Please feel free to come up to the windows in front of you. As soon as you approach the glass, the lights come on inside our maturing cellar: the very heart of Trentingrana.

What you see before you is a testament to patience and precision. Inside here, the cheese wheels rest for a long period – up to twenty-four months or more – kept at a constant temperature of between 15 and 22 degrees. In this silence, the cheese breathes, matures and develops its characteristic grainy texture and unmistakable aromas.

But aging is not just a matter of waiting; it is also a continuous process of inspection. Before it can be put on the market, every single wheel must receive final approval. Technicians from the Protection Consortium come here and carry out the ‘tapping’ test: using a special steel hammer, they tap the wheel at various points and listen to the sound. An expert ear can immediately tell if there are any defects inside.

Thanks to the extraordinary care taken by our members and the cheesemaker’s skill, very few wheels are rejected. Only the perfect ones, which pass this extremely rigorous test, are branded. That mark on the rind is the seal of guarantee that officially designates the cheese as PDO.

The other cheeses I mentioned earlier aren’t here: they’re being stored in separate, dedicated cellars, with completely different temperature and humidity conditions, tailored specifically to their types.

Our behind-the-scenes tour of the dairy comes to an end here. We would like to thank you warmly for joining us on this journey, for discovering the hard work of our seventy farmers and the artistry of our cheesemakers. Now all that remains is for you to take one final step: pop down to our shop, where our staff are ready to welcome you and let you sample the produce of our mountains.

Thanks again, and all the best!