Ol Sciür

Made in Brignano Gera d’Adda in Bergamo, Italy, by Caseificio Lavialattea, Ol Sciür is an unusual blue goat’s milk cheese, coated in berries and rose petals.

Starter cultures are added to pasteurised milk from local farms, before coagulation using animal rennet. The curd is cut into walnut size pieces and scalded at 32-34°C. It is then moulded and drained without pressing and the young cheeses are brined. They are pierced at two weeks and then matured for another three weeks when a mixture of Grappa and dried fruits (hibiscus, blackberry, blueberry, currants, strawberries and grapes) are pressed on to the rind. The cheeses are then wrapped in plastic and matured for at least two more weeks, before they are cut horizontally into two smaller wheels and the cut faces are covered with more berry mix. Rose petals are also pressed onto the exterior at this point.

Cheesemakers Valentina Canò and Roberto Facchetti set up Lavialattea (‘the milky way’) in 1997 and have studied cheesemaking in Italy and France. Ol Sciür, which means ‘the boss’ or ‘the lord’ in the dialect of Lombardy, was launched in 2004.

The dark red berry and petal rind is fragrant with fruity and floral aromas. The rind gives the paste just beneath a dark red colour, but most of the interior is pale with streaks and patches of bluey-green mould. The flavour combines sweet, creamy and peppery notes offset by a burst of fruity acidity and floral notes from the rind.

The cheesemakers recommend a glass of Moscato di Scanzo – a red dessert wine from the tiniest appellation in Lombardy, the smallest in Europe. Or try sour fruity beers, such as Framboise – a Belgian lambic fermented with raspberries.