Featured Cheese - July 2020

Swiss cheesemaker, Reto Güntensperger, is a third-generation cheesemaker from the Saint Gallen Canton in Switzerland. The home in which he grew up was adjacent to the family’s historic Bodmen Dairy. In fact, his bedroom was only a few steps away from the cheesemaking room where the first two generations of cheesemakers, his grandfather and father, handcrafted Appenzeller cheese in a 1,500-liter vat. In 1999, Güntensperger’s father and two brothers purchased and rebuilt an empty, unused dairy in the village of Bütschwil, to expand and modernize their cheese production and ready the company for future family generations. Twenty years later, Kaserei Bütschwil maintains a balance of cheesemaking tradition and efficacy.

Ubriaco del Piave is a semi-firm, Italian-style, latteria cheese from farmers in the Piave region of Veneto, Italy. It is made from pasteurized cow’s milk – from two milkings. The most striking initial aspect of this cheese is, of course, the deep and vibrant violet color of the rind and its remnants of grape leaves and seeds. Cheesemaker Sergio Moro bathes the Ubriaco del Piave for 40 hours in a proprietary mix of red wines and grape must, including the Veneto’s traditional Refosco wine, as well as other seasonal varieties like Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Clinton, then ages the cheese for four to six months.

Sapore Mitica® is another Italian cheese from the same area as Ubriaco del Piave – the Piave River in Treviso, Veneto – and by the same cheesemaker, Sergio Moro, one of the finest makers of Sottocenere. Sapore del Piave as it is sometimes called – which means Flavor of Piave in Italian – originated in the 1960s, produced by a partnership of third-generation cheesemakers and a cooperative of dairy farms in the area of Oderzo, Italy. Made from pasteurized cow’s milk and aged for 16 months, Sapore Mitica is similar to a young Parmigiano Reggiano: buttery, with loads of fruitiness, nuttiness, and a delicious crunchiness from tyrosine crystallization.