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Goaty blue Persillé du Marais |
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Tuesday, 12 August 2008 |
The term persillé is most commonly associated with blue
goat’s milk cheeses from the Savoie, but it can mean “any
cheese veined with a bluish-green mould,” according to
‘Larousse Gastronomique’. Hence, when at Domaine Wilfried
we were invited to taste Persillé du Marais from the Poitou-
Charentes, the conversation switched from red wine to wine
accompaniments for blue vein cheeses.
Josiane and Christian Déal, affineurs de fromage
This cheese is a bit of a rarity, only produced at farm and
artisan scale. It is sold mainly by affineurs de fromage, that
unique group of cheese professionals who mature and sell
cheeses to hotels and restaurants and in their own specialist
cheese shops. Persillé du Marais was offered at the tasting by
Josiane and Christian Déal, affineurs in the Vaucluse. This
persillé cheese is made in wheels with rounded edges weighing
around two kilos each. Starting off life totally white inside, the
cheese takes two to three months to develop its blue mould.
The bouquet is typically ‘goaty’, and there is a saltiness in the
flavour not unlike a Roquefort. Served with a Rasteau VDN, as
in the photo above (not the aged version), and perhaps some fig
chutney, it is delicious.
Two cheese shops listing Persillé du Marais – no doubt there are others:
Josiane Déal, Lou Canestou, 10, rue Raspail, 84110
Vaison-la-Romaine, 04 90 36 31 30;
Gabriel Bachelet, 3 ave Marcel Dassault, 64140 Lons, 05 59 92 04 93
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