Transhumance in the Pyrenees

What it is

The Pyrenees — the mountain range forming the border between France and Spain — are the other great European transhumance mountain system, and uniquely they support a sheep-dominant transhumance tradition that produced the great sheep milk cheeses of the western Pyrenees: Ossau-Iraty (French Basque Country and Béarn), Idiazabal (Spanish Basque Country and Navarra), and Roncal (Navarra), together with the French connection to Roquefort production on the southern slopes of the Massif Central.

The Basque shepherd tradition

The Basque people — whose pre-Indo-European language is the oldest language family in Europe and who have occupied the western Pyrenees and adjacent coastal areas for at least ten thousand years — developed a sheep pastoral tradition of extraordinary continuity. The Manech (red-faced and black-faced varieties) and Basco-Béarnaise sheep breeds of the French Basque Country, and the Latxa breed of the Spanish Basque Country, are the foundation animals of this tradition: small, hardy, adapted to the rough terrain and Atlantic climate of the western Pyrenees.

The Basque shepherd (artzain in Basque) traditionally spent the summer months at high altitude in stone huts called etxola, tending the sheep and making cheese in the traditional round open-weave basket molds. The cheese made during this summer transhumance — artzain-gazta (literally "shepherd's cheese" in Basque) — was the precursor of modern Ossau-Iraty and Idiazabal.

Ossau-Iraty

Ossau-Iraty (PDO, 1980) is a semi-hard pressed sheep milk cheese made in the French Basque Country and Béarn region, aged from 60 days to over a year. The name combines the Ossau valley (in Béarn) and the Iraty forest (in the Basque Country), the two primary transhumance territories. Young Ossau-Iraty is mild, creamy, and slightly sweet with a gentle lanolin note; aged versions (over 6 months, particularly the vieux category) develop a firmer texture, a deeper amber color at the rind, and flavors of roasted nuts, dried herbs, and a pleasantly assertive sheep milk depth. The traditional accompaniment is confiture de cerise noire (black cherry jam from the Itxassou variety of small black cherries grown in the Basque Country) — the sweet-savory combination of sharp sheep cheese and tart-sweet cherry jam is one of the great French cheese accompaniments.

Idiazabal

Idiazabal (PDO, 1987) is the Spanish Basque equivalent — a smoked or unsmoked pressed sheep milk cheese from the Latxa and Carranzana breeds, aged 2 to 12 months. The smoked version — rubbed with ash from the fire in the traditional shepherds' huts before aging — has a distinctive amber-brown rind and a mild smokiness that weaves through the nutty, lanolin-forward sheep cheese flavor. It is eaten as a table cheese, melted over bacalao (salt cod) preparations, and used in the Basque pintxos (bar snack) tradition.

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