The crumbling delicacy is Crotten de Chavignon cheese.

Its big name: Crotten de Chavignol comes from the Latin word crusta, which means crust. And the word Chavignol is just the name of a village in Sanserrois, Loire department. Nowadays, the production of this goat cheese is not only allowed in this department. Crottin de Chavignolles cheese is produced in Cheret and partly in the Nièvre department.

Its production is carried out from freshly collected milk - the freshest. The curdling process usually takes from one to two days. Next, the curd mass is placed in a cloth and suspended to separate the whey. After this, the mass is placed in a mold, where the remaining whey is squeezed out. Then the resulting mass can be salted and left to mature in a cool place. This goat milk product must mature for at least 10 days.

The shape of this cheese resembles a ball flattened on the sides. The diameter of such a cheese head is no more than 50 millimeters, and its weight is about 60 grams. With longer periods of storage and ripening, the cheese wheels tend to dry out, and they also become harder. On the outside, the crust of the product is covered with noble mold of white or slightly blue colors.

Young Crottin de Chavignolles has an aroma reminiscent of fresh cream or the smell of goat's milk. But the mature product smells like an autumn forest or a mushroom meadow. The mold that appears on the crust does not interrupt the smell, but adds even more piquancy to it. The taste, aroma and richness of these indicators depend on the time of year. The softest and most tender are spring specimens. But in the fall the cheeses turn out to be sharper. And, if young spring Crotten is classified as a soft cheese, then mature spring Crotten is more like a hard one; it is hard and very crumbly. The relative fat content is at least 45%, so, dear bodybuilders and fitness models, add it to your diet very moderately, or better yet, exclude it from your menu altogether.

Well, for all gourmets who are not afraid of extra calories, as always, we will give a number of recommendations: Crotten de Chavignolles are usually consumed as a dessert or light snack. Young goat cheese of this variety does not always go well with red wine. To do this, it is better to choose a more mature product. We recommend choosing the following wines: Pinot Noir from Sancerre, as well as Coteaux du Giennois. But young cheeses are best consumed together with light white wines, such as:

1. a) Sancerre Chavignol
2. b) Sancerre,
3. c) Kensi,
4. d) Reyi,
5. d) Menetou-Salon,
6. e) Pouilly Fumé,
7. g) Coteaux du Giennois.