One of the best values at the cheese counter these days is the French beauty, Bleu de Gex (zhex). It's not as common as other French blues, such as Roquefort and Fourme d'Ambert, but keep an eye out for it. At about $15 a pound, it is a relative bargain.

One of France's approximately 40 AOC (appellation d'origine controlee), or name-controlled, cheeses, Bleu de Gex comes from the mountainous Jura region, near the Swiss border. It is also known as Bleu du Haut-Jura.

The AOC regulations require that it be made from unpasteurized cow's milk. The rules also strictly delineate the zone of origin.

The milk for Bleu de Gex can't come from outside the approved zone, and the cheese itself can't be made or matured outside the zone. These requirements, similar to the AOC laws for wine, are aimed at ensuring quality. They can be mind-numbingly detailed, specifying, for example, that Bleu de Gex can be made in communes A, B and C but only the parts of commune D that are above 2,625 feet.

The milk for Bleu de Gex is inoculated with Penicillium glaucum, the mold spores that eventually produce the blue veins. Once the curds form, they are neither cooked nor pressed; instead they are scooped into their molds and allowed to drain naturally. Cooking and pressing -- techniques common with other aged cheeses -- would create a tight-knit curd that would inhibit the growth of the blue molds, which need air.

Once the wheels take their shape, they are unmolded and salted by hand. Then they are pierced to create the air tunnels that encourage the blue molds to grow. By AOC law, the wheels must age at least three weeks, but a maturation of two to three months is more common.

Over time, a wheel of Bleu de Gex, which weighs about 16 pounds, develops a natural rind covered with powdery white and gray molds. The moist butter- colored interior will be liberally laced with blue-gray veins. Bring it up to your nose and you may find a nutty aroma suggestive of roasted peanuts. The texture should be semi-soft and exceptionally creamy; my husband calls it "the foie gras of cheeses" for its rich flavor and silky, melt-in-the-mouth quality. Unlike some other blues, which can be fearsomely piquant, Bleu de Gex is mild and subtle. You couldn't find a more appealing partner for autumn figs, apples and pears.

With Bleu de Gex, open a fortified dessert wine that is not syrupy sweet. I enjoyed the cheese recently with a glass of Blandy's 5-year-old Verdelho Madeira, an off-dry wine with a lovely caramel aroma.

Next up: Toma Piemontese, a cow's milk cheese from Northern Italy.