Gourmandise is a French processed cheese made in two varieties, one with walnuts and one with kirsch, a cherry brandy.
The two differ on the label: the kirsch version declares a cherry liqueur, and the French walnut labels declare cashews and celery as well as walnuts.
Whether it is still being made is less settled than a shelf listing suggests. In 2020 the FGTA-FO union said Savencia had scheduled the closure of the factory behind Rambol walnut cheese, the closest documented French counterpart of the walnut version.
In This Article
Kirsch or Walnut: Which Gourmandise Do You Have?
Cheese.com describes Gourmandise as a French processed cheese made in two varieties, walnut and kirsch. It calls kirsch a clear, colourless cherry brandy.
Cheese.com files the cheese as soft, creamy and spreadable and gives its colour as straw, without saying which version that describes.
The walnut version has one visible cue. French Wikipedia's entry for Rambol, a French processed-cheese brand with a walnut version, says the paste holds walnut pieces while its surface is bordered with whole walnut kernels.
Open Food Facts records the 125 g French pack with the label claim noix déposées à la main, walnuts placed by hand, which fits kernels sitting on the surface as well as inside. French Wikipedia's range list for Rambol also separates a 1.2 kg piece sold by the cut with kernels from a 2 kg piece without them, so at a counter the kernels tell the two pieces apart.
For the kirsch version the ingredient list is the surer guide: the American label prints kirsch, and the French walnut labels print walnuts.
A kirsch line in the ingredients means the American cherry-liqueur version. A walnut line means the walnut version, and on a French pack the same list also carries cashews and celery.
Is Gourmandise the Same Cheese as Rambol?
Rambol is a brand, not one recipe: French Wikipedia describes it as a trademark for a processed cheese sold with herbs, walnuts, blue cheese, hazelnuts, green pepper, pepper, salmon and other additions.
A Rambol label therefore says little by itself, and the walnut version is the one whose name and ingredient list carry noix, as both French walnut labels do.
The same entry says Rambol has been made in the Yvelines since the 1960s, invented in a creamery at Rambouillet and named rambolitain after the town's inhabitants, and produced since by the Fromagerie Rambol at Saint-Arnoult. That date belongs to the Rambol brand.
No source dates Gourmandise or names who created it, so the age of the Gourmandise name stays open.
The link between the two rests on one database record, because Open Food Facts titles the American kirsch product Rambol, Gourmandise, Imported French Cheese while its brand field names Anco Fine Cheese, a division of Schratter Foods Inc. The French walnut labels on this page are the closest documented match to American walnut Gourmandise, not a confirmed one.
What Is in Gourmandise Cheese?
Cheese.com describes Gourmandise as a blend of cheddar and cream, but the American kirsch label lists neither.
It starts with cheese made from pasteurized milk, salt, cheese culture and enzyme, then nonfat milk, water, butter and sodium phosphate as an emulsifying agent, and it ends with salt, artificial flavor, kirsch, carob bean gum and carrageenan.
The enzyme is not named, so the label does not say whether it is animal rennet or a microbial coagulant, and the French walnut labels list no enzyme at all.
Open Food Facts' own automatic analysis marks the American record's vegetarian status as unknown and the two French records as maybe vegetarian, so neither list settles the question for a vegetarian buyer.
The French walnut label for the 125 g pack is built on a different base. Its French label leads with fromage blanc at 45 percent, followed by water and walnuts at 7.5 percent.
Cashews come next, then butter, milk proteins, skimmed milk powder, the emulsifying salts E452 and E450, modified cassava starch, salt, carrageenan, agar-agar and a flavouring declared as celery and walnut.
The 500 g walnut log has a different list again. It names cheese at 35 percent, reconstituted skimmed milk, butter and walnuts at 7 percent, and adds the preservatives E200 and E202.
French Wikipedia's composition list for the walnut version gives tree nuts at 10 percent, of which 6 percent is walnut, with fromage blanc again at 45 percent. The labels print walnuts at 7.5 and 7 percent, so the walnut share differs between sources by a point or more, and the 4 percent of other nuts in Wikipedia's list fits the cashews the labels name.
French law, in article 4 of decree 2007-628, reserves the name fromage fondu for cheese melted and emulsified with heat to at least 70 °C for 30 seconds or an equivalent combination. The finished product must hold at least 40 g of dry matter per 100 g.
Article 9 of the same decree sets a lower tier, spécialité fromagère fondue, which needs only 25 g of dry matter per 100 g, and the reduced-fat versions of the two names need 30 g and 20 g.
Auchan gives the legal name of the 125 g walnut pack as fromage fondu aux noix, so that pack sits in the 40 g tier.
| Label | Calories | Fat | Saturated fat | Protein | Salt |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| American kirsch | 286 kcal | 25 g | 17.9 g | 14.3 g | 2.5 g |
| French walnut, 125 g | 328 kcal | 30 g | 17.2 g | 9.3 g | 1.3 g |
| French walnut, 500 g | 307 kcal | 27 g | 17 g | 13 g | 2.1 g |
Saturated fat is close to 17 or 18 g on all three labels, so the extra fat on the walnut labels is non-saturated, which fits the nuts that only those two labels list.
Protein drops to 9.3 g on the 125 g pack, the one built on fromage blanc and water, against 13 to 14.3 g on the labels that lead with cheese.
Adding fat, protein, carbohydrate and salt on each label gives at least 45 g per 100 g, so no more than about 55 g of each 100 g is water, well inside the 60 g of water the French 40 g floor allows.
