Price range: £5.20 through £31.20
Roquefort Papillon PDO is a classic raw sheep’s milk blue matured in the famous caves of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon. Rich, creamy and wonderfully full-flavoured, it combines salty blue intensity with peppery spice, toasted nuts and a gentle underlying sweetness.
There are blue cheeses, and then there is Roquefort.
Made from raw sheep’s milk and matured in the famous caves beneath the village of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon in southern France, Roquefort is one of the world’s great cheeses. Salty, creamy, tangy and unmistakably blue, it has been made in this extraordinary landscape for centuries.
Our Roquefort comes from Fromagerie Papillon, which has been making cheese in Roquefort since 1906. Their Black Label is wonderfully rich and full-flavoured, with plenty of blue running through the creamy sheep’s milk paste.
And, as you’d expect from a cheese this old, there’s a rather good legend behind it too.
The story goes that a young shepherd was eating his lunch of bread and sheep’s milk curds in one of the local caves when he spotted a beautiful girl in the distance.
Apparently lunch suddenly became considerably less important.
He abandoned his bread and curds and went after her, returning to the cave some time later to discover that mould had grown through his forgotten cheese.
Quite why his next thought was I’ll eat that is perhaps the more interesting part of the story, but we’re told that he did — and Roquefort was born.
Whether there’s any truth in it is another matter entirely, but I do love a good cheese story.
What we do know is that the caves beneath the Combalou plateau provide extraordinary conditions for maturing cheese. Natural cracks in the rock, known as fleurines, allow air to circulate through the caves, helping maintain the cool, humid environment needed for Roquefort to mature.
Roquefort has been protected for a very long time.
In 1411, King Charles VI granted the people of Roquefort rights relating to the maturation of their cheese in the local caves. Centuries later, in 1925, Roquefort became the first French cheese to receive Appellation d’Origine status.
Today it is protected by PDO rules.
And those rules are strict.
Roquefort must be made from raw, whole sheep’s milk from the Lacaune breed and produced within the designated area. Most importantly, the cheese must be matured in the natural caves of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon.
Make a similar blue sheep’s milk cheese somewhere else and it might be absolutely delicious.
But it isn’t Roquefort.
Fromagerie Papillon has been making Roquefort since 1906 and is probably one of the best-known names associated with the cheese.
One of my favourite details is the way Papillon traditionally cultivates the Penicillium roqueforti needed to create those famous blue veins.
They bake loaves of bread specifically for the purpose, allow the mould to develop and then use the resulting spores in their cheesemaking.
The cheeses are later pierced to allow oxygen inside, encouraging the blue mould to grow through the little spaces within the paste.
Suddenly those beautiful blue-green veins don’t seem quite so accidental.
Roquefort is not a shy cheese.
Cut into it and you’ll find a pale ivory paste threaded generously with blue-green veins. The texture is quite fascinating because it can be both crumbly and wonderfully creamy at the same time, becoming almost melting once you’ve allowed it to warm up.
Then comes the flavour.
The sheep’s milk gives Roquefort a wonderful richness and slight sweetness, but there’s no mistaking the blue. It’s tangy, salty and full-flavoured, with a lovely peppery spice that builds as you eat it.
Underneath all of that intensity I often find toasted nuts and a gentle sweetness, which is part of what makes a really good Roquefort so interesting. There’s a lot happening in one mouthful.
The finish is long, savoury and distinctly salty.
This isn’t necessarily the blue I’d give someone who’s terrified of blue cheese. But if you already love your blues, Roquefort is one of those cheeses you really should get to know.
Jen’s note: Roquefort became the first French cheese to receive official Appellation d’Origine protection in 1925. Over a hundred years later, we’re still protecting the name, the place and the way it’s made. For a cheese with such an ancient history, I think that’s rather special.
Sizes and Prices
Storage Advice
Delivery and Collection
Ingredients (Allergens are listed in capitals)
MILK, starter cultures, rennet, salt, Penicillum Roqueforti
Normal opening Monday – Saturday 9am – 4pm until:
Sunday 22nd 9am – 4pm
Monday 23rd 9am – 4pm
Christmas Eve 9am – 12pm
Christmas Day Closed
Boxing Day Closed
Friday 27th Closed
Saturday 28th 9am – 4pm
Sunday 29th Closed
Monday 30th 9am – 2pm
Tuesday 31st 9am – 2pm
New Year’s Day Closed
Thursday 2nd January Closed
Friday 3rd 9am – 4pm then open as normal
After Christmas our courier delivery slots start from 8th January.
