This is a story about love – the love of cheese, the perfect marriage of cheese and wine, and a special cheese created as a love letter for a wedding anniversary.
Caseificio Carpendeo is a small family of affineurs based in Treviso in northeastern Italy. They specialise in the art of barrel maturation, carefully combining cheese and wine to create the famous ‘formaggi ubriaco’ – ‘drunken cheeses’, that the region is famous for as well as patiently tending to other wheels tightly packed into barrels with aromatic mountain hay. The sensory transformation during the barrel maturation is amazing, the flavours in the cheese are elevated to a whole new level. As Alessandro Carpendo explained on our tour – it’s crucial to match the right cheese with the right wine to achieve the perfect partnership of flavours.
His father, Antonio Carpendeo (70 years old, and still working), is the inspiration behind the business, and was the first to bring the drunken cheeses to market. In one of the most romantic cheese stories ever, Antonio also created a very special cheese for his wife to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary – a blue vein cheese, soaked in red dessert wine and adorned with dried cranberries.
It was delightful to spend the day with the family, hearing their history and the connection they feel to the traditions of the area and the passion they have for working with cheese.