Washed-rind from Champagne with soft, fudgy paste and an iconic sunken top.
Langres AOP from Champagne, France. Pungent washed-rind cow's milk cheese with a fudgy paste and a fontaine top made for Champagne. Order online.
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Langres is a pasteurized cow's milk washed-rind cheese from Champagne-Ardenne in France, made by Fromagerie Germain and protected under AOP. You'll know it by the sunken top, a natural dimple called the fontaine, that forms because the wheels are never turned during aging.
The rind is sticky and bright orange from regular brine washes, and the paste underneath is soft, fudgy, and just a little chalky toward the center as it ripens. On the nose it's pungent and unmistakably washed-rind, but the flavor sits a step back from Époisses, salty and tangy with a rich cultured-cream pull through the middle and a long savory finish that holds on the palate.
The move with Langres is to pour Champagne or Marc de Champagne right into the fontaine and let it soak in before you spoon it out. It's the regional pairing, and once you've had it that way it's hard to go back. A proper wheel in good condition, this is one of the more theatrical cheeses on the counter.
Soft and spoonable under a sticky orange rind, the paste loosens toward the edges and stays just slightly chalky at the center as it ripens.
Pungent on the nose with a rich, fudgy paste that carries real punch, salt forward with a tangy lift, bold but not as wild as Époisses.
A long, salty-savory finish that holds on the back of the palate, the washed-rind funk pulling through well after the swallow.
Buttery cream comes through under the funk, a tangy cultured-milk note that keeps the paste from feeling heavy.
A gentle browned-butter note runs underneath, not the headline but it rounds out the salty pull.
Classic washed-rind earthiness, damp cellar and cured meat coming off the orange rind, vegetal rather than barnyardy.
A light peppery tingle on the back end from the brine-washed rind, more savory warmth than heat.
Washed rind
The bright orange washed rind is edible and carries most of the funk, a sticky savory layer of cured meat and damp cellar that frames the softer paste underneath.
Langres stands on its own, but the right partners turn a wedge into a moment. Regional pairings first — they were built for each other.
The fontaine on top is traditionally filled with Champagne or Marc, and the regional logic holds, the bubbles cut the salt and the brandy lifts the funk.
Sweet fruit and honey balance the salty, pungent paste, and a sturdy walnut bread gives the spoonable interior something to ride on.
Real reviews from The Cheese Store of Beverly Hills Google Business Profile. Curated by Dom and his team since 1967.
Domenico and his team are fantastic. I’m a chef and I often get my supplies from The Cheese Store — unique products, carefully selected, from top Italian and French cheeses to excellent local ones.
Absolutely loved the cheese store! Everyone was super helpful and friendly. Lena helped us — she was very knowledgeable on all the cheeses: where they came from, what the region is like, what they are known for. It was like wine tasting for cheese.
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“Fromagerie Germain is a specialist house dedicated to the washed-rind cheeses of northeastern France, with Langres AOP as its flagship and a deep command of brine-and-marc affinage at its core.”
Repeated brine-and-Marc-de-Champagne washing of cow's-milk curds aged in humid cellars until the paste turns spoonable beneath a russet B. linens rind.
Packed cold for overnight delivery.
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