GIOVALE CHEESE - Food Reportage

"We are descended from a family of cheesemakers. The Giovale produce, mature and refine raw milk cheeses from goat, cow and sheep. We have always been shepherds, with animals grazing in the Susa Valley"

Cheese Documentary farmers Food france Italy Photography reportage Travel

A farmer ready to milk Giovale's cows

The Giovale's adventure in the world of cheese can be traced back to 1621, although it was in 1891 with Eligio Giovale that a production that went beyond personal supply began to develop.

In the ancient region of Delfinato, today rooted in the Susa Valley, the Giovale family continues to produce cheeses starting from the milk of their animals that graze freely in the open field. Nella with her sons Dario, Maria Teresa, Giuseppe and Alessandro, together with their grandchildren Alain and Chantal, they are the progenie that scrupulously preserves Eligio's secrets and that manges to create the fragrances that have remained unchanged over time.

The Lac du Mont-Cenis, a few kilometers from the Moncenisio pasture

Giuseppe AKA Beppe Giovale

The cows roaming in the Moncenisio pasture in the morning

Two Barà Pustertaler cows looking outside on of the windows of the stable

Alain is the youngest of the house, Maria Theresa's other son and Chantal's brother, the latest arrival but also the one in charge of milk processing. A 30-year-old cheesemaker who gives life to 40 varieties of cheeses, produced by hand, following the ancient processing recipes and using only raw milk from his own goats, sheep and cows that graze in the open field respecting the principles of biodiversity, on the border between Italy and France, during the year in Giaveno and in summer on the Little Moncenisio - in France - where the presence of the Moncenisio Lake offers a vast biodiversity, with herbs and flowers that change from meadow to meadow, ensuring unique aromas and scents to the milk of grazing animals.

Alain

Alain measuring the milk temperature while boiling it

Fresh cheese differently shaped ready to be stored

Barà Cheese, the name comes from the bread of cows the Giovale owns

The ancestors of the Giovale family come from the Valle de la Maurienne and their path towards the Val Sangone and Val di Susa in Giaveno - where they are now permanently implanted - is marked by the transhumance on the many mountain pastures (alpeggio) around Moncenisio. For many decades the Giovale have been the margarians with more alpine pastures and more animals in Val di Susa. At the end of 1800, at the time of Eligio Giovale, there were more than 1,000 cows, goats and sheep. Since then, thanks to the urbanization of the valleys, the numbers of the animals have been reduced, also to maintain the agro-pastoral correctness, the welfare of the animals and the quality of the production. In every hectare of winter pasture, today the Giovale manage no more than 3 or 5 animals, depending on the conditions of the land.

Beppe Giovale checking his cheeses

The alpine pasture of the Colle del Piccolo Moncenisio today has an extension of about 350 hectares and in the summer holidays there are about 250 cows and heifers - mostly Barà Pustertaler breed - and a nice flock of goats and sheep. The mountain pasture is used for 3 or 4 months, depending on the severity of the year. The transhumance happens when the snow allows the transit of the animals.

The Piccolo Moncenisio pasture, in the middle, a solitary cow eating some grass

Beppe Giovale, in the background, and one of his cows resting right under the Moncenisio Mountain

With the milk of alpine pasture the Giovale produce the alpine butter, the Primosale, the Ricotta, the Mansueta, the Barà, the Sangonetto, the Tome Rigate and those with acid milk (Murianengo). The cheeses - all with raw milk - are produced with different milk (cow and goat) and in some cases mixed. Many people say that Giovale cheeses have a French aspect, more properly they belong to a precise family tradition and to a territory with changing borders. Giovale cheeses are alive, they are not all the same but a unique product of excellence. Raw, hard and semi-hard, creamy, soft, blue, matured in the mountain pastures and in the cellar, with different varieties of aging. The Giallina, a cow's milk cheese with hard, cooked raw milk, the Alpine pasture butter of pure centrifugal cream, the Barà that takes its name from the Barà Pustertaler breed, the Sangonetto of sheep with washed rind and the Caprini with flowered rind. These are just a few of the Giovale brand creations.

Fresh butter

Fresh molded butter: it's soaked in cold water to preserve his shape

"We only breed animals with horns," says Alessandro, Nella's youngest son, who is in charge of breeding. "As far as the cows are concerned, the breed we prefer is the Barà Pustertaler, long-lived animals that joyfully move in summer to the mountain pastures on the French side of Moncenisio at 2200 meters".

A farmer feeding the cows

The cows coming back to the stable in the afternoon

It's normal for the cows to lose some milk from their udders

The products of the Giovale family arrive in various Italian and French restaurants, careful to the proposal and the origin of the products, but you can also buy them in different signs and markets of the family.

In Rome at “Beppe e i suoi formaggi“, the store opened in the Roman Jewish Ghetto 12 years ago by Giuseppe - one of Nella's sons - and his wife Juliette, which has become a must for lovers of authentic flavors. Beppe, with the Capitolino store, has taken artisan production out of the Susa Valley, educating customers to a conscious and quality consumption. "It is only with good milk that we can make good cheeses," Beppe always says. "And our animals are happy animals that graze and live free among the mountain flowers".

In addition to the Ghetto of Rome the Giovale raw milk cheeses are also at the Campo de' Fiori Market and at the Banco "I formaggi di Beppe Giovale" of the Central Market in Termini Station. In Turin at the Don Grioli, Madama Cristina and Reano markets.

And in France in Forcalquier, Uzès and soon in Nice at the Merche aux Fleurs.