CELLARS
Our Cellars
A good cheesemaker undoubtedly stands out for his knowledge of people, places, and animals, for his theoretical expertise and manual dexterity, but also for the availability of another equally essential requirement: the right environment.
A good environment doesn’t just mean ideal humidity and temperature (for that, even a cold room, perhaps controlled by a sophisticated computer, might suffice). The added value of an aging room comes from its history, from that sedimentation over years, or better yet, centuries, that creates the parameters of that perfect microclimate, the result of bacterial selection, resulting from the use of materials and practices that “break in” the environments and create a unique atmosphere, whose imprint the cheeses will always bear. These conditions can be pre-existing or can be “imported” through loving care.
Guffanti is privileged to have access to natural environments uniquely suited to aging. Just as we find in a cheese the aroma of the pastures that fed the animals, the imprint of the terroir, the “mark” of the cheesemaker’s expertise, so we should be able to sense the history and characteristics of the environment where it was aged. The soil, the stones and bricks, the microclimate, the microfauna: every true winery has its own unmistakable character, and Cantina Guffanti in Arona does. Location also plays a role: plains, hills, mountains, or even proximity to the sea, all bring about variations, perhaps small but not insignificant. Cantina Guffanti in Arona, for example, is located on a plain, a short distance from the shore of Lake Maggiore and near a wide stream that flows from the hills into the lake.
