Alpage
A high summer pasture in the French Alps, and the cheese made from milk grazed there.
Also: fromage d'alpage, summer pasture cheese, estive
In French, an alpage is a high mountain pasture used only in summer, when the snow has gone and the grass and flowers are at their best. Herds are walked up in late spring and stay until early autumn, and the cheese made from their milk is called fromage d'alpage. Because it comes from cows eating fresh alpine plants, it often has a deeper yellow paste and more floral, nutty flavours than cheese made in the valley during winter. Beaufort chalet d'alpage is the best-known example: it must be made in a mountain chalet twice a day from the milk of a single herd. Pyrenean shepherds use the related word estive for the same kind of pasture.