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Alsace
High on the Route des Crêtes, where Vosgienne cows graze amongst bilberry bushes and the chaumes, Bargkass matures slowly, holding within it the fragrance of the massif.
Uncooked pressed cheese from Alsace.
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The word Bargkass is pure Alsatian: barg (mountain) and käss (cheese). The reality is as simple and direct as the language that names it. Inherited from a long-standing tradition tied to the cows' summer grazing on the crests, shepherds and farmers in the Alsatian Vosges made this pressed cheese during the summer months, when the herds climbed up to the chaumes — those high grassy plateaux crowning the Route des Crêtes. The purpose was as practical as it was flavourful: up there, far from the villages, milk had to be preserved in a form that would keep — as Bargkass keeps longer than Munster, making it long served as a buffer for surplus milk. Robust and dense, the wheel of Bargkass was perfect for lasting through the winter.
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Bargkass is inseparable from a very specific landscape: the Vosges chaumes between Bas-Rhin and Haut-Rhin, along the Route des Crêtes. This transition zone between the Vosges forest and high-altitude pastures is home to remarkable wild flora — bilberry bushes, arnica, fescue — grazed by Vosgienne cows, a cattle breed with a black-and-white coat and a pale dorsal stripe, perfectly suited to this terrain. It is this breed, reared in the massif for around five centuries for its milk, that supplies the region's cheese dairies. It is these aromatic mountain plants that impart to Bargkass its characteristic fruity and floral notes. It is also produced in the neighbouring valleys of the massif — notably that of the Thur, where several farms continue to make it —, but wheels from the chaumes remain the most distinctive.
Bargkass is the emblematic cheese of Alsatian fermes-auberges — those high-altitude rural inns that serve the traditional repas marcaire (soup, charcuterie, Munster, bilberry tart). No two Bargkass cheeses are alike: each farm has its own recipe, its own maturation, and numerous flavoured variations circulate from one holding to another. This diversity is both its richness and the obstacle to any official certification. Created in October 2015 by the Organisme de Sélection de la race bovine Vosgienne, a collective initiative — the Cœur de Massif — seeks to unify practices and secure recognition, but traditional Bargkass remains free, diverse, and rooted in the individuality of each farm.
Appearance
Flattened cylindrical wheel, approximately 30 cm in diameter, 8 cm thick, 7 to 8 kg. Rubbed rind ranging from straw yellow to orange-brown depending on the stage of maturation, sometimes bloomy.
Aroma
Mild on opening, with grassy and slightly lactic notes. As maturation progresses, the aromas gain complexity, evolving towards cellar and hazelnut notes.
Taste
Melting and fruity in its youth (2–3 months), it gains character with age — notes of butter, walnut, and, for summer wheels from the chaumes, bilberry aromas attributed to cows grazing on pastures that often bear them. Milder than Munster, never aggressive.
Texture
Supple and yielding paste, slightly elastic when young, firmer and more brittle after 6 months. Few eyes, uniform paste ranging from ivory to pale yellow in colour.
Bargkass has no official varieties, but each producer often offers several stages of maturation: jeune (2–3 months), demi-affiné (3–4 months), and vieux (5–8 months). Many variations born of the farmers' creativity are also recorded, flavoured with wild garlic, smoked, or with cumin. The raw-milk version is the most widespread and the most distinctive.
Raw milk from Vosgienne cows is heated to around 33°C, then renneted to induce coagulation.
The curd is cut into grains about twenty minutes after renneting, stirred, and heated slowly to encourage whey drainage.
The curd is transferred into traditional moulds and pressed gradually for around 24 hours to expel the remaining whey.
The wheels are submerged for around 24 hours in a brine bath, which develops the rind and seasons the paste.
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Bargkass is best enjoyed at room temperature, taken out of the refrigerator at least an hour beforehand. It features naturally in the Alsatian repas marcaire, alongside Munster and smoked charcuterie. For wine pairings, it goes well with a Pinot Gris d'Alsace or a demi-sec Riesling. Melted, it makes excellent tartiflettes or gratins. Aged versions pair well with a Gewurztraminer vendanges tardives.
Traditional uncooked pressed Bargkass remains outside the Cœur de Massif charter, which itself defines its cheese as a cooked pressed cheese. Both cheeses coexist under the same name.
Family-run
Artisan
Family-run
Farmhouse inn
GAEC
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The farm describes itself as a traditional mountain holding perched in the heights of Lapoutroie at an altitude of 600 metres, run by Emilie Pierrevelcin and Simon Basler. Its production is certified organic (Agriculture Biologique): from mid-April to early November, the cows graze on neighbouring natural mountain pastures, before being fed in winter on dried forage harvested from those very same meadows. The milk obtained is processed on the farm into raw-milk cheeses — Munster, bargkass, tchic (on Thursday mornings only), blanc salé, and raclette in winter — patiently matured in the cellar. Direct sales take place at the farm from Monday to Saturday, 9:00 to 11:30 (closed on Sundays), as well as at the markets in Kaysersberg on Mondays, Neuf-Brisach on the 1st and 3rd Mondays of the month, and Wintzenheim on Fridays.
| Address | 21 A Lieu-dit La Goutte, 68650 Lapoutroie, France |
| 03 89 47 50 89 | |
| fermepierrevelcin.basler@gmail.com | |
| facebook.com | |
| Facebook page | |
| Visits | Yes — direct sales at the farm |
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All production is certified organic, since 2013. |