BETEMPS LEO

At 1,600 meters above the municipality of Bionaz, Leo Bétemps produces a Fontina DOP that originates solely from alpine pastures, during the months when the herd grazes on high-altitude meadows. This choice ties the cheese to a precise seasonal window, that of summer grass, and foregoes continuous production in favor of a direct connection with the mountain. For three generations, the dairy has repeated this practice, transforming the milk of the warm months into a product with a recognizable character. The cheese's paste is soft and elastic, its flavor delicate and subtly sweet: characteristics that depend less on technical intervention than on the altitude and the animals' diet. In a context where altitude is a productive factor, not just a scenic one, Bétemps' work documents what it means to make cheese at the highest possible margins. The farm welcomes visitors for tastings: ascending to Bionaz and tasting the Fontina in the very place of its alpine pasture is the clearest way to understand how mountain territory and cheesemaking craft are, here, one and the same.

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