Dense and flaky with toasted hazelnut and butterscotch—crystalline crunch from twelve-month aging.
Aged 12 months in Normandy, this Mimolette is dense, flaky, and nutty with a long caramel finish. Order online.
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This is the 12-month aged Mimolette from Isigny Sainte-Mère in Normandy, France, a pasteurized cow's milk cheese with a deep orange paste and a famously pitted natural rind. The color is annatto, a natural dye, and the cratered rind comes from cheese mites doing their work during the long aging in the cellar.
At twelve months the paste has tightened into something dense and flaky, with a slight crystalline crunch when you break a piece off the wedge. On the palate it leads with toasted hazelnut and brown butter, then pulls into a long caramel and butterscotch finish that hangs on well past the swallow. There's a savory pull underneath the sweetness that keeps it from ever reading as one-note, and a clean, dry texture that makes it just as happy on a board as it is shaved over a salad or grated into a gratin.
Mimolette was famously Charles de Gaulle's favorite cheese, and Isigny is the benchmark producer for the style. Twelve months sits right in the sweet spot, aged enough to develop real depth and crystal crunch, but still moist enough to slice cleanly.
Dense and firm, breaks into clean dry flakes under the knife with a slight crystalline crunch from the long aging.
Pronounced and savory, the kind of bold nutty pull you get from a well-aged pressed cow's milk cheese, with a sweetness underneath that keeps it balanced.
Long and caramelly, the toasted-hazelnut and butterscotch notes hang on the palate well past the swallow.
Most of the fresh milk has cooked off over a year of aging, leaving just a faint buttery base under the nuttier notes.
Deep toasted hazelnut and brown butter through the middle, the calling card of an aged Mimolette and what makes it eat a lot like an aged Gouda.
A gentle earthy hum from the pitted natural rind, but the paste itself stays clean and sweet.
No real heat or piquancy, the finish is sweet and savory rather than peppery.
Natural rind
The pitted, cratered natural rind is the work of cheese mites doing their job during aging. It's traditionally trimmed off rather than eaten.
Mimolette stands on its own, but the right partners turn a wedge into a moment. Regional pairings first — they were built for each other.
The caramel and toasted-nut character of aged Mimolette wants something with a little sweetness or oxidative depth to mirror it, which is why tawny Port and Sauternes work so well alongside a structured red.
Crisp fruit and a touch of honey lift the sweet nutty side of the paste, while whole grain mustard pulls it toward a charcuterie board.
Video represents style and type of cheese - may not be an exact match in all cases.
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“AOP-anchored Normandy dairy where salt-marsh terroir and slow lactic maturation of the cream drive every product, from butter to aged Mimolette.”
Cream matured with lactic cultures for 16-18 hours before slow churning; Mimolette aged 12-24 months in cellars where cheese mites pock the rind and deepen the nutty flavor.
Hand-cut to order the day it ships. Packed cold for overnight delivery.
Taste it for yourself →Cold-ship 2-day overnight nationwide
