Stelvio

Appearance & taste

Stelvio is a cylinder with a flat top and bottom and a straight or slightly concave side; the wheel measures 34 to 38 cm in diameter, is 8 to 11 cm high and weighs 8 to 10 kg. The rind has a typical yellow to orange-brown colour. The paste is compact, supple and elastic, light yellow to straw-yellow and irregularly scattered with small and medium-sized holes.

The specification describes the flavour as aromatic and pronounced, sometimes sharp. The cheese contains at least 50 % fat in dry matter and at most 44 % moisture.

It is sold as a whole wheel or in portions, including sliced, diced or grated; for such portions it may be made in a shape other than cylindrical. The mark of the designation of origin, red lettering reading “Stilfser-Stelvio”, is only applied after 60 days of ripening, together with the lot, production date and producer code. Portioning only takes place after that, also outside the area.

Production

On the mountain pasture the cows eat mainly fresh grass, and in the barn hay and grass silage from the area, up to a maximum of 15 kg per animal. Fresh grass and roughage from the area make up at least 50 % of the feed ration (as dry matter). Since the mountain area is hardly suitable for cereals or oil crops, the feed is supplemented with concentrates and additional feed from outside; permitted are, among others, maize silage, cereals, non-genetically modified soya, rapeseed, linseed, sunflower seeds, sugar beet pulp and brewers’ grains. Feed from outside may not exceed 50 % of the dry matter over the year.

The milk has over 3.10 % protein and may be partially skimmed to adjust the fat content to 3.45 to 3.80 %. Ripening is natural; a native microflora of various aerobic bacterial strains plays a part in it. Raising the cows, milking, collecting and processing the milk, cheesemaking and ripening take place in the area.

Origin & history

The area covers 84 municipalities of the Autonomous Province of Bolzano. The cheese is named after the mountain area of the Stelvio Pass, according to the specification the most important production area. The mountain farms lie at 500 to 2,000 m and have always raised livestock. Historical records name the alpine herbs Marbl and Madaun as particularly suited to good milk.

According to the specification, alpine herbs, grass and feed from the area and the native microflora shape the colour of the rind, the flavour and the aroma; the feeding contributes to the relatively high fat content. The history of the cheese can be traced back to the late Middle Ages; in 1914 the product and how it is made were described at the dairy of Stilfs (Stelvio).