The American label sets its serving at 1 oz, or 28 g, with 0 g of sugar, 80 calories, 7 g of fat (5 g saturated), 4 g of protein and 280 mg of sodium.
Does the Kirsch Version Contain Alcohol?
The label declares it: the American panel lists kirsch and describes it as a cherry-flavored liqueur.
Kirsch is eighth of ten ingredients, ahead of only carob bean gum and carrageenan, and no alcohol percentage appears on the record, so how much alcohol the finished cheese holds is not stated.
The French walnut labels list no liqueur.
Is Gourmandise Cheese Safe in Pregnancy?
NHS guidance lists pasteurised soft cheeses such as cottage cheese, cream cheese and processed cheese spreads as safe in pregnancy, and treats any cheese cooked until steaming hot as safe too.
Cheese.com describes Gourmandise as soft and spreadable, which fits that category, but NHS does not name fromage fondu, so placing Gourmandise under processed cheese spreads is a reading of the category rather than something the guidance says.
The pasteurisation evidence differs by label. The American kirsch label states pasteurized milk for its cheese ingredient, and the French walnut labels state nothing about it.
The kirsch version raises a separate question, because NHS says drinking alcohol in pregnancy can cause long-term harm to the baby and that it is safest to avoid alcohol.
Does Walnut Gourmandise Contain Other Nuts or Celery?
The name accounts for one nut and the French labels declare more. Both French labels list cashews right after the walnuts (7.5 percent on the 125 g pack, 7 percent on the 500 g log), and both declare celery in the flavouring.
The 125 g pack adds that it is made in a workshop using almonds and hazelnuts, and Open Food Facts records tree-nut traces on both walnut labels.
The American kirsch record declares milk alone. No American walnut label is recorded, so whether the walnut cheese sold in the United States declares the same cashews and celery is not documented.
What Happened to Gourmandise Cheese?
In September 2020 RIA reported, citing the FGTA-FO union, that Savencia had scheduled the closure of its Rambol site at Saint-Arnoult-en-Yvelines for the start of 2022, affecting 83 employees and 20 temporary workers.
RIA describes the site as specialised in melting and decorating cheeses such as Rambol aux noix.
The records that follow are thin. Open Food Facts holds a 500 g French walnut record created in April 2022, with its last image added in July 2022, but a database entry shows that a pack existed, not that it is on shelves now.
Auchan's page for the 125 g pack adds dated evidence: its five visible shopper reviews, each marked as a verified purchase, run from 30 December 2022 to 19 March 2024, after the closure date reported for the factory.
The same page names Fromarsac, of Marsac/l'Isle (Périgueux Cedex 9), as the pack's operator and consumer service. Both Open Food Facts French records, by contrast, give a packer code for Saint-Arnoult-en-Yvelines.
Contact a specialty retailer for availability before buying.
Where Can You Buy Gourmandise Cheese?
The listings below show where a pack is listed, not whether it is on the shelf today.
- France, 125 g walnut pack: Open Food Facts lists Leclerc, Match, Super U and carrefour.fr, and Auchan has a product page for it.
- France, 500 g walnut log: Open Food Facts lists Carrefour, Cora, Leclerc, Match and Super U.
- United States, kirsch: Instacart lists Gourmandise With Kirsch at Safeway, sold each, with a note that the actual weight may vary.
Open Food Facts records the packaging of both French walnut packs as frais, chilled, and Auchan's page files the 125 g pack under the same word, so a store check starts at the chilled cabinet.
No retailer listing documents the American walnut version, so a shopper looking for it in the United States has no confirmed stockist to start from.
What Does Walnut Gourmandise Taste and Feel Like?
Auchan's description of the 125 g pack sets the crunch of the pieces in it against the softness of the cheese, which matches French Wikipedia's walnut pieces through the paste.
Cheese.com lists Gourmandise's flavour and aroma as fruity and sweet, a profile it writes for the cheese as a whole, so it does not say which of the two versions it describes.
The seven shopper ratings on Auchan's page for the 125 g pack average 4.3 out of 5, and the one 2-star review says the cheese had no flavour at all. Auchan's reply to that review calls the cheese a gentle pairing of cow's-milk texture and walnut pieces, which tells a buyer who wants a strong nut or cheese taste what the retailer itself says to expect.
A 4-star reviewer says the pack was bought in place of a walnut rondelé that reviewer rarely finds, which places it, for at least one shopper, beside other soft walnut cheeses, though no source compares the two.
How Do You Serve and Store Gourmandise?
A shopper's review on Auchan's page for the 125 g walnut pack suggests it on toasts at the aperitif, or on a baguette.
Cheese.com pairs the walnut version with pears, other winter fruits and blue cheeses. It calls Gourmandise a dessert cheese and says it tastes best with dessert wines such as Sherry or Port, or well-chilled champagne.
The two suggestions sit at opposite ends of a meal, an aperitif toast in the shopper's case and a dessert cheese on Cheese.com, and neither source says which use the makers intend.
Auchan's own listing for that pack says to keep it between 2 °C and 8 °C and to eat it quickly once opened.
Of the three labels only the 500 g log lists preservatives, E200 and E202. Auchan advises eating the 125 g pack quickly after opening.
Can You Use Gourmandise in a Grilled Cheese?
All three labels carry emulsifying salts.
The French labels list E452 and E450 on the 125 g pack and E452 and E339 on the 500 g log as sels de fonte, melting salts, and French Wikipedia lists E452 and E450 as emulsifiers of the walnut version.
The American label lists sodium phosphate as its emulsifying agent, so all three labels carry an added melting salt that marks each as a processed cheese.
