Staff Reporter
A SPANISH cheese once again holds the crown as the world’s most expensive after winning the Cabrales Cheese Content – 2.2 kilos of it sold at auction for a jaw-dropping €30,000.
The hefty sum for Asturias’ most coveted Cabrales cheese, an artisanal blue cheese made from cow, goat, and sheep milk, smashed the Guinness World Record of €20,500 paid in 2019 – a record it set itself.
The creation of the world champion cheese involves a ten-month maturation in a quasi-mystical cave nestled 1,400 metres above sea level in the peaks of the Picos de Europa.
Crafted by the artisans at Los Puertos dairy, with victorious chief Ivan Suarez – also the man behind Oviedo’s acclaimed El Llagar de Colloto restaurant – admitting that ‘winning is always a challenge.’
But such magnanimous words might come easy for a cheese-maker who has won the crown four years in a row.
The prize piece was handpicked as the crème de la crème among the fifteen contenders at the Cabrales Cheese Contest in Arenas de Cabrales.
The challenge drew gastronomic establishments from across Spain, including La Cabana (Oviedo), La Paloma (Oviedo), Casa Román (Gijón), and many more.
It was El Llagar de Colloto that kicked off the bidding at a modest €3,000 before ultimately securing the coveted cheese, forking out ten times that.
Suarez previously secured the crown last year for €17,000, a cool €13,000 less than this year’s victorious bid.
“It’s my passion for the land and my appreciation for the hard work of these cheesemakers that fuels my bids,” he confessed to EFE after the auction’s exhilarating finale.
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