Alpine fontal with buttery sweetness and a smooth, clean melt.
Fontal Stella Alpina from La Poiana in Piedmont, Italy. Mild, buttery cow's milk alpine cheese, a beautiful melter for panini, pizza, and fonduta.
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Fontal Stella Alpina is a pasteurized cow's milk cheese from La Poiana in Piedmont, an alpine-style wheel in the family of Italian melting cheeses grown up around Fontina. The paste is pale straw, semi-hard and pliable, with a thin natural rind and a supple, elastic give when you cut into it.
On the palate it leads with fresh buttery cream and a light milky sweetness, then pulls into a gentle hazelnut note on the finish. Nothing funky, nothing sharp, just a clean, easygoing alpine flavor that carries the milk. The real calling card is how it behaves under heat. It melts smooth and stretchy without breaking or going oily, which is why it lives on so many kitchen tables in northern Italy.
This is a workhorse cheese in the best sense. Slice it thin for a panino, grate it into a fonduta, layer it over a pizza, or just eat it off the board with a pear and a glass of Barbera. Mild does not mean boring here, it means versatile, and this one earns its keep in the fridge.
Semi-hard and pliable, slices cleanly without crumbling. The paste is smooth and elastic, with the springy give of a proper alpine-style wheel.
A mild, easygoing cheese. Gentle milky sweetness up front with a soft nutty finish, nothing pushy or funky about it.
Short and clean. The buttery sweetness fades quickly, which is exactly what you want from a melting cheese.
Buttery and milky through the middle, with a fresh-cream note that carries the whole cheese.
A light hazelnut sweetness on the finish, the kind of gentle alpine nuttiness you get from a young mountain-style wheel.
Very little earthiness. The rind is quiet and the paste stays clean and dairy-forward.
No heat, no bite. This is a mellow melter, not a sharp cheese.
Natural rind
Thin natural rind, pale and unassuming. It contributes very little flavor and is typically trimmed before serving.
Fontal stands on its own, but the right partners turn a wedge into a moment. Regional pairings first — they were built for each other.
The mild, buttery paste sits happily under a rounded white like Chardonnay or an off-dry Riesling, and its melting sweetness stands up to a bright Italian red like Chianti or a local Barbera from Piedmont.
Its mild sweetness plays off fresh pears and grapes on a board, and a spoonful of fig jam or acacia honey lifts the buttery paste without overpowering it.
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