Raclette de Savoie

The co-operative is listed by the Tome des Bauges PDO (AOP) syndicat as an ambassador cheese dairy, located in the Chef-Lieu of La Compôte (Savoie).

The cooperative recounts that it was founded in 1971, with nineteen members and two employees, and established itself in Thônes in 1976. A first Tomme and Raclette workshop was set up there in 1978; refitted in 1983, it enabled the processing of four thousand litres of milk per day according to the dairy, and that same year a technician post was created to monitor farmhouse production. According to the website, the retail shop and visitor tour route date back to 1987.

A division of labour lies at the heart of its model: farmhouse cheeses are made on the farm by member producers, whilst the cooperative handles the affinage, providing customised quality monitoring for each. It states that it was created specifically to pool these resources—maturing, sales, quality control—in order to preserve traditional on-farm production.

Its cellars are unlike any other: in 2007, the cooperative acquired a four-hundred-metre former railway tunnel between Samoëns and Sixt-Fer-à-Cheval, on a line closed to traffic in 1959. The tunnel had initially served as a mushroom farm, then as a curing house, before an affineur moved in and the cooperative began having its cheeses matured there on contract. It has since equipped the tunnel (electricity, shelving, loading bay) and presents it as one of the last natural cellars in the region.

Lastly, the cooperative runs a direct-sales shop at 40 Avenue d'Annecy in Thônes, open Monday to Saturday and on Sunday mornings.

The Coopérative Fruitière en Val d'Arly Savoie Mont-Blanc presents itself as making and maturing, in its Flumet workshops, PDO (AOP) and PGI (IGP) certified Savoie cheeses since 1969: Reblochon PDO, Beaufort PDO, Raclette and Tomme de Savoie PGI. It also offers specialities — fondue savoyarde, fondant d'Arly, Meule de Savoie, yoghurt, faisselle, butter — as well as other Savoyard products from its terroir: cured meats, meats, vins de Savoie, beers, mountain honeys and jams.

The cooperative operates five shops in Savoie Mont-Blanc, in Chamonix, Megève, Flumet, Cluses and Faverges, and features a museum in Flumet.

Fromageries Pochat & Fils presents itself as a family business of fromagers-affineurs founded in 1919 in Haute-Savoie. The company states that it operates several cheese dairies and direct-sales shops, working in collaboration with milk producers and partner farm producers within the Savoyard dairy sector. It matures traditional PDO (AOP) and PGI (IGP) cheeses from Savoie—with Tome des Bauges PDO cited as an example—as well as more recent creations.

Its catalogue of Savoie cheeses notably features Reblochon de Savoie PDO—including a farmhouse version—, Tomme de Savoie PGI, Abondance PDO, Beaufort PDO, Chevrotin PDO, Emmental de Savoie PGI, and Raclette de Savoie PGI, alongside house specialities such as Beaumont de Savoie.

EARL Les Noisetiers presents itself as an organic farm established in Leschaux, on the slopes of the Semnoz, in Haute-Savoie. Depending on the season, it occupies two sites: a summer mountain pasture at Combe des Villards in summer, and a valley farm at Pré de la Grange for the rest of the year.

The farm sells its cheeses directly on site, at the mountain pasture shop open every day from 9:00 to 19:00 in June, July and August, or at the valley shop open all year round, every day from 16:00 to 19:00 except Sundays and public holidays in summer. Self-guided visits are free and available every day; a guided tour with tasting is offered upon booking.

In the heart of the Chablais, in Bogève, this fruitière produces three mountain cheeses under official quality marks: PDO (AOP) Abondance, PDO Reblochon and PGI (IGP) Raclette de Savoie. The workshop processes milk collected from neighbouring farms according to the traditional methods of Savoyard fruitières, with maturing carried out on site in cellars.

On Wednesdays, a guided tour showcases the cheese-making room and maturing cellars, followed by a tasting of the house cheeses — a simple way for visitors passing through the Chablais resorts to see Raclette de Savoie come into being before finding it at the table. Outside visiting hours, a vending machine allows cheeses to be bought retail seven days a week. The fruitière is part of the Route des Fromages de Savoie, which brings together around sixty sites to visit in the Alps.