Discover all the richness and explore the cheese variants in the 19th ‘Villa de Bilbao’ Idiazabal Shepherd's Cheese Championship.
If you are planning to travel to Bilbao on the weekend of the 16th of June, you cannot miss the 19th ‘Villa de Bilbao’ Idiazabal Shepherd's Cheese Championship.
An agricultural fair with exhibition and sale of agri-food products to get you into the gastronomic culture of the Basque Idiazabal cheese.
Every year, hundreds of onlookers travel to the Biscayan capital to watch the Idiazabal Shepherd's Cheese Championship. The event hosts cheese producers from the territory who compete to win the txapela, the highest award of the competition.
IDIAZABAL Certificate of Origin
The Certificate of Origin was created in 1987 to defend the market, reserved for the group of authentic Idiazabal cheese producers, and to guarantee its origin and quality to the consumers.
It is used to control the origin of the milk and the quality of the cheese, both from the physical-chemical and sanitary point of view, as well as the taste, for which there is a Tasting Committee that gathers a group of tasters whose experience allows controlling the typical characteristics of this highly valued cheese.
Although it does not have a Certificate of Origin, at Sagardi we have a very special shepherd's cheese that comes from the shepherds Jon and Martina. Raw milk from free-grazing Latxa sheep and a year's ripening, produced at an altitude of 1,000m.
What makes it so special?
Traditional Idiazabal cheese is a cured cheese, made exclusively with unpasteurised whole milk from Latxa or Carranza sheep. In summer, when the sheep migrate to graze on the new and flourishing grass, the manufacturers take the opportunity to milk them to make the cheese and leave it to mature for two months. And it is at the end of the summer that the cheese matures and is ready for sale.
Declared a European Gastronomic Heritage, this type of cheese is characterised by its intense flavour that ‘fills your mouth’, while at the same time is balanced. Within its variants, depending on the maturity, you can detect different intensities of spicy, sour and sweet aromas.
A real treat for your senses!
