Beaufort cheese is pale yellow, with a smooth and creamy texture and lacks holes like other Gruyère-style cheeses, Comté, Vacherin Fribourgeois or Emmental. Beaufort is a firm, raw cow’s milk cheese associated with the gruyère family. An Alpine cheese, it is produced in Beaufortain, Tarentaise valley and Maurienne, which are located in the Savoie region of the French Alps. Gruyere may age anywhere from six months to three years, the cheese is carefully selected for incredible aging potential is finished for a full 12 month maturation. It is then that Gruyere’s aromas of caramelized apples and notes of hazelnutty brown butter come together in a smooth, dense paste—perfect for a classic fondue or melted atop a Croque Madame. Raw cow’s milk Gruyere is considered central to (if not synonymous with) the culture and history of Switzerland’s Fribourg region, an Alpine crossroads that ushered in the Celts, the Helvetians, and the Romans, who later shared their cheesemaking traditions.