Murray's Cave Aged Limited La Mancha

$30.00 / Lbprice is $30.00 by Lb

Raw
Animal Rennet
Age: 12 months
Sheep Milk
by Murray's Cheese Caves
Spain

Approachable
Adventurous
Soft
Hard

Meet the only PDO Manchego aged outside of Spain. This special raw milk wheel spends two months aging in La Mancha before making its intercontinental journey to our New York City caves. An additional 6-7 months of aging develops that signature nuttiness, along with an herbal sweetness and slight bready tang. It's granular without being dry, thanks to the rich sheep's milk. La Mancha is perfect for an afternoon picnic with slices of membrillo and a crisp Spanish white.

"It's special to get a high-quality, raw milk Manchego like La Mancha. After aging in our caves, the texture is so lovely (a touch smoother and more moist than our 1 Year Manchego), and sometimes I get a sweetness that's almost like milk chocolate."

Murray's Cheesemonger - New York, NY

Raw Sheep's Milk, Salt, Calcium Chloride, Rennet and Cheese Cultures

Allergens: Milk

For centuries, sheep have thrived in the rocky, arid central plateau region of La Mancha, where their milk is transformed into Manchego.
Its rind bears the classic, cross-hatch pattern that connotes the braided grass baskets that once held the cheese.
La Mancha is made with raw milk, unlike the other Manchegos we carry and most of the Manchego available in the U.S. That gives this cheese a unique depth of flavor.
The cheese is made using milk from Manchega sheep, a breed that’s native to the Iberian Peninsula.
With a higher protein and fat content than cow’s milk, sheep’s milk cheeses boast a luxurious richness even when aged.
In 1984, Manchego earned Denominación de Origen (or "DO," meaning designation of origin) status to protect its integrity and tradition.
For a cheese to be classified as Manchego, it must be made exclusively from the whole milk of Manchega ewes, it must come from La Mancha, and it must be aged in natural caves for at least two months.
La Mancha is the only PDO Manchego to be aged outside of Spain. It spends 6-7 months in our Natural Rind Cave.

At Murray’s Cheese Caves in Queens, New York, our experts age and mature cheeses to perfection, creating unique products that are exclusive to Murray’s.
We built our caves to enhance the quality of our products, as well as to honor the craft of cheesemakers across the globe. The practice of aging cheese, known in French as affinage, was relatively rare in the United States when we built our first set of caves in 2004.
The cheeses that mature in our caves are crafted in a variety of ways, which are reflected on their labels, described below.
Cave Aged Original cheeses are produced from a Murray’s original recipe—we have a hand in every step of the cheesemaking process.
Cave Aged Reserve cheeses are made in collaboration with some of our favorite cheesemakers. They send us unaged wheels, and we use unique aging techniques to produce something completely new.
Cave Aged Limited cheeses are born out of our constant innovation and experimentation, only available for a limited time.
Cheeses in the Cave Aged category are aged in our caves with methods that replicate the treatment they would’ve received from their original producer. This category is largely populated by bloomy rind cheeses that don’t fare well in transport.
Murray's operates four caves, designed to ensure that each cheese matures in its ideal environment—the Bloomy Rind Cave, Natural Rind Cave, Washed Rind Cave, and Alpine Cave.
The temperature, humidity, and microbial activity in each cave are controlled and monitored with the greatest precision.