Fontina PDO

Fontina PDO is Valle d'Aosta: an indissoluble binomial

Fontina PDO is a cheese with Denomination of Origin’Protected Origin with a milky scent, a sweet taste and a soft, elastic and melt-in-the-mouth texture. This is the “textbook” definition, but Fontina PDO is much more: let's discover it together.

Fontina PDO is only produced in Aosta Valley, from ua combination of factors that make it truly unique among cheeses, starting with: whole, raw milk, processed as soon as possible after milking and produced from selected cattle breeds, namely Valdostana Pezzata Rossa, Valdostana Pezzata Nera and Castana, fed with alpine grass in summer and hay in winter.

Its secret? In Fontina PDO, its producers know how to bring out all the qualities and aromas of Aosta Valley milk.

The name Fontina is definitely ancient

Its origin is lost in time: some trace it back to its alpine pasture of origin, Fontin, others to the village of Fontinaz. Still others trace its etymology back to the property of the cheese paste to melt easily with heat.

It is certainly mentioned, in the first texts in which it is found, as early as in the 15th century, although its first classification would come much later, in the late 1800s. The designation of origin, on the other hand, is more contemporary and arrived in 1955.

To the palate and to the eye has a rather soft paste, ivory or straw yellow in colour, more or less intense depending on maturity. Its characteristic holes are scattered and sparse. Fontina PDO is melting in the mouth, its flavour is pleasant, the aroma is delicate and buttery when the cheeses are young, while in more mature cheeses it acquires fruity tones and delicate nuances of nuts.

In the 1960s, in Italian agriculture and the livestock and dairy sector is experiencing a revolution; dairy industry adopts new techniques in both processing and marketing, not to the detriment of traditional production, which develop aiming at maintaining typicality and protecting them with quality labels.

The production and marketing of Fontina PDO is supervised by the Consortium of Producers for the Protection of Fontina DOP.