Roncal cheese is made from unpasteurized sheep’s milk, and nothing apart from milk, rennet and salt goes into it.
GEOGRAPHICAL AREA
Milk for Roncal Cheese can be from any part of Navarra but the cheeses are made and matured exclusively in the seven towns of the Roncal Valley: Uztarroz, Isaba, Urzainqui, Roncal, Garde, Vidángoz and Burgui.
BUYING GUIDE
Buyers can choose between a Roncal which has been matured for a short time (a minimum of four months) or a rather stronger cheese (matured for nine or ten months). The cheeses come in 1 kg or 3 kg weights. Whatever their format, they always display clearly a numbered back label and the Denomination logo.
The cheese crumbles when cut and is full of small evenly-sized holes. It is ivory to pale yellow in colour, and the taste is strong, intense and buttery. It has held the PDO since 1981, when it was the first cheese to receive Denomination status in Spain.
TIP: to keep Roncal cheese at its best and retain all its qualities, keep it in a plastic bag or an airtight container at a temperature of 6 to 10 °C.
