Hervé Mons

Hervé Mons - Fromager & Affineur

Hervé is a true cheese innovator. Well-known in France thanks to Mons Fromages. He exports to many different countries.

"MONS is now being discovered across the pond!"
We are the third generation of a family of cheesemakers dating back to 1964, with Saint-Haon-le-Châtel as our home base. We are experts in all aspects of cheesemaking, but now that we're becoming well-known, I've discovered that marketing, distribution, and safeguarding the legacy has become more and more important. Did you know that a Frenchman eats an average of 23 kilos of cheese per year? And it’s perfectly healthy too! In our domestic market, we can be found shop-in-shops in the larger Casino supermarkets. We export to over 20 countries: Europe, Japan, and to the US as well. The exclusive cheese shops and restaurants there have also discovered us.

I have been part of the business since 1980, the decade in which we established ourselves as "les plus grands fromagers Parisiens," followed by many prestigious awards. My expertise is the "affinage," refining the maturing process and the ripening of the cheese. Doing it underground is the best. We have an old underground railroad tunnel near Ambièrle that we use for this purpose. It’s the ideal culture for blue vein and other moldy cheeses.

Ammonia fumes? I can't even smell them anymore! However big you grow, it's important to keep watching out for the little guys. Between 130 and 140 cheesemakers who share our values are often working in no-man's-land. If that's what you want, you have to pay for it! We've known most families for a long time. These days, we have our own training center. We're eager to share our knowledge of cheese, so that the next generation can continue to enjoy us.

Hervé Mons, fromager & affineur | www.mons-fromages.com