Imagine a small Piedmontese town on the shores of Lake Maggiore, just a few kilometres from the Alps and its pastures: Arona. It is here, in a place that seems to have stood still in time, that the yellow gold of Luigi Guffanti 1876 rests, a company that for more than five generations has carried on a craft that is now more unique than rare, that of the cheese breeder.
Every day, a team of professionals, led by Carlo Fiori Guffanti, dedicates itself to the search for and subsequent selection of the finest Italian and foreign cheeses, a selection consisting of more than 250 references, starting with fresh cheeses and then moving on to moderately mature cheeses and finally to cheeses that are over 10 years old, because in reality, as they say at Guffanti, 'cheese never dies'.
The job of the cheese breeder is as fascinating as it is demanding. According to the statement 'cheese never dies', it is a living product and as such must be cared for every day, so that time and maturation can transform the raw materials to such an extent that a different product is obtained from the one that entered the cellar a few months or years earlier.
Imagine having the possibility to renew your offer, always guaranteeing the same high quality standard, but at the same time always offering a unique product, as it is handcrafted from production to maturation.
And what is the only way to know the whole story of a product? A list of first-class ingredients? Not good enough. The certification of state-of-the-art production processes? Not even that.
Luigi Guffanti chooses to work exclusively with small producers, who in most cases rear the animals from which they get their milk. We periodically visit the alpine dairy farms and cheese factories with which we collaborate in order to guarantee our customers a 100% traceable supply chain, and we only bring to our cellars the cheeses that our selection team deems suitable for the next stage of maturing.
We believe in the importance of product history and those who buy Guffanti cheese do not simply buy a coagulated mixture of milk, rennet and salt, but buy an experience. He buys an added value, which starts from the animal, passes from its milk, to the expert hands of the cheesemaker, up to those of the cheese breeder, who with his dedication and experience returns to the customer a product that at each bite will return very specific tastes and smells; sometimes flowers, sometimes fresh grass, sometimes hay, sometimes milk with a full and velvety taste and so on.
When we speak of a small but at the same time great reality, the reason is obvious. It is an artisan and meticulous work, from selection to refinement, carried out with passion by a family-run team, but at the same time it is an organised and structured reality, which offers its customers the possibility of always renewing themselves, ranging from more than 250 cheeses and their different maturations. All this with the convenience of having a single partner and interlocutor.
Selling a unique product, with verified quality in terms of raw materials, production and tradition, which is told in every mouthful and never dies, is really a different story.