Typically I think of an affineur as someone who buys young cheese from the producer and matures it under the proper conditions. But some put their stamp on a cheese with an original treatment, as what French affineur Jean d'Alos does with Clisson, an aged goat cheese that he washes with Sauternes.
Tomme Brulee, a French sheep's milk cheese, demonstrates another approach. Affineur Pascal Beillevaire buys petite wheels of 2-month-old cheese from a Basque producer and then stores them for another two months in his own caves.
Before release, the wheels are torched on the outside (hence the brulee) to give them a scorched appearance, a step that doesn't affect the flavor but does make the wheels stand out. At a cheese counter that stocks other Pyrenees sheep's milk cheeses like Abbaye de Belloc, Ossau-Iraty and P'tit Basque, Tomme Brulee catches your eye.
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