​I'm sorry, I don't have any proper references. My source for this was the articles on Saanen and Sbrinz in the _Oxford Companion to Food_, ed. Alan Davidson and Tom Jaine, OUP, 2nd edn 2006. Although I did the original research on these articles, that was in 1980 and I've lost touch with the sources, which were books in Alan Davidson's large private library. The web is not much help here either.

What I can tell you is that Saanen is a full fat cheese made of cow's milk, which properly should be unpasteurised. (There is no link between this cheese and the Saanen breed of goat, other than location.) It has a brushed and oiled natural rind, like other Swiss hard cheeses, and is thus more or less impervious to​ organisms that could cause spoilage. Once it is matured, it is so hard and dry that it can't deteriorate. The flavour is said to be strong; I have never eaten it. It would be stored in an ordinary cool cellar, not hard to find in its high-altitude region of production.

(By the way, in this list, when replying publicly to posts, you have to click on 'Reply to all.' If you don't, your reply goes only to the author of the original message, and no one else on the list sees it.)

RH