Our expertise
Lustenberger & Dürst SA –
The Expert in Fine Cheeses from Switzerland
About white gold and the cheese barons
1862 the year Lustenberger & Dürst was founded, the glorious time of milk and cheese. Today, more than 150 years later: the shine of white gold is no longer illuminated quite as bright; the time of the cheese barons is over. What remains are the natural quality through the terroir, tradition and passion, but also the witnesses of that time as the noble Villa in the Langrüti park, now our office building. Today, as then: our products are characterized by old values and outstanding personalities, most notably Maurice Lustenberger and Niklaus Dürst. Our history is the history of strong characters and cheese-makers and affineurs conscious of their tradition but also the vivid and moving story about the fascination of cheese from Switzerland, influenced worldwide by Maurice Lustenberger and Niklaus Dürst. The two companies joined forces in 1920 and became Lustenberger & Dürst SA.
Their secret? Unbroken passion for unique Swiss milk, the traditional artisanal crafts and being talent gifted cheese-creators and passionate gourmets.
Their passion? Characterful raw milk cheese shaped by the unique local and natural conditions, the soil, the herbs, the wind, the storm. The hand-crafted cheese selected and refined by months to years of careful curing and slow maturation – to give time to the flavor and to give room to the cheese in its time.
Their history? Maurice Lustenberger, son of a passionate Entlebucher cheese-maker who devotes his life to the refinement of untreated raw-milk cheese of the highest quality. He soon realizes: we have what others can only dream of, natural landscapes with unique flora, meadows rich of herbs, centuries-old rock and stones and a balanced climate - the best conditions for the finest milk with a unique floral flavor.
Niklaus Dürst grows up on a small farm. His father is an outstanding personality, a farmer and judge who in 1845 travels on behalf of the Canton of Glarus to America to search land for emigrating Glarner and founded New Glarus in the state of Wisconsin, years later known as America’s little Switzerland. Nearly 200 Glarner sail finally with the ship "Superb" to America to find in New Glarus a new home. His son Niklaus Dürst has inherited the pioneering spirit and his father's entrepreneurship and founded in 1862 a cheese company in Zurich, Switzerland. This historic moment is reflected in our brand "LeSuperbe" and embodies innovation and excellence.
Maurice Lustenberger and Niklaus Dürst combine traditional knowledge to the production of cheese with the gifts of nature. Charismatic personalities with a passion for an authentic and natural experience, uncompromising commitment and expertise based on many years of experience, passed down through many generations - then as now the cornerstone of our company.
We still make cheese by the values that have been proven for generations: fresh raw milk from hay and grass fed cows, characterized by rich pastures with powerful herbs, hand-crafted to cheese in the local dairy only a few hours after the milking. Our cheese: artisanal, 100 percent natural production (fresh, local, low processing) according to traditional recipes without any artificial additives, brought to complex flavors by the traditional method of affinage and carefully selected by our Maîtres Affineurs to guarantee highest pleasure in consistent quality.