TOMME DE PEBRE D'AI BIO

In the heart of Provence, between garrigue scrubland and limestone hills, the Tomme de Pèbre d'Aï is a farmhouse raw milk cheese made entirely from the milk of Rove goats, a hardy breed with deep roots in the transhumant flocks of the Alpilles and the Crau plain.

Pèbre d'Aï is the Provençal name for savory, a nod to how much the goats love grazing on this aromatic herb, which grows wild across the hills alongside thyme and rosemary. It's savory that lends its scent to the rind of this farmhouse goat cheese, a cousin of Banon in both its origins and part of its method.

The milk, untreated by heat, is renneted with a lactic-forward set that unfolds slowly, over several hours. The curd is then gently ladled by hand into individual moulds, then left to drain for around twelve hours with two turnings. After unmoulding and a light dry salting, the surface is finished with a dusting of savory, every step done by hand, true to a lactic-set technique that calls for real skill in managing acidification.

Once delivered in our cavesn, the cheeses move to a drying room, followed by a ripening room where they're watched over and turned as needed, until the rind takes on its fine, ridged texture and pale-to-ochre colour.