Sbrinz AOP 'ALP Chuenren'

Sbrinz AOP from Alp Chüenren, made in the central Swiss Alps from raw cow's milk taken during the summer alpage. One of the oldest cheeses in Switzerland, made the same cooked, pressed, hard-paste way since well before parmesan existed.

This is a properly aged wheel, past 24 months, and you can see it in the paste. It's hard, dry, golden, and packed with tyrosine crystals that crunch when you bite into it. Don't try to slice it in neat rectangles, you want to shard it off with a hard knife the same way you would a parmesan. The flavor leans deep nutty and savory, toasted hazelnut and brown butter through the middle, with a real caramel sweetness that comes up on the finish and lingers a long time.

The 'Alp Chüenren' bottling is the alpage version, so you're getting milk from cows that were on mountain pasture all summer, which gives the cheese a little more grass and hay character than the valley-aged stuff. Aged Alpines this serious don't come through often, and Sbrinz is the original recipe that a lot of the more famous Swiss wheels eventually grew out of.