Published by
La Rédac · Updated on August 26, 2020 at 05:00 p.m.
Just a stone's throw from the Eiffel Tower, Cheese is first and foremost a cheese shop, but it's also a wine cellar and a delicatessen. Unclassifiable, it is above all "a place of gourmet perdition". We introduce you to this store that's off the beaten track.
Gilles Clayeux, with his rich Burgundian roots and a passion for gastronomy, conceived and designed this unusual store: Cheese!
A cheese shop, wine cellar and delicatessen all in one... Everything here is good, and every product has its own story to tell!
In a small thirty square meter space, the taste for authenticity and rarity, even for the original, is expressed in perfect harmony in 3 main areas:
- Farmhouse ripened cheeses
Depending on the season, the range varies from 70 to 100 items, the majority of which are goat's cheeses, for which Gilles Clayeux is truly passionate! Together with his wife Valérie, they regularly travel to the provinces to visit ripeners or farms, in constant search of "the" product that will really make a difference! A few rare pearls from elsewhere, some of which are distributed exclusively by Cheese, complete the purely "made in France" line-up.
Examples include James Montgomery's Cheddar 2013, with its incredible aromatic power, Stichelton, a raw-milk cousin of the famous stilton, or, on the Spanish side, Curado Ecologico from Hacienda Zorita near Salamanca, a sheep's milk cheese matured for 6 months in red Syrah wine.
Another of Cheese's specialities is home-made products: gourmet yogurts, original cheese recipes such as Le Formidable (a brillat-savarin "dressed" with infused raisins), "special goat" marinades concocted with spices from Olivier Roellinger's catalog...
- The wines
The wines are there to accompany, or rather, to sublimate the tasting of the cheeses offered in store. Gilles Clayeux's selection is deliberately limited(around 15 producers, with 2, 3 or 4 references each), and evolves according to his personal tastes and his encounters with winemakers. Burgundy, with its strong regional flavor, takes pride of place, with the Devillard family's Mercurey Château de Chamirey en Pierrelet at the top of the list, the Beaune 1er Cru La Féguine and Volnay 1er Cru Les Santenots from Domaine Jacques Prieur in Meursault, and the Rully 1er Cru Les Cloux and 1er Cru La Pucelle from Paul and Marie Jacqueson. The characterful Côtes du Rhône wines from La Célestière (Chateauneuf-du-Pape), a number of fine Loire labels(Domaine Vincent Delaporte in Chavignol, Domaine Minchin in Menetou-Salon) and the very fine wines from Château Dalmeran, an exceptional vineyard in the heart of Les Baux-de-Provence, are also part of the range. Once a month, a special event showcases a producer and his wines, highlighting possible pairings with particular cheeses.
- Delicatessen
Cheese 's range of delicatessen products is in line with the gourmet approach so dear to the owner. Delphine Alaguette's seasonal fruit jams and artisanal gingerbread are still very much a Burgundy reference, as are the chocolates of Bernard Dufoux, a master chocolatier from La Clayette who cultivates the art of flavor combinations like no other, and the honeys from the Secrets d'Apiculteur collection. On the savoury side, while awaiting the imminent arrival of a range of chutneys, there's a fine palette of Provençal and Italianolive oils, such as the one straight from Piombino, a village in maritime Tuscany facing the island of Elba, which the local producer bottles especially for Cheese.
The atmosphere of the place adds beauty to goodness. The flower-filled window display is a real eye-catcher. Once you've crossed the threshold, you'll find yourself in a cosy space furnished with Club armchairs, a mini-table, magazines and a subdued light lamp... which makes you want to sit down and eat a good bite of cheese with a glass of wine.
The wines are presented in an atypical way, with a play of colors, and the cheeses are all hand-packaged to show them off to their best advantage. It all adds up to a very special, offbeat atmosphere!
A new address as beautiful as it is gourmet, to be discovered without delay!
Practical info
Cheese
1, rue Desaix - 75015 Paris
01 47 83 81 26
Open Tuesday to Friday, 10:00 to 13:00 and 16:00 to 20:00. Saturday 10:00am to 1:00pm and 4:00pm to 7:30pm. Closed Sunday and Monday
