Berner Alp Cheese & Hobelkäse AOP
The journey to the alp.
The day began with some old world charm on the train to Gstaad. The Montreux - Gstaad line, part of the Golden Pass route, offered up a certain “Wes Anderson ambiance” to the journey. By train, by car, and then by foot up the mountain, we travelled to visit the families involved in the summer production of Berner Alp cheese and Hobelkäse.
The car journey ended at Arnesee (1542m) - a lake considered to be the “Pearl of Saanenland”. Here a few families were set up for a day of fishing and picnics at the occasional tiny lake cabins scattered along the shoreline.
The walk, on part of the Tour des Alps vaudoises, begins along the quiet lake which we eventually leave after negotiating the way through grazing cows. Then starts a slow gradual ascent through spruce trees on a narrow road that turns quickly into just a track. Eventually the trees thin and we are in open, steep mountain pastures and can see in the distance the few buildings that make up the cheesemaking and living quarters that we are heading for.
Alp meadow diversity
In the weathered chalet, heavily adorned with cow bells, we are received with a warm welcome and have much nescafe, cheese, double cream and discussion. Alongside, the cheese curd for the days make was setting in the vat in the same room. Everything seems to happen in this room.
From the gate
Occasionally hikers walking by will enter the chalet to see the goings-on, and later they will buy cheese from the self-service hut outside - which has developed as a useful consequence of the pandemic. With travel restrictions in place, many more Swiss people have taken to the mountains, and as a result, the family have increased the amount of cheese they sell directly “from the gate” - giving people, in this instance, a wonderful real connection to where their food is coming from.
The very diverse herbs and grasses of the Bernese alpine meadows and the work of the families living on the alp each summer contributes to the healthy and nourishing alpine milk produced. From this milk, on about 480 Bernese Alps, comes the unique Berner Alpkäse AOP and, after long careful affinage near Gstaad for at least 18 months, the Berner Hobelkäse AOP.
About: AOP – Appellation d’Origine Protégée
In order to bear the AOP certificate, a product must:
be manufactured entirely in a traditional way
be produced and processed in a specific geographic area
have a uniform quality in line with the specifications that have been laid down