OSSAU IRATY PDO

In the Basque region where France and Spain meet, sheep’s milk reigns. Known to the locals as “ardi gazna” or “sheep cheese” in Basque, the “brebis” style of cheesemaking goes back almost 3,000 years and has origins allegedly involving Greek gods. Ossau Iraty, one of only 2 French sheep’s milk cheeses with PDO status (1996), is made year-round at the foothills of the Pyrenees mountains, in the Ossau valley in the neighboring Béarn, and the Iraty valley covered in beech forest in the Pays Basque.

Every summer from June through September, shepherds lead their flocks up into the Pyrenees mountains in search of lush mountain pasture. The herbs, grasses, and other flora the sheep graze on here lend a bright and beautifully complex flavor to the mountain cheeses produced with this milk. This practice is called transhumance, and it has been celebrated for centuries worldwide, making some of history’s most iconic cheeses. It also allows the lower altitude pastures to rest and regenerate, promising available forage for winter feed.

Ossau Iraty is a pressed and uncooked cheese made from raw or pasteurized milk, with most raw milk versions coming from smaller farmstead operations. According to PDO figures, there are currently 1,141 milk producers for Ossau Iraty, 173 of which produce the cheese from the milk of their own herd. This cheese is the smallest of Agour’s Ossau Iraty production, made from milk sourced from only four farms within 16 miles of the creamery. After the whole raw milk is pasteurized and coagulated, the curds are cut into small pieces, heated, and drained to release whey. The curds are then put into the molds and pressed and salted, releasing more whey and helping to achieve the cheese’s semi-firm and slightly drier texture. Ossau Iraty must be aged for a minimum of 2.5 months according to PDO guidelines—Agour ages its wheels longer than required, producing a better-tasting product with more complex and developed flavors.

Founded in 1981, Maison Agour is the last independently operated and family-owned dairy in the Basque country and the second largest producer of Ossau Iraty. They are the last producers aging their cheese on wood, the traditional way, without any preservatives. The name Agour means “welcome” in the Basque language. Agour offers other cheeses and typical regional specialties, such as espelette pepper products and Jambon de Bayonne.

This particular Ossau Iraty is made only with the milk of the indigenous Manech Tête Noire sheep, known for their signature black faces and feet and ability to thrive at high altitudes. Nicknamed the “conquering princess of the Basque mountains,” this breed’s milk lends a notably earthy flavor to this traditionally buttery and floral cheese, with notes of lanolin, toasted skin-on hazelnuts, and oil-cured olives.