Alain Hess Cheese Shop (Fromagerie Alain Hess)

What you will see

The counters hold around 200 cheeses, and the staff can help you choose and put together a selection. Look for the Délice de Pommard in its different versions, which include truffle, gingerbread and Burgundy blackcurrant bud. With wine, charcuterie and fine groceries under the same roof, you can assemble a complete Burgundy picnic in a single stop. Ready-made cheese platters and accompaniments such as confits are also on sale. The original Délice de Pommard is coated in mustard bran, and it has won silver and bronze medals at the Concours Général Agricole. Other house specialities include the Royal Truffé, Époisses ripened to the core, Comté and Beaufort aged for 24 months, and a Stilton matured in the shop with port; the Royal Truffé won gold at the international cheese contest in Tours in 2013 and again in 2015, when the house's newer Bourguibleu took silver. Since the shop was rebuilt in 2013, a glass floor shows the way down to the cellar beneath your feet, and a staircase leads down to cellars of wines and spirits from Burgundy and beyond, where a tasting room invites you to stop for a brunch or an aperitif.

History

Alain Hess opened his first cheese shop in Beaune in 1988. In 1995 he invented a new cheese, the Délice de Pommard, which the shop still makes, and on 3 November 1997 he was made a master cheesemonger, or maître fromager. The shop moved to the place Carnot in 2005. Today the shop also has a wine cellar and a fine grocery with Spanish and Italian specialities, teas and coffees, and it now sells online too.