Gruyère
Fribourg, Switzerland
Swiss name-controlled
This is Swiss! Representing the host of great cooked-curd alpine cheeses, Gruyère is probably one of the most famous cheeses in the world. It deserves every scrap of its fame. Gruyères, both the select and the standard, exhibit a lovely pliable texture coupled with the flavor intensity of a drier cheese. It tastes nutty, fruity, buttery, with a unique piquancy from propionic acid. The more well aged examples will have tiny crunchy bits in the sea of toothsome paste; these are proteins slowly crystallizing over time.