Caseificio Gennari

 The long history of Caseificio Gennari was started by Maria and Sergio in 1953 at the Villa Paveri dairy, making three cheese wheels a day. Then their children – Tino, Pietro, Rosangela and Paolo – joined the company and took over its numerous commitments: from the fields to animal husbandry, from production to ageing, up to running the shops. The grandchildren are now also involved in running an increasingly active company with an ever growing international reach.

They own 500 hectares of tilled land, in keeping with the best peasant tradition to produce the best fodder to feed their animals. 

Their herd is compose of three different breeds – Friesian, Alpine Brown, Red Reggiana – fed with fodder harvested directly from their fields..

More than 53% of the milk they are using to make  Parmigiano Reggiano comes directly from their herd. The rest are from local farmer who have been working with them  over 50 years. They are more than just business partners, they are friends. 

Their  process can be describe as ‘extreme’: the rennet they are using comes from a 1953 recipe of father Sergio. The milk is skim intentionally as little as possible, which makes production more difficult due to the higher fat content.

A processing technique where the expertise and skills of the cheese maker still make a big difference compared to the support of modern technology.  Then cheese to rest in poplar cheese moulds, which guarantee slower heat transmission and gentler fermentation

More than 50,000 wheels are resting on fir wood shelves in their maturation rooms. Each room stores cheese at different stages of ageing to ensure that the aromas released by ageing are absorbed by the other wheels, to create that truly unique flavour of Gennari Parmigiano Reggiano. What is more, the high amount of moisture released by the more cheese wheels will help the aged wheels to retain a soft texture, which is an essential feature for a maturer. Lastly, the moderate temperature control in the ageing rooms will allow the cheese wheels to be more exposed to the changing seasons, resulting in a more natural grain.

Twelve months into ageing, an expert appointed by the Parmigiano Reggiano Consortium will come to ‘tap’ each wheel and mark the best ones with the unmistakable brand. Then the cheese become at this moment Parmigiano Reggiano. What’s more, from now on the wheels will be regularly ‘tapped’ by their staff to understand, based on the sound, which ones are best suited to continue ageing.