*Roccaverano* will be the official city of cheese for 2022!
Each year ONAF, the cheese tasting organization of Italy, names one Italian town to be the city of cheese. This year “Roccaverano” in the Piedmont won the race!
Usually the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of the Piedmont is big Italian wines.
Barolo, Barbaresco or Barbera d´Alba- just to name a few.
The second thing is most probably the truffle season and the famous white truffles of Alba.
But the Piedmont also offers a giant variety of different artisanal cheeses, from up the mountains, down to the lakes and valleys and over to the crescent hills of the Langhe.
On this “cheese map” one can taste all the different sensorial aspects of the animals inherent to the respective landscape – cows, sheep and goats.
Many of the cheeses are artisanal, often produced in their own peculiar niche and they all reflect the climate, territory and personality of their origin and makers.
One of these cheeses is DOP labeled *Robiola di Roccaverano* and it got its name from the town of *Roccaverano*, which was announced this year’s “città di formaggio” by the Onaf delegation.
*Robiola di Roccaverano* is a fresh, soft cheese that traditionally is made out of raw goat’s milk but can also be found in a mixed milk version of goat, sheep, and/or cow’s milk. Today, 15 makers produce this cheese in the designated area following the DOP standards such that it is a favorite of many cheese lovers near and afar. In fact the Robiola by azienda agricola Adriano Adorno di Ponti won first prize at last year’s Italian cheese awards in the category ‘fresh cheese’
[for a deeper dive into *Robiola di Roccaverano* click here for our blog post on this northern Italian cheese icon].
Being this year’s town of cheese, hill-top situated castle town *Roccaverano* in the Asti-Langhe region near Liguria will be the advocate of the namesake *Robiola*, and will hold many wonderful cheese events to make sure no one will leave the town without a *Robiola di Roccaverano* in their pockets.
The exact dates are still to be announced.
Just keep checking our event calendar and look out for our Instagram updates!
