Nerina
Italy
Nerina - "the little black one" is an ash-ripened goat cheese.
This dramatic black and white cheese is the Nerina, a pasteurized goat's milk cheese is aged for approximately 3 weeks dusted with vegetable ash - giving it its dramatic appearance and a thin, soft rind.
Texture & Flavor
This cheese is notably moist. The outer rind has the trademark wrinkles, coated in vegetable ash and an aroma of mushrooms and cooked celery.
The chalk-white interior unmistakably from goat's milk, yet soft and almost fluffy, with none of the chalkiness that similar goat cheeses can have. A unique interior for a goat cheese.
The aroma is robust with full-on mushroom scent, light texture and perfect measure of salt.
Aromas will vary based on age of the cheese. Young, the flavors are bright and tangy with hints of citrus changing to mildly pungent and musty then mineral, mushroomy, and bright, with vegetal and earthy notes.
Regardless of its age/flavor progress Nerina is a perfectly edible cheese.
Wine Pairings
An eye-catching addition to a cheese board, Nerina is compatible with powerful red wines like Entice and Tango.
Background
Baptized Nerina - "the little black one" - is the newest arrival from Italy's Alta Langa, the Piedmontese masters of the Robiola family of cheeses, including La Tur, Bosina and Rocchetta, all of which are variations on the soft-ripened Robiola, the dominant style in this corner of northern Italy.
Alta Langa recently purchased a neighboring creamery, Agrilanga, who is the maker of the Nerina. Agrilanga milks about 500 goats, and produces this cheese.
Pure goat’s milk Robiolas are uncommon, generally, when goat’s milk is used, it is in mixed-milk Robiolas, blended with cow, sheep, or sometimes all three.
The Nerina is a young cheese, aged only ten days or so before going to market. Now that Alta Langa is shipping Nerina to the United States, Agrilanga has had to retool the recipe to make the cheese with pasteurized milk because it isn't aged the 60 days required to be a legal raw-milk cheese in the US - but what the creamery has achieved with pasteurized milk is remarkable.
Availability, Ordering and Shipping
Sourced from creameries all over the world many of our cheeses are from small family-owned, alpine farms and only produced in limited quantities or at one-time each year. We take most of their production which goes straight out to our club members.
Our cheeses are sold in an 8 ounce cut. When ordering more please use “quantity” in multiples of 8 ounces i.e., for one pound order a quantity of 2.
Because our cheese club members take precedence we may have limited inventory of some cheese products.
If you order a cheese that is unavailable our customer service team will contact you with delivery details or a substitute cheese product.
Your cheese selections are individually wrapped in sustainable, recyclable, low environmental impact food wrapping which will extend the life of the cheese in your refrigerator.
The cheese is then carefully packed in an insulated container with “cool” ice packs and sealed in its shipping box to be sent via overnight air arriving fresh and cool at your home or office.
We search the world for fresh, natural cheeses made from milk produced by family-owned, free grazing animals and crafted by artisan, quality-focused cheese makers. Each year we choose only the best cheeses to pair for our wine and cheese club members to enjoy.
| Milk | Goat |
|---|---|
| Texture | Semi-Soft |
| Country | Italy |
