Overview
Comté is a cooked, pressed cheese made only from raw cow’s milk. The official specification requires a minimum of 120 days of aging. Fat in dry matter sits between 45 and 54 grams per 100 grams. Openings in the paste may reach the size of a small cherry. A wheel without holes is still Comté.
Cows and cooperatives
Milk must come from Montbéliarde or Pie rouge de l’Est cows (or their cross). The European Commission’s own note on the PDO describes the fruitière: producers pooling daily milk because a single farm often cannot fill a wheel. That is logistics wearing a folk costume.
Summer wheels are often deeper yellow. Winter wheels run paler. Grass pigments move into the milk. It is not a branding tint.
Flavor, as description
Young Comté is often described as warm milk, butter, and a little hazelnut. Longer aging is where people start saying caramel or roasted onion. Not every wheel keeps that appointment.
Sources
Legal ages, breeds, and cave rules are checked against official specifications or government pages. Sensory lines are editorial description, not lab results.
- Cahier des charges AOP Comté (2017) · INAO / CIGC Raw cow’s milk; Minimum aging 120 days; 45–54 g fat / 100 g dry matter
- European Commission — Comté PDO · European Commission Montbéliarde and Pie rouge de l’Est; Fruitière cooperative model; Minimum 120 days
- Plan de contrôle AOP Comté · CIGC / Bureau Veritas Area, raw milk, and 120-day aging under certification