Fromagerie de Sommentier

Presentation

Erich Hunkeler's father was a cheesemaker and his maternal grandfather was a cheesemaker as well. Erich completed an apprenticeship in Emmental and helped his father at the cheese dairy in Sommentier, a small village 7 kilometres from Romont. He produces 148 tonnes of Gruyère and 2.5 tonnes of Vacherin Fribourgeois AOP every year. But he owes most of his “fame” to “Petit Glânois”, a semi-hard cheese made from raw milk that he created in 1999. Today, thanks to the acquisition of a larger boiler, he can make twenty-four Petit Glânois at a time, and now processes some 30,000 to 40,000 kilos of milk into 3,000 to 4,000 pieces of Petit Glânois.