Formatges Muntanyola’s Vell Reserva goat cheese, which we make on the Urpina estate in Sant Salvador de Guardiola, has won third prize in the category of cured goat cheese at one of Spain’s leading cheese competitions, Gourmet Quesos, which was held this April in Madrid.
The jury considered Formatges Muntanyola’s Vell Reserva to be among the best in its category in the thirteenth edition of this competition, in which more than eight hundred cheeses were presented. With this new award, Formatges Muntanyola already has an important track record, with prizes in the main international and national competitions, and has been awarded on more than one occasion in the Gourmet Cheeses.
For the production of Vell Reserva goat’s cheese, the Muntanyola cheese factory follows a traditional artisan method, using pasteurised milk from the farm’s own goats. It is matured for a long time, with a rustic, flowery rind that gives it a subtle aroma. This natural rind is fine and smooth, giving it a personality and rusticity that can be recognised in every mouthful. At the end of the process, a brittle cheese is obtained which, on the palate, offers notes of dried fruits, dry and wet leaves, with a slight touch of sweetness, as a final result of its slow curing.
Formatges Muntanyola makes artisan cheeses with 4 varieties of milk: goat (own herd), buffalo, cow and sheep, from the Urpina farm in Sant Salvador de Guardiola, where the AMPANS foundation runs a social and employment project that provides work and support for people with intellectual disabilities. Twelve people currently work at the cheese factory that AMPANS started up in 2015 on the Urpina estate, where it also cultivates the vineyards used to make the wines that bear the same name as the estate.
