Identikit and main features
The Castelmagno Pdo is produced with cow’s milk and sometimes with sheep and/or goat’s milk with a minimum percentage of 5% to a maximum of 20%.
This cheese has a cylindrical form with a weight ranging from 2 to 7 kg.The fresh forms have a thin and reddish-yellow colour, while the matured ones are brownish-ochre. The texture is very soft and the inner colour varies from ivory white to ochre-yellow with green-blue veins in the most matured forms. The presence of the veins is due to special moulds, which characterise the so called blue-veined or ‘Erborinati’ cheeses. Castelmagno moulds grow spontaneously along with the seasoning, without adding any specific spores. The fine and delicate taste became more spicy as the seasoning goes on.
Area of production
Castelmagno can be produced, matured and packed exclusively in the municipalities of Castelmagno, Pradleves and Monterosso Grana in the Cuneo province, using only the milk produced here. The Castelmagno can boast the additional mention “Mountain product”, when the production, the processing and the seasoning take place in the mountain areas. Instead, if it is produced and seasoned in the recognised areas, but over 1000 mamsl is can be “Castelmagno d’Alpeggio” (mountain pasture).
History
The Castelmagno has always been appreciated and is it proven by a sentence of 1277 according to which, in order to stop the controversy about the use of some pastures between rhe municipalities of Castelmagno and Celle di Macra, it was established a yearly sum of Castelmagno cheeses. The 19th century has been the golden age of Castelmagno, which has become the king of italian cheeses, to the point that it has been introduced in the menu of the most prestigious restaurants of London and Paris. In the ‘60s it has seriously risked to disappear due to wars and the mountains abandoning. Its production has been recovered in the first ‘80s: in 1982 it obtained the AOC national recogniton and in 1996 the Europea Pdo certificate.
