Montealva is produced by a family in the small town of Torrecera, in the municipality of Jerez de la Frontera in Cadiz, Andalucia.
The company is made up of brother and sister, Isabel and Pedro Maria Alvarez Aguilar, their mother, Dolores Aguilar, and Pedro’s wife Anabel, who was very important in the cheese making process at the start.
The tradition of cheesemaking came to them via their grandparents, who began to make goat cheese by using their own herd to produce the milk on the farm where their mother grew up in El Fresnillo. Since they were small, when they went to play with their grandparents in the countryside, they saw the cheese being made in the most artisanal way possible. They fashioned their own tools, rennet and other utensils needed to produce cheese.
Having gotten their own degrees and motivated to continue the family tradition , Pedro and Isabel started to make cheese, albeit with more modern technology but without losing the artisanal essence of their land. They began making cheese in 2008 after building a tiny dairy in the town in which they live. The milk still comes from their own herd of Payoya goats
Montealva works with a limited milk supply. They work the curd by hand and personally mold each cheese . They don’t add any preservatives and the only thing besides the milk they use to make cheese are the cultures. There is a lovely white mold blanketing the zigzag rind and each cheese looks slightly different from its neighbor.
This is truly a special cheese which you can smell right away in its aroma of walnut. The flavor is reminiscent of yogurt, and the creamy texture changes from solid to unctuous so easily with just a touch of heat. These traits come largely from what the goats have eaten: fine grass growing in the limestone rich soil in the area.
Something very important that is intangible yet it gives an exceptional character to the cheese is the human quality behind it: the dedication, the love for the work, the care for the environment, the taking advantage of the wonderful mountainous area, and the farmers.
