cabrales

The village of Cabrales sits in the Picos de Europa mountains of Asturias, in a limestone landscape riddled with caves. The village name derives from Latin capra (goat) through the Asturian-Leonese word cabra, because goats were the dominant livestock on these steep slopes. Medieval documents from the 10th century mention settlements in the Cabrales valley. The name appears in its current form in 13th-century Asturian charters, already associated with the pastoral economy that would define it.

The cheese made here was being produced long before any written record. Local shepherds exploited the natural refrigeration of the mountain caves, where constant humidity and temperature allowed the blue mold Penicillium roqueforti to colonize the wheels. Unlike Roquefort, which uses sheep's milk exclusively, cabrales is a blend: cow, sheep, and goat milk in proportions that vary by season and farmer. The mixed-milk formula is a direct consequence of the mixed herds that grazed the Picos de Europa together on shared terrain.

Cabrales entered wider Spanish commerce in the 19th century, when improved roads through the Cantabrian mountains allowed regular shipments to Oviedo and Santander. Before that, it was bartered locally or sold at the annual fair in Arenas de Cabrales. The Spanish government awarded it Protected Designation of Origin status in 1981, the first Asturian cheese to receive the designation. The PDO mandates that aging must occur in the natural limestone caves of the municipality, not in any substitute facility.

The caves maintain a temperature of 8-12°C year-round and humidity above 90 percent, conditions that no industrial cellar has replicated. Wheels are aged for a minimum of two months, turned and pierced regularly to allow air to reach the interior mold. The result is one of Europe's most intensely flavored cheeses: sharp, salty, and dense with blue-green veins throughout. Cabrales is still made by fewer than forty licensed producers, all within the single municipality that gave it its name.