the mountains following the season. Beginning near the base of the alps in the spring, the herds are moved to the top peaks in the summer, and then back to the base in the fall. Their seasonal path provides exposure to a range of location-specific grass and flora that, in turn, influence the flavor of their milk and distinguish the cheese produced.

While most of these cheeses are famously melty – this is the alps after all – there’s no better way to appreciate their character and nuance than by tasting them in their pure form. So, before you pull out the fondue pot, arrange a selection on a cheeseboard. Then put on your cozy clothes, light a fire in the fireplace, and dig in. With a little luck, it might be snowing outside.

Alpine style cheeses are not made in the alps, but are made in many of the same ways yielding cheeses that are very similar to Alpine cheeses. American Alpine style cheeses include Jasper Hill Farm Whitney and Alpha Tolman, Spring Brook Farm Tarentais, and Roth Grand Cru® Surchoix.

Arranging Tips

Aim for a visual and tasteful variety of shapes, flavors, strengths, and textures. Garnish the board with natural, woodsy elements to reflect the rustic alpine terroir. Use a chunky wooden board for presentation and simply decorate with walnuts, apples or pears, and wintry sprigs. For accompaniments, lean into winter and look to fondues for inspiration, with par-boiled baby potatoes, pickled vegetables and cornichons, country-style pâté, and air-dried meats, such as viande grison or bresaola. Serve with hearty bread slices and rustic crackers such as Maine Crisp Buckwheat Crackers Savory Fig & Thyme and provide a sharp mustard for spreading. This is a cheeseboard that eats like a meal.

Alpine Cheese & Wine Pairings

Comte, E.Guigal Condrieu and Rosso di Valtellina DOC

Comté is a semi-firm cow’s milk cheese from the Franche-Comté region and Jura mountains in eastern France, bordering Switzerland. It’s also called Grûyère de Comté. The flavor varies with age, which involves salting, rubbing, flipping, and monitoring the cheese by a cheese master. It has a smooth paste which is nutty and creamy and melts well, and it’s often used in fondue.

Pair with a fruity white wine or a medium-bodied red wine with soft tannins: E.Guigal Condrieu is a northern Rhône Viognier which is floral and generous, combining acidity and body with an aromatic richness. It has a nose of peach, apricot, and honeysuckle. It’s rich and full bodied with light acidity.

Rosso di Valtellina DOC is an alpine wine from Valtellina, the northernmost sub-zone in the Lombardy region. The vineyards are set against the backdrop of the Rhaetian Alps. Tenuta Scerscé “Nettare” Rosso di Valtellina is 100% Nebbiolo, locally known as Chiavennasca. It’s a lighter and less tannic than its Piemonte counterpart in Piemonte.

Tomme de Savoie, Roussette de Savoie “Altesse”, Alois Lageder Alto Adige

Tomme de Savoie PGI is a mild, semi-firm cow’s milk cheese from the Savoie region of the French Alps. It’s made year-round from the skimmed milk left over after the cream is used to make richer cheeses or butter. It has a mild, creamy, fruity flavor with a slightly salty paste and a thick, mottled inedible rind.

Pair with a crisp, mineral white wine or a light red wine with low tannins:

Roussette de Savoie “Altesse” Domaine André & Michel Quenard is made from the Altesse (Roussette) grape, which is native to the Savoie region of the French alps. It has a floral aroma with a nose of bergamot and honeysuckle, and is bone dry with high acidity, reflecting alpine freshness and minerality. It’s a traditional accompaniment to melty cheese.

Alois Lageder Alto Adige DOC. Schiava is a grape variety native to Alto Adige in the Italian alps, a region known for producing light-bodied red wines with soft rounded tannins and moderate alcohol content. Lageder pushes the boundaries to the varietal’s potential, creating wines with increased levels of concentration, weight, and structure, that maintain balance and freshness, while pairing well with mild and creamy cheese.

Tête de Moine, La Chablisienne Le Finage Chablis

Tête de Moine is made in the Swiss Alps near the town of Bellelay from rich unpasteurized cows’ milk. It has a nutty sharp flavor. The cheese is traditionally shaved on a girolle, or a circular cheese carver, that slices the cheese in a curly fashion, producing ruffled slices that enhance the flavor by exposing more surface area to the air.

A Swiss white wine, made with Chasselas grapes, is a classic pairing match, albeit difficult to source in the U.S. Alternatively, pair with a crisp white Chablis:

La Chablisienne Le Finage Chablis is discreet with aromas of pear, herbs, and lemon. The palate is fresh with well-balanced acidity and layers of minerality that pair well with the savory notes of the cheese.

Taleggio DOP and Mazzei Ser Lapo Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG

Taleggio DOP is a semi-soft Italian washed-rind, smear-ripened cows’ milk cheese produced in the Val Taleggio region of northern Lombardy in the Italian alps. It’s pungent in aroma, with a creamy yellow paste that is sweet and mild in flavor. It uses five different types of mold to produce the red smear that colors and flavors its edible rind. Following tradition, the cheeses are placed on shelves in chambers and caves, and washed regularly to prevent mold growth, which gives it its pungent aroma. In contrast to the rind’s aroma, it has a mild, rich, and buttery interior.

Pair washed rind cheeses with medium-bodied red wines, that are unoaked with soft tannins:

Mazzei Ser Lapo Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG is a sophisticated Sangiovese characterized by berry and earthy notes and soft ripe tannins. Its bright acid structure cuts through the cheese’s richness.

Uplands Rush Creek Reserve, Domaine Ligier Cremant du Jura Blanc de Blancs, and Enrico Serafino “Oudeis” Alta Langa DOCG Brut

Vacherin Mont d’Or is a silky, rich, and soft unpasteurized cow’s milk cheese contained in a spruce bark strap, that’s produced in the Swiss and French villages of the Jura region with very limited seasonal availability. Rush Creek Reserve, a soft ripened cheese wrapped in spruce produced by Uplands Cheese in Dodgeville, Wisconsin, is an Alpine style cheese, made in the style of Vacherin Mont d’Or. Cheesemaker Andy Hatch apprenticed making Mont d’Or in France, and has applied his knowledge in developing Rush Creek, which is made only with the grassy, extra-fatty late-season raw milk of the farm’s herd of pasture-raised heritage cows. It’s an oozy, smooth cheese which develops in flavor with age with notes of forest floor, wood smoke and sweet cream.

Pair with a Crémant du Jura or Italian Prosecco to cut through the creaminess and fat in the cheese:

Domaine Ligier Cremant du Jura Blanc de Blancs is 100% Chardonnay, made in the methode champenoise and racked for 12 to 18 months, lending elegant finesse in its bubble and aromatic complexity. The nose offers hints of citrus fruits and white flowers, with round fruity flavors and excellent acidity on the palate.

Enrico Serafino “Oudeis” Alta Langa DOCG Brut is a sparkling wine made primarily from Pinot Noir for flavor and body, with 15% Chardonnay for elegance and added complexity. This vintage sparkling wine shows a great depth of flavor and aromas from at least 3 years of bottle aging in contact with yeast cells.