ETIVAZ - A SHOW OF THE POWER OF A SOLID VILLAGE COMMUNITY

The story of Etivaz begins - like so many stories of small producers - with a small village and great turmoil.

It's the 1930s in the tiny village of L'Etivaz, just a stone's throw from the alpine slopes of Col des Mosses. Its inhabitants have just decided to change their future.

The village of L'Etivaz, with fewer than a hundred inhabitants, was known for its particularly good Gruyère cheese, which was made from the best Alpine milk and craftsmanship passed down from generation to generation.

The Swiss state had already branded the popular Gruyère cheese in the 18th century, and it wasn't long before the state began to really commercialize this cheese. Towards the end of the 1920s, the Swiss state had launched the "Gruyère Program", with the aim of making the cheese an export product. In order to get as many people as possible to make the cheese, it relaxed the quality criteria and rules on how and from where Gruyère could be made.

The 76 cheese-making families of the village of L'Etivaz were upset by the news. Their Gruyère was one of the most delicious in the whole country, and now it was in danger of being put on the same level as the others. By mutual decision, the cheese-makers of L'Etivaz withdrew from the government's Gruyère program and "created" their own cheese, Etivaz. Their own cooperative was founded in 1932, and the first cheese cellars were built in 1934.

Even today, Etivaz is made in the same way that Gruyère has been made for centuries: only in the summer, when the cows enjoy the abundance of alpine pastures. This gives the milk a delicate flavor that is transferred to the cheese. The cheese is made in alpine huts from raw milk in traditional copper pots and only over old-fashioned open fireplaces, completely by hand, to a traditional recipe.

Every autumn, cheesemakers get together to taste cheeses, and together they decide which cheeses are good enough to sell.

Watch a video below about the manufacture of Etivaz.