Cabrales

This is Spain´s most famous blue cheese, produced only in the village of Cabrales and three villages of the Penamellera Alta township, located in eastern Austurias. This is certainly the most well-known Spanish blue cheese due to the manner in which goat farmers jealously guard its origin and authenticity.

The cheese paste is a creamy greyish white with blue veins. It has a peculiar taste and smell due to the feeding of cattle, cattle race, elaboration techniques, and the maduration in natural caves. It is also characterized by a particularly pungent smell.

Cabrales is produced in limited quantities, using traditional farmhouse methods, in small family-run dairies of the township. Raw milk, mainly cow's milk, is used to produce this fine cheese. However, as most farmers will tend to have mixed herds, they blend cow's milk with goat's and ewe's milks particularly in spring and summer.

Recommendations:

Cabrales is one of the greatest blue cheeses in the world, it is especially pleasing to the palate to eat with salami and drink a full bodied red wine. For a divine treat, drink with a sweet sherry so that you may achieve a perfect sweet-sour-salty taste combination.