Queso Manchego
Spain’s most famous sheep’s milk cheese was invented by the Romans and has a long historical and also literary tradition. It originates in La Mancha, the homeland of Don Quixote, and is mentioned in Cervantes' famous novel. Manchego is available as hand-made raw milk cheese and as pasteurized cheese from industrial production. It has the flavor of the pleasant-smelling brushwood and grass growing on the pastures of the robust sheep and is in demand in the whole world.

Production
The curd is cast in molds made of esparto grass, which produce the typical zigzag pattern of the rind on the side of the wheel. The cheese is pressed with small wooden boards for several hours, which leave the impressions of their ear pattern on its top and its bottom surface. The cheese is salted dry or bathed in saltwater and matures for 2-10 months.

The delight
The wax rind is yellow to brown and closed. The body is ivory to pale yellow in color, compact and slightly oily, with unevenly distributed small holes. Its unmistakable flavor is full and, depending on maturity, more or less pungent, buttery and mildly piquant, with a hint of nut and caramel finish. It goes best with young red Valdepenas or Rioja.

Milk:	Sheep
Fidm:	48 %
Family:	Sheep’s milk cheese
Origin:	Spain
Size:	approx. 2.6kg
Flavor:	slightly acidulous, strong bouquet