Invierno Winter 2018 |
THE GOOD LIFE
59
Tour Magazine invited to join the sheep milk cheese jury
HOW THE BEST CHEESE IS SELECTED
A
lthough, undoubtedly, no two palates are alike, variety is the spice of life, and to each his own, we wanted to discover the criteria used by the jury when judging one of the most important events in the cheese world. So we were delighted to be invited to join in as judges of the final of the Basque Country Sheep Milk Cheese Championship which was held in Idiazabal on November 28 and witness first-hand the challenging complexity of reaching such an important decision. The official tasting started mid-morning with a jury consisting of five groups of approximately six participants, including one leader-cum-moderator per group. They judged the shape, rind, colour of the paste, eyes, aroma, texture, taste, and finish of each cheese and scored them from one to ten. To fully appreciate the quality of each cheese, the judges sip water and eat small pieces of apple after every three or four tastings. The balance and intensity of flavour of each cheese is also evaluated, together with its sharpness and acidity, and the elasticity, graininess, and firmness of the texture. The colour, edges, and marks left by the cheesecloth used during its elaboration were also marked.
The jury judged the shape, rind, colour of the paste, eyes, aroma, texture, taste, and finish of each cheese
The 40 shepherds in the final qualified by making it through the classificatory rounds which were held all over the Basque Country. The winner was the Gipuzkoabased cheese producer Mausitxa, followed by runners-up Kortaria and Alava-based cheesemaker Patxi López de Uralde.
ARTZAI GAZTA Artzai Gazta Elkartea is an association of 107 shepherds from the provinces of Alava, Bizkaia, Gipuzkoa and Navarra who
Terraza frente a los acantilados Espectacular barra de pintxos Tres espacios diferenciados con distintas músicas y ambientes.
Playa de Arriatera, 64 - Sopelana www.indiansopelana.com
raise the native Latxa breed of sheep on their own land and use their milk to make cheese. Most of them run small to medium-size family-run farms and share in the Artzai Gazta ethos of working the land in an environmentally-sustainable way. The cheesemakers’ association works to promote the unique identity of their produce. Staunch defenders of a philosophy of tradition, land, and culture, their cheese has travelled far and beyond the Basque Country.