Roquefort  Roquefort (, , ; ) is a sheep milk cheese from Southern France, and is one of the world's best known blue cheeses. Though similar cheeses are produced elsewhere, EU law dictates that only those cheeses aged in the natural Combalou caves of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon may bear the name Roquefort, as it is a recognised geographical indication, or has a protected designation of origin. The cheese is white, tangy, crumbly and slightly moist, with distinctive veins of blue mold. It has a characteristic fragrance and flavor with a notable taste of butyric acid; the blue veins provide a sharp tang. It has no rind; the exterior is edible and slightly salty. A typical wheel of Roquefort weighs between , and is about thick. Each kilogram of finished cheese requires about of milk to produce. Roquefort is known in France as the king of cheeses. Legend has it that the cheese was discovered when a youth, eating his lunch of bread and ewes' milk cheese, saw a beautiful girl in the distance. Abandoning his meal in a nearby cave, he ran to meet her. When he returned a few months later, the mold ("Penicillium roqueforti") had transformed his plain cheese into Roquefort. Though it is often claimed that Roquefort was praised by Pliny the Elder in AD 79, in fact, Pliny simply speaks of a cheese from Gaul, not mentioning its origin or even saying that it was blue; the story was promoted by the "Société des Caves". On 4 June 1411, Charles VI granted a monopoly for the ripening of the cheese to the people of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon as they had been doing for centuries. In 1925, the cheese was the recipient of France's first "Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée" when regulations controlling its production and naming were first defined. In 1961, in a landmark ruling that removed imitation, the "Tribunal de Grande Instance" at Millau decreed that, although the method for the manufacture of the cheese could be followed across the south of France, only those cheeses whose ripening occurred in the natural caves of Mont Combalou in Roquefort-sur-Soulzon were permitted to bear the name Roquefort. The mold that gives Roquefort its distinctive character ("Penicillium roqueforti") is found in the soil of the local caves.