Gourmino cheesemakers with a vision
in September 2015, the Gourmino cheesemakers decide to buy the Reichenbach military galleries and set a foundation stone for the future of Gourmino: Affinage in the Mountain strengthens our competence as an affineur and guarantees storage capacity is well used.
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AFFINAGE IN THE MOUNTAIN
nothing is as perfect as nature
At the foot of Blüemlisalp, an impressive mountain massif at 3’600 m above sea level in the Bernese Oberland, Gourmino cheeses selected for longer affinage will age peacefully on wooden boards gathered from the nearby Kander Valley. At 700 meters above sea level and 150 meters deep inside the mountain, nature offers us the perfect climatic conditions for ripening cheeses.
The cheese caves that facilitates Affinage in the Mountain offers Gourmino the ideal prospects to realize its vision: Maintaining and promoting the production of handcrafted, mature cheese from its own village and mountain dairies.
#AffinageInTheMountain
REFURBISHMENT INSTEAD OF A NEW BUILD
once a munition storage facility, now a cheese cellar
The cheese warehouse in the mountain is not easy to find because access from Reichenbach im Kiental is along a narrow trail by the Kien river (a river that rises from inside the Blüemlisalp glacier). The former military galleries were built after the second world war between 1950 and 1960 and served as a munitions cache. Switzerland’s strategy was to defend the mountainous regions and, if necessary, leave the lowlands undefended. However, the bunkers have long lost any military significance.
In 2015 Gourmino bought four military galleries with a vision of turning them into cheese caves. We knew at the time that the natural climate 150 meters inside the mountain was perfect for cheese affinage.
After two years of planning, a tunnel joining up the four separate military bunkers was drilled out of the rock and the four former bunkers were turned into adjoining cheese caves.
THE POWER OF NATURE
the perfect climate for affinage
The four cheese galleries are reached through a long, narrow 150 meter long corridor. Cows graze on the pastures just 200 meters above the ripening cellar. Here, deep inside the mountain, nature offers us the perfect climate for cheese affinage – high humidity and low, cool, constant temperatures.
The artificial conditions in other cheese warehouses are created using mostly air conditioning. Here in Reichenbach, we have the gift of nature where affinage takes place in the mountain. The mountain acts as a climate storage system: When it rains on the pasture above it takes three days until the water seeps down and is seen on the walls of the cheese gallery.
Use of this natural mountain climate is not only more economical it is also more ecological.
#NothingIsAsPerfectAsNature