Taleggio DOP
I
Origin
Val Taleggio, Bergamo, Lombardia
II
Description
Lombardia's paradigm washed-rind cheese from Val Taleggio in the Bergamo pre-Alps — a square-format soft cheese of 2kg with an orange-pink brined rind and a cream-coloured paste that ranges from firm-young to fully runny-ripe. The rind is washed weekly with brine during the 40-day minimum maturation in mountain caves or dedicated cantine. The flavour is fruity, tangy, and mushroomy with a characteristic ammonia edge in the fully-ripe cheese.
III
The Thread
—Both are washed-rind cheeses where Brevibacterium linens creates pungent orange-pink rinds — Époisses washed in marc de Bourgogne, Taleggio in simple brine, both fully edible rinds French
—Both are washed-rind soft cheeses from continental northern Europe with the same characteristic 'foot-cheese' aroma from B. linens, representing the strongest-smelling/tasting category of European cheese Belgian
IV
Flavour Context
Fruity, tangy, mushroomy, with ammonia and barnyard notes at full ripeness — the defining washed-rind cheese of northern Italy
Pillars V — VII
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