Earthy and cellar
Stone, cave and damp earth: Tomme de Savoie, Saint-Nectaire and clothbound cheddar.
Earthy cheeses smell of cellars, damp stone, mushrooms, hay and soil. The notes come from the natural rinds that grow in cool, humid caves: grey and brown moulds, yeasts and even mites, working on the surface over months. Tomme de Savoie, Saint-Nectaire, clothbound cheddar, Cantal, Ossau-Iraty and many mountain and farm cheeses carry this flavour of place.
Natural rinds
A natural rind is not washed, waxed or sealed: it is left to form its own coat of microbes. Mucor, a grey, furry mould known in France as poil de chat, cat's hair, grows on tommes and Saint-Nectaire, along with Penicillium, Geotrichum and wild yeasts. Cheese mites, tiny relatives of spiders, live on some rinds and add the dusty, mushroomy notes of Mimolette and old tommes. Each cellar has its own community of microbes, which is why cheeses made to one recipe taste of where they were aged.
Clothbound and cave-aged
Traditional farmhouse cheddars are bound in muslin, rubbed with lard and aged on wooden shelves, which lets moulds grow on the cloth and a gentle earthy taste reach the paste. Saint-Nectaire ripens on mats of rye straw in cool, damp cellars in the volcanic Monts-Dore of the Auvergne. Many Alpine and Pyrenean cheeses are aged in caves and tunnels, where steady temperature and humidity let a thick natural rind form slowly.
Tasting earthy cheese
Taste the paste and the rind separately: the rind holds most of the earth. Earthy notes should be clean, like a forest after rain, not sour or musty. These cheeses pair with sourdough and rye bread, mushrooms, roasted root vegetables and chestnuts, and with Pinot Noir, Beaujolais or a brown ale. A cool cellar temperature, rather than full room warmth, often shows them at their best.
Worth knowing
- Tomme de Savoie: Grey-rinded mountain cheese
- Saint-Nectaire: Auvergne cheese ripened on rye straw
- Cheddar: Clothbound farmhouse cheddar
- Cantal: Old pressed cheese of the Auvergne
- Ossau-Iraty: Pyrenean sheep's milk cheese
- Mimolette: Aged with cheese mites
- Tomme des Pyrénées: Mountain cheese of the Pyrenees
Sources and further reading
Original text by the EveryCheese desk, written with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. Customs are described as tradition, not as advice. If we have something wrong, tell us.
Earthy and cellar on EveryCheese
The cheeses written up so far, best known first.
🇫🇷 FranceCamembert
A soft-ripened cow's milk cheese from Normandy with a white mould rindCow · Bloomy rind · Earthy and cellar
🇫🇷 France and 3 moreBrie
A soft, pale French cow's-milk cheese with a white mould rind, aged for about five weeks.Cow · Bloomy rind · Nutty
🇨🇭 Switzerland and 2 moreGruyère
A hard, pressed Swiss cheese made from raw cow's milk, aged for several months.Cow · Hard · Sweet and caramel
🇫🇷 FranceBeaufort
A firm, hole-free Alpine cow's milk cheese from the French Savoie region.Cow · Alpine · Buttery and creamy
🇮🇹 Italy and 4 moreFontinafontine
A semi-soft cow's milk cheese from Italy's Aosta Valley, known for its nutty flavor and excellent melting quality.Cow · Semi-soft · Nutty
🇫🇷 France and 1 moreVacherin Mont d'Or
A soft, seasonal cow's milk cheese wrapped in spruce bark from the Jura mountains.Cow · Bloomy rind · Earthy and cellar
🇫🇷 FranceBleu de Bresse
A creamy French blue cheese from the Bresse region, aged for a few weeks.Cow · Blue · Earthy and cellar
🇫🇷 FranceDélice de Bourgogne
A soft triple-cream cow's milk cheese from Burgundy with a bloomy rind.Cow · Bloomy rind · Tangy and lactic
🇬🇧 United KingdomStichelton
A raw-milk blue cheese made in Nottinghamshire using traditional unpasteurised methods.Cow · Blue · Buttery and creamy
🇩🇪 GermanyHirtenkäse
A German hard cheese aged for eight months, known for its golden color and savory flavor.Cow · Hard · Nutty
🇫🇷 FranceBrie de Melun
A small, strong cow's-milk cheese from Seine-et-Marne with an AOC label.Cow · Bloomy rind · Tangy and lactic
🇫🇷 France and 1 moreVacherin Mont d'Or
A soft, seasonal cow's-milk cheese from the Jura wrapped in spruce bark and served warm.Cow · Bloomy rind · Earthy and cellar
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Brie de Meaux: Coyau, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Beaufort: Coyau, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Bleu de Bresse: Unknown author, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Vacherin Mont d'Or: Zubro, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Gruyère: Rolf Krahl ( Rotkraut ), CC BY 4.0, source
- Vacherin Mont d'Or: Arnaud 25, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Camembert: Unknown author, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Fontina: Dominik Hundhammer, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Délice de Bourgogne: Beprost, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Stichelton: Jeremy Keith, CC BY 2.0, source
- Hirtenkäse: Heinrich von Zügel, Public domain, source
- Brie de Melun: Thesupermat, CC BY-SA 4.0, source