Cheese tour
The Sierra of Grazalema, as well as being a Natural Park of outstanding beauty, has become the most famous area in the south of Spain for cheese, made from both sheep’s and goats’ milk. The sheep are Merino de Grazalema, a breed in its own right, whilst the goats are Payoyo, also a local breed. As well as cheese’s made from goats’ and sheep’s milk cheese, it is common to see cheeses made from a mixture of both; all of them are excellent.
On arriving in the Sierra of Grazalema, we will be taking a 35-40 minute walk in beautiful coutryside to one of the farms that supplies milk to the cheesemaker we will be seeing later on. This farmer owns both sheep and goats and we should be able to see some of his animals being milked. After walking back from the farm, we will be driving through beautiful landscape to the very attractive white town of Grazalema where Rosana the cheesemaker will waiting for us. You are going to learn about everything that goes into making great cheese from unpasteurised milk, from curdling the milk to putting the curds in the molds and pressing out the whey and then to the salting and curing of the cheese. Unfortunately, you will not be able to take home the actual cheese you see being made from the day’s milk, as is it needs more or less 2 months of curing. There will be time to spare whilst the cheese curdles so that is when we will have a tasting of some the fine cheeses that are made by Rosana. After our cheesemaking experience we will be having lunch at an excellent local place which specialises in lamb and game meats such as partridge, rabbit and venison. The food will be accompanied by some great local wine. After our meal there will be time for a stroll around Grazalema before heading back to Seville after a very full and satisfying day.