Ossau-Iraty (Aquitaine, Pyrenées Atlantiques)

I haven't eaten the cheese for a long time (update: It came back at the and end of 2011) but it's hard to forget its firm, orange-yellow to gray rind. A rind is my favorite part of the most cheeses. It often has more flavor than a paste. Alike a  bread crust which I found tastier than a crumb.
The shepherds from the French  Pyrénées has been making cheese for centuries. Ossau Iraty is made with the milk of the Manech and Basco-Bearnaise ewes. It is dried and regularly rubbed for 3 months and further   aged in the Artisanal Premium Cheese caves until its paste turns a luscious ivory. The cheese is sweet and buttery and the closer to its  rind  the more it resembles toasted hazelnuts.

Idiazábal (Navarra, Basque region)

Idiazábal name comes from the town in the Basque province of Guipúzkoa.  Full of aroma from Lacha sheep is used to produce the cheese. It ripens from to to six months in humid cellars. Idiazábal has waxy yellow rind and beige, compact interior. The holes are hardly visible. The flavor is buttery and slightly piquant.
Some of ripened batches are smoked with hawthorn or cherry wood. It gives the rind a cooper-like color. It also strengthens its flavor and make the paste drier and more aromatic.



I only have a chance to taste the cheese  once a few months ago and it didn't make an impression on me.

Roquefort(Midi- Pyrenées, Averyon)

According to the legend, Roquefort came being in the caves where a shepherd  enchented by a beautiful girl left his lunch: milk and bread. The shepherd was looking for the girl for a few days without success. To make the matter worse, he found his meal covered in mold. He was to hungry to resist eating his rotten lunch,  and to his suprise, he found it delicious.

Legendary shepard's meal was declared by Charlemagne his favorite cheese; then in 1411 Charles IV signed a charter giving the inhibitants of the southern French village of Roquefort in Aveyron: "  the privilege to mature the cheeses as it has always been done in the caves of the aforementioned village".

 Roquefort is made from raw milk of Lacaune sheep - the only breed which can survive in severe mountain climate. The cheese is matured only in the caves of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon, where it develops its piquant, salty, strong flavor and intensive aroma. Mature Roquefort is ivory in color, litlle crumbly and full of mold traces.