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While winter and summer cheese choices are clear-cut, season-driven picks during the fall can sometimes prove to be slightly ambiguous. At Formaggio Essex, I happened upon a perfect cheese that suits the transition between fire and frost.

Like the season I’m suggesting it suits, Pavé Correzien isn’t easily classifiable. Neither a cheddar nor a mountain cheese, it allies more closely with its Auvergnese neighbors like Cantal or lesser-known Salers. Made in the small French region of Corèzzé from raw cow milk and aged for 9 months or more, the paste is firm but not smooth like a mountain cheese, which alludes to the process of milling the curd during its make process.

Its pleasant sour milk flavors, biting lactic tang, and aromas of cheesecake lighten the intensity of its texture and age, resulting in a beautifully balanced cheese ideal for living on the (seasonal) edge.

Best beverage pairings: fuller bodied whites that have seen a touch of oak like white Burgundy or a light fruity red like Gamay.

Pavé Correzien is available at Formaggio Essex for $18.95 per pound

- Nora S.