Artisan Cheeses Continued: Morbier and Ardi-Gasna from France

I went to a festive buffet lunch recently by Hilton Orchard's restaurant called Estate. It is relatively new, from what I understand, set up around 2022. (A lot of its offerings somehow reminded me of Melt the World Cafe's buffet which I had back in 2022 and where I first tried Scamorza cheese.) I saw a number of new cheeses that I had never seen before, which became highlights for me.

The first is Ardi-Gasna. I tried it without reading up on anything online, and instantly thought that the appearance, colour and taste really reminded me of Manchego. From the picture, the gradient of the central white colour to the peripheral taupe colour was also very reminiscent of Manchego. 

Ardi-Gasna artisan cheese at Hilton Orchard's Estate festive buffet

However, the texture was a lot more pleasant (in my opinion) - instead of being hard and dry or crumbly like Manchego, especially when it's left out to air in buffet settings, Ardi-Gasna was a little softer and felt a bit moister. It's still a hard cheese, but more like firm and not crumbly, which I really liked, especially paired with the lovely rich nutty and balanced milky (or mellow) Manchego-like taste. 

Upon reading up online, it did indeed turn out to have many similarities to Manchego. It was also a raw sheep's milk cheese, which explains the similar taste. But while Manchego is from La Mancha in Spain, Ardi-Gasna is from Basque, in France, presumably of Basque cheesecake fame. It has also been described as a good alternative to Manchego, and apparently it might take an experienced cheesemonger to tell them apart according to one site. (Well, to me, that difference would be quite obvious as a difference of texture as described.)

Some online content described it as similar to gruyere, but to me, gruyere has a slightly sweet aftertaste and a slightly rubbery elastic texture to the bite that neither Manchego nor Ardi-Gasna had. So it's quite different from gruyere IMO, like day and night.

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The next cheese that I thought noteworthy was Morbier. Previously, when I tried complex cheeses including blue cheeses, many of them had this rather acidic or salty taste and cannot be described as mellow at all. But Morbier was the first complex cheese I tried without much apparent acidity or sourness, or salt.

Morbier artisan cheese at Hilton Orchard's Estate festive buffet

I would describe the base taste as similar to camembert in fact, which is super comforting and mellow to me. But there was this complex woody and winey taste that was a tad bit bitter, layered over that camembert-like creamy taste. The bitterness and overall effect was a bit like a woody almond or woody hazelnut taste. 

Texture-wise, it was definitely firmer than camembert. I wouldn't call it a soft cheese at all, but it's not a hard cheese either. Perhaps the texture could be described as like the firmest mozzarella you might have had, but not rubbery at all unlike mozzarella.

From online research, that hallmark dark line down the middle is apparently ash which was used traditionally to protect the cheese curd overnight as a leftover from Comté cheese production. (Incidentally, I covered Comté in a separate post, which is apparently a quality-checked gruyere, which I found strange as well.) This ash is sometimes replaced by commercial edible vegetable ash nowadays it seems. It is from the village it is named after, Morbier, in Franche-Comté, France. And as I suspected, it is an unpasteurized cow's milk cheese like camembert, and also described as having an herby taste also like camembert. 

If you'd like to try complex cheeses but aren't fond of the very salty, pungent or acidic ones, I would really recommend Morbier. Its mellow taste is something I could eat regularly rather than try only as a novelty.

For reference, there were other cheeses I tried such Rockford, Mimolette and Gruyere, pictured below. There was also that unlabelled one next to the Ardi-Gasna which I still have no idea about. But they left less of an impression on me. The Rockford was the most complex one of the rest as expected, but it was standard acidic, savoury and seafood-y as many good blue cheeses.

If you found this interesting, I covered other interesting cheeses in other posts, such as Boucheron and Madrigal cheeses from Loire Valley, France, Iberico cheese from Spain together with the Comte cheese description, and French Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée (AOC)-certified cheeses Brie de Meaux and Pont-l'Évêque. There's also the post on the Italian Scamorza cheese mentioned earlier.

Rockford cheese at Hilton Orchard's Estate festive buffet
Mimolette cheese at Hilton Orchard's Estate festive buffet
Gruyere cheese at Hilton Orchard's Estate festive buffet

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