Chabichou du Poitou, It Has its Own Website

Seriously though.

Right Here

Ambitious little goat cheese, no? Sadly I can't read French and so, apart from the animal noises at the start of every page, I get very little out of it. A fascinating read, I'm sure. Pity.

Today the French once again prove either that size isn't everything or that size is actually everything, I'm still not sure which. They wrote the book on small surface ripened goat cheeses, and so we find today's Chabichou du Poitou. As the name suggests it is a name controlled version of a more widely available Chabichou style cheese, this one being made strictly in certain parts of the Loire River Valley. Raw goat's milk makes, as always, for a potent punch packaged in a petit pouch of pabulum.

Origin: Loire Valley, France

Milk: Goat, unpasteurized

Rennet: Animal

Affinage: 2 Weeks to 2 months

Notes: 45% fat content per solid mass, it's just a wee chubby goat cheese. Don't judge this book by it's white, occasionally moldy, wrinkled cover. It's got a good heart!

Thoughts: Each bite is very creamy but the flavor is not particularly strong. The chalky white interior has a fitting texture and an understated creaminess but it suffers from being a little one-dimensional. The darker and more liquid outer portion of the round is very sharp but mine had hints of ammonia as is so typical for such surface ripened goat cheeses that have made the journey from France to the cheese boards of North America. The rind is pleasant enough but does not add much to the flavor, although the texture variation is a treat. All in all it is a solid goat's milk cheese and the raw milk does differentiate it from the masses of bland American-made goat cheeses but it is not what I'd call one of my favorite goats. The whole flavor never really came together for me and the individual parts alone didn't win me over.

Caution

My not being blown away by the flavor of today's cheese might be the fault of the buyer, and here's why. I do not recall exactly when I tried this particular cheese, and depending on the season the flavor of this cheese varies widely from heaven-on-a-cracker to gross. Not surprisingly winter and spring will bring the former and winter the latter, purchase accordingly.