Fontina DOP cheese

  • Fontina cheese is Valle d’Aosta. It is the essence of the mountains, the alpine pastures and the people that live there.

    This is a full fat, semi-hard cow’s milk cheese which has been produced since medieval times. It is made with raw milk from three local breeds: “pezzata rossa”, “pezzata nera” (the red and the black pied cows) and “castana”. This breed is much smaller in size – similar to its Holstein-Friesian sister – and more suited to climbing steep mountain pastures. The castana produces much less milk per day.
     
    Fontina is still prepared twice a day, after the morning and the evening milkings.  It is made either at the local consortium dairies, to where the milk is delivered, or, in the summer season, directly in the single Alpeggi in the mountains.
     
    📸 Luigi Chiesa
  • In summer the cows are taken to the higher pastures, up to 2700 metres above sea level. Here they graze freely of the fragrant grass rich in herbs and mountain flowers which gives a unique and intense flavour to the Alpeggio Fontina. You can identify Alpeggio Fontina by its green label.
     
    Minimum ageing is three months for the youngest cheese (white label) and 180 days for the longest maturation (black label). Enjoy it as it is, or in many delicious recipes like fondue or raclette.
     
    Cheese-loving MTW customers indulge themselves on our Valle d’Aosta self-guided walks, including The Five Days of the Matterhorn and Heart of the Italian Alps. Enquire with us for a bespoke Valle d’Aosta small group trip.
     
    UK customers can order Fontina via our sister company, Cuculo Cheese & Wine.
     
    📸 James MacNay

Follow Us

youtube-play