Vezzena degli Altipiani di Folgaria, Lavarone e Luserna

Vezzena: the cheese of emperor Franz Joseph

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Vezzena has been produced in the Folgaria, Lavarone and Luserna plateaux for centuries and has always been renowned as an excellent product and for being equally good to eat and to grate.

Up until WWI, the Vezzena was the only cheese in Trentino to be used as condiment on soups and canederli and, according to records, it was one of emperor Franz Joseph’s favourite cheeses.

The partially skimmed raw milk obtained from Bruna or GrigioAlpina cows is processed with calf rennet. After going through the various processing phases, the cheese is left to age for sometimes more than two years (as in the case of VezzenaStravecchio).

The Vezzena of the Slow Food Presidium is produced in summer with the milk of a few select mountain dairies, and to distinguish them the cheeses are stamped with an ’M’ (for Malga). Livestock breeders have undertaken to follow a strict procedure, whereby the cows must be allowed to graze in mountain pastures and never be fed with silage, industrial by-products or GMOs, obviously. The shortest aging period for Vezzena is 12 months.