It's Fontina if it takes you high up
Fontina PDO is unique, but it comes in threes
From today, the PDO comes in threes: in addition to Fontina PDO, the designations Fontina PDO Alpine Pasture and Fontina PDO Long Aging arrive.
Three products that are “sons of the Aosta Valley”, with their own individual identity of aroma, colour, consistency, and palatability, united by a production cycle entirely linked to the terroir.
Fontina PDO
The aromas and flavours of a unique terroir
Produced year-round, it encapsulates the aromas and flavours of a unique terroir, the mountain ecosystem of the Aosta Valley.
The wheels have a light brown rind, pale straw-yellow paste, soft and melting, and are sweet and aromatic on the palate with prevalent lactic hints (milk, butter, melted butter).
Fontina PDO Alpine Pasture
The fruit of fresh herbs and mountain flowers
From June to September, in the pastures of the Aosta Valley up to 2,700 meters above sea level, cows of the Aosta Valley breed graze freely, feeding on fresh grasses and mountain flowers. Freshly milked milk is processed directly on site, in the Alpine dairy huts, to maintain its unique organoleptic characteristics derived from the high mountain flora.
This is “Fontina PDO Alpine Pasture,” the result of the hard work, skill, and passion of those who carry on an ancient and still entirely artisanal cheese-making tradition. The wheels have a light brown rind, the paste has an intense straw yellow colour, due precisely to the cattle’s diet, and is soft and melting. It is particularly sweet and aromatic on the palate, thanks to the hints of fresh grass and mountain flowers that are added to the lactic hints typical of Fontina.
Fontina PDO Long Aging
Born on pastures, refined in caves.
It is aged in caves for a minimum of 180 days during which the flavours are enhanced giving Fontina a more intense and aromatic taste.
The wheels have a brownish to dark rind, a deep yellow paste, soft and melting, and more intense and persistent vegetal and lactic aromatic notes on the palate.
The Fontina
Fontina is the Aosta Valley
Fontina PDO, a Protected Designation of Origin cheese with a milky aroma, a sweet flavour and a soft, melt-in-the-mouth texture. A cheese to discover at every taste. In addition, to rediscover again, each time as if it were the first time.
Fontina is the Aosta Valley. In the region where it originates and becomes a gourmet excellence, it is strongly linked to the territory, to its pastures, to the cows that produce the milk which then becomes an exquisite cheese.
For these and many other reasons, the Consortium of Producers and Protection of Fontina PDO constantly works to defend an excellence, to improve and grow, to explain a tradition which has always been handed down from father to son. The Consortium has 169 members (as of 31st December 2020) and marks about 400,000 Fontina wheels per year.
Fontina PDO is produced with milk from 3 different breeds of Aosta Valley cows. The wheels weigh between 7.5 and 12 kilos.
Taste the Aosta Valley Fontina PDO protected by our Consortium: close your eyes and experience an unforgettable emotion!
The history
The first mention of Fontina dates back to 1270, while in literature a Vercelli physician, Pantaleone di Confienza, in his Summa Lacticinorum, mentioned it for the first time in 1477.
This is the starting point of a very long history, made up of tradition and awards, which continues to this day. In 1955, the Designation of Controlled Origin was granted and in 1996, the European Commission awarded Fontina the Protected Designation of Origin (PDO).
The cows
In the Aosta Valley, every cow has its own name. In addition, they are not just ordinary cow but a breed with a special characteristic: they are well adapted to the mountain climate and high-altitude meadows.
Aosta Valley cattle belong to three defined and selected breeds: the Valdostana Pezzata Rossa, the most prolific in milk production. Then there is the Valdostana Pezzata Nera and the Castana, two regional breeds that are also well suited to pastureland and altitude
The Consortium
The Consortium has brought together the Fontina producers since 1952 under the name of Consortium of Fontina Producers. Later it became the Consortium of Producers and Protection of Fontina PDO.
Today, the Consortium has a fundamental task: it is responsible for supervising the production and marketing of the cheese for which the designation of origin Fontina may be used. In order to carry out its supervisory activities, the Consortium is entrusted with the task of affixing markings or signs capable of identifying Fontina cheese.
In the kitchen
