the name “gruyère” can be used by all producers, including Americans

American justice has decided: the name “Gruyère” will no longer be reserved for wheels from Switzerland and France, but can be used by all producers, including Americans. In one of the most important Savoyard cheese dairies, Julien Goury produces 250 tons of Gruyère every year, with a protected geographical indication (PGI). A minimum of four months of ripening are required, and the cows are fed exclusively on grass and hay.

The specifications are extremely precise and impossible to reproduce elsewhere, according to the producer. “It’s a total aberration, we can’t let it be said that our Gruyère is generic”, disputes Julien Goury. On the other side of the Atlantic, in the state of Wisconsin, Gruyère has been made since the 1980s under the name “Alpine cheese”. It is a little more expensive than its French counterpart, and the methods of manufacture are the same. If the products are similar, there are nevertheless some differences, recognizes a cheesemaker. The Interprofessional Syndicate of Gruyere in France has not yet appealed the American decision, but should decide next week.