Rigotte de Condrieu

Appearance & taste

Rigotte de Condrieu is a small disc of cheese: after at least 8 days of ripening it measures 4.2 to 5 cm in diameter, is 1.9 to 2.4 cm high and weighs at least 30 g. It is covered with a fine ivory, white or blue mould; according to the specification, the different colours reflect the tradition of selling the cheese at different stages of ripeness. The paste is white to ivory, firm, smooth and without holes, and feels soft on the tongue.

The cheese develops nutty, woodland and whey aromas and tastes slightly salty. The label gives the name in letters at least two thirds the size of the largest lettering on it.

Production

The goats eat mainly roughage from the area: fresh grass and hay from permanent or temporary pastures, dried lucerne and other unfermented feed. Grass from wrapped bales is allowed if it has at least 55 % dry matter and comes from a single cut of the farm’s own meadows. Depending on the weather, the goats graze on at least 120 days a year or are given green fodder from the area. Supplementary feed is limited to 350 kg per goat per year, feed from outside the area to 20 % of the dry matter, and genetically modified feed is prohibited.

Raw whole goat’s milk is used and is not standardised. Where possible, whey from the previous curdling is used for inoculation; this preserves the milk flora. The milk ripens, sours and coagulates into a lactic curd, which is not cut, pre-drained or kneaded, so that its structure is preserved when it is filled into the moulds. Within twelve hours the cheese is turned once and rubbed dry with salt on both sides. Eight days after removal from the mould it has developed its characteristics. Milk production, processing and ripening take place in the area.

Origin & history

The Pilat massif is a range of uplands in the Massif Central, bounded by the valleys of the Gier, Ondaine and Rhône and in the south by the Eteize hills. It has steep slopes, ancient igneous and metamorphic rock with rare rock formations, the “chirats”, and acid, light, not very deep soils. Atlantic, Mediterranean and continental influences meet here; 580 to 1,000 mm of rain fall each year, the summers are dry and there is often a strong wind. Half of the area is wooded. The meadows have 40 to 60 species, mainly acid-loving plants such as false oat-grass, bird’s-foot trefoil, scabious and field scabious.

Goats are traditionally kept in the Pilat, originally only by women, and since the 18th century mainly in the dry locations that are less suitable for cattle. While cow’s milk cheese was mostly made for the household’s own use, goat’s cheese could be sold at a profit. For the nearby markets of Lyon and Saint-Étienne, small cheeses were made that ripen quickly after drying; in the past they dried in the wind in a cage, the “chasière”. From the end of the 18th century the cheese became known in the region, first as “Rigotte”, then after the canton of Condrieu, a trading centre on the Rhône until the middle of the 19th century. In 1927 Guicherd and Ponsart named it in “L’Agriculture du Rhône en 1926” as one of two notable goat’s cheeses of the Rhône department.