Bleu de Gex Haut-Jura

A French PDO cheese made solely from raw, unprocessed cow's milk, produced within a defined area of the Haut-Jura plateau spanning the departements of Ain and Jura. The uncooked, unpressed veined paste carries a marbling of fairly pale blue-green moulds. The designation is registered under two protected names: Bleu de Gex Haut-Jura and Bleu de Septmoncel.

About this designation

Bleu de Gex Haut-Jura and Bleu de Septmoncel are registered as a single PDO under file number PDO-FR-0109, granted EU protection on 21 June 1996, and recorded in eAmbrosia under identifier EUGI00000012892. The cheese is produced solely from raw cow's milk drawn from cows of the Montbéliarde breed (breed type 46), the French Simmental breed (breed type 35), or certified crosses of these two breeds. Milk production, cheesemaking, and ripening must all take place within the defined geographical area. The staple feed of dairy cows must consist of fodder originating from pastures within that area; each cow may receive no more than 1 800 kg of supplementary feed per year, and the grazing area actually used must be at least 1 hectare per dairy cow. Fermented fodder, whether silage or not, is prohibited. The cheese takes the form of a wheel with flat sides and clearly rounded corners, weighing between 6 and 9 kilograms, with a diameter of 31 to 35 centimetres at the time of marketing. The paste has a minimum fat content of 50 grams per 100 grams of cheese after complete desiccation and a dry matter content of at least 52 grams per 100 grams of cheese, with a minimum salt content of 0.8 grams per 100 grams. The word 'Gex' must be moulded into each cheese during production, and labelling must carry the EU PDO symbol.

Source: The register document this entry was written from · retrieved August 26, 2026

Distinctive facts

• Registered as a PDO on 21 June 1996 under file number PDO-FR-0109; eAmbrosia identifier EUGI00000012892.
• Milk must come exclusively from Montbéliarde (breed type 46), French Simmental (breed type 35), or certified crosses of these two breeds.
• Fermented fodder, whether silage or not, is prohibited throughout the dairy herd's feed.
• The word 'Gex' must be physically moulded into each cheese during production.

Tasting notes

Jura cow's milk blue cheese aged minimum 21 days. Pale ivory paste with delicate marbled blue-green veining, semi-firm texture, milder than Roquefort or Bleu d'Auvergne, with characteristic hazelnut-mountain-grass notes and gentle blue tang.

HoReCa use

Plateau de fromages; melted in Jura sauce for poached chicken; gentle blue option for cheese course; paired with vin jaune from Arbois.

Packaging

• wheel-full-7.5kg
• wheel-half-vacuum-3.5kg
• wedge-vacuum-300g
• wedge-vacuum-150g