Merkki: La Taberna Imperiale

Gran Sasso Cheese is born directly in the caves at the foot of the enchanting castle of Rocca Calascio (L'Aquila), where father and son have been aging wheels of Gran Sasso, the quintessential Abruzzo grana cheese, since 2011.

A perfect condition that allows the aging of Taberna's special cheeses, sheep's milk grana. Rocca Calascio is an ideal location to develop a dairy philosophy that tells the story of Abruzzo, not only because of the microclimatic conditions created in the Taberna cave, but because of the very identity of this enchanted place, a reference point for the transhumance that connected our region to the Tavoliere delle Puglie.

Gran Sasso cheese is a recently born, hard cheese, and long aged. The innovation of this cheese is in the processing, which takes on a key role; it is made using the classic grana technique but with 100 percent raw sheep's milk.

The latest innovation is called Gran Sasso Cynara a Grana di Pecora, with vegetable instead of animal rennet. The technique is the same as that of classic Grana Gran Sasso, as is the aging and maturation time, which lasts 30 months.
The only difference is that Cynara is curdled with wild thistle, from which it also takes its name.
It is a certified organic lactose-free cheese precisely because of the 30-month ripening time.

Cynara has a soft, unctuous flavor, a sheep's grain, but it does not have that sharpness of classic pecorino.