Le Secret de Compostelle

Le Secret de Compostelle is a raw sheep's milk cheese from the French Basque, aged for about eight months. The name nods to the old mountain passage between the French and Spanish Basque country, the route pilgrims walked on their way to Santiago de Compostela.

The paste is silky and smooth, semi-hard but never dry, cutting in clean slabs with no chalk at the core. On the palate it leads with fresh cream and toasted nut, then opens into a quiet mushroomy note with a little brined-olive pull on the finish. Mild, but just because it's mild doesn't mean it's not flavorful, that's the whole story with this one.

It sits in the same family as Ossau-Iraty and Abbaye de Belloc, the classic Basque brebis, and it's a great introduction to that world for anyone who hasn't gone deep on sheep's milk cheese yet. Eight months of age gives it enough character to stand on its own without ever getting sharp or salty, right in the sweet spot for a Basque tomme.