This week’s cheese selection is produced at a small dairy in the village of Benedello di Pavullo, high in the Apennine mountains, just southwest of Modena, Italy. There, at Caseificio Sociale San Pietro, some 2,500 ft above sea level, head cheesemaker, Massimo Libra, produces 8 wheels of raw cow’s milk cheese a day, 365 days a year. The cheese is Parmigiano Reggiano. Producing this cheese at such high elevation has earned Mossimo’s wheels the designation of, Produtto di Montagna, a distinction awarded by the Parmigiano Reggiano Consortium to promote exceptional cheeses with unique qualities. Mountain pastures provide diverse ground cover and forage, which lend their qualities to the milk. Of over 350 producers of Parmigiano Reggiano throughout Italy, only 30 have received this mountain designation. Once produced, according to established rules of the Consortium, Mossimo’s cheeses must age at the dairy for no less than 12 months before they can travel to market. The wheels of Parmigiano Reggiano we sell in our shops have been aged for much longer, at the hands of Giorgio Cravero, a 6th generation affineur from the town of Bra, in Piedmont, about 200 miles west of the dairy. Giorgio maintains roughly 5,000 wheels of carefully selected Parmigiano Reggiano in his caves at any one time, paying close attention to temperature and humidity as he seeks his proprietary standards of taste and texture. His cave maintains his desired conditions throughout most of the year, naturally, with windows open, and air conditioning only needed during the hottest summer months of June, July and August. Giorgio believes in a process of slow maturation, with minimal handling. Wheels are not washed, and are only turned every other week as they age on decades old pine boards. The result of this approach is a cheese with a more tender, sweet and fruity paste from rind to rind. After an additional 12 months of aging in Bra, Giorgio’s cheeses are graded by delegates of the Consortium, and shipped out to the U.S., and to our shops. Crumbly, yet buttery, with notes of pineapple and toasted pecans, Cravero recommends drinking Prosecco with his cheese. We found a match in the Flora Prosecco from Col di Luna Winery, located in the Treviso region of Italy, a little north of Venice. This crisp, bubbly white wine, with notes of alpine flowers and apples, mellows the cheese’s bite, bringing sweetness top of mind. Mouthfeel is rich and balanced in flavor and texture, and bubbles top things off. Cin! Cin!