The Basque mountain dweller has always been a shepherd. With his sheep, he travels to every corner of his country. The Ossau-Iraty label cheese is the direct result of this ancestral tradition. The Ossau-Iraty label specifications deploy everything possible to preserve this expertise. Produced using milk from local breeds in a limited area (the Basque and Bearn mountains), Ossau-Iraty is the traditional cheese of the Basque Country and of Bearn. It was granted the AOC appellation in 1980 and the AOP (Protected Origin Appellation – Europe) in 1996.
This is a cheese made from full cream ewe’s milk. Ossau-Iraty is a dairy or farm product. Cylindrical in shape, the colour of its crust varies from yellowish orange to grey. Ossau-Iraty comes in 2 versions: the smaller weighs between 2 and 3 kg and the larger between 4 and 5 kg. It is matured for a minimum of 80 to 120 days. Ossau-Iraty has a characteristic delicate flavour with slight overtones of hazelnut.
Depending on its consistency, the Ossau-Iraty cheese can be enjoyed (at any time of the year) as a dessert with cherry or red fruit jam, as a nibble with an aperitif, an invigorating snack or as a garnish.
The cheese route criss-crosses the areas where the Ossau-Iraty cheese is produced, from the farms nestling in the valleys to the slopes of hills to the mountain summer pastures. Following this road is still the best way of discovering a country where men and animals co-exist in harmony with a nature that is clearly bountiful.