About the Aosta Valley cheese
The Aosta Valley cheese are Fontina PDO and Valle d’Aosta Fromadzo PDO, these two important cheeses are labeled as Protected Designation of Origin (PDO).
The Aosta Valley has also other kind of cheeses as salignön, is a ricotta cheese with a creamy fat texture and a spicy hot flavour; as well as reblec, seras and brossa, a ‘cream’ made from heated whey, to which is added vinegar.
Fontina PDO
The Fontina cheese has a compact crust, inside of which is a semi-cooked, elastic and soft paste with a few small holes. The cheese is a pale-yellow color if produced in winter and becomes a deeper yellow if produced during the summer. In 1996, Fontina cheese gained the Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) stamp from the European Union, which unequivocally decrees that it must be produced exclusively in the Aosta Valley following a serious production specification.
Fontina seasoning rooms
The greatest seasoning room for the Fontina is places in Valpelline and is located in the ancient copper mine exploited until the 40s. The seasoning room has a considerable size, with a storage capacity of 60.000 cheeses. Next to the entrance of the warehouse is located the Visitor Center where you can get an overview of the entire production of fontina PDO. The visitors center is a museum dedicated to Fontina, illustrating its history and production and the particular aspects of this unique DPO cheese.
Fromadzo PDO
The Vallée d’Aoste Fromadzo is a PDO cheese prepared with cow’s milk taken from two milking sessions, to which small quantities of goat’s milk may be added. Regulations allow its production in several types: half-fat, half-fat with added herbs, low-fat, mixed cow’s-goat’s milk.
Gressoney Toma cheese
The Gressoney toma cheese is a highly regarded table cheese, which is produced in the Gressoney valley using traditional methods.
The Gressoney Toma is a semi-fat cheese, has rounded form and the pasta is slightly pale yellow in colour. To produce this cheese the evening milk is left to rest for 24 hours and then skimmed. The morning milk undergoes a slight skimming after 12 hours of rest and is then mixed with the previous batch. The calf rennet is added when the temperature of the mixture reaches 35° C.
Bleu d’Aoste
The Bleu d’Aoste is the only blue cheese of the Aosta Valley, it has a soft paste, the taste is strong ang the cheese aging takes 90-120 days.
This particular cheese is produced using only local milk and was produced for the first time in 2005 by the Centrale Latière de la Vallée d’Aoste.
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