Toniolo - Veneto Cheese
Our History
The founder of the company, Battista Toniolo, Mauro’s father, was born in Longa, part of the municipality of Schiavon, in the province of Vicenza. From an early age he learned the art of making cheese. He graduated as a cheesemaker in Thiene (VI), at the prestigious
Casearia school. Afterwards, he perfected his profession in pastures and dairies: at Staaudacker, at the castle in Grigno; at Tezze Valsugana and at Libro, in Vezzena, at the Malcolin mountain hut. In 1958, to work in a dairy farm, he moved to Castelcucco and met his future wife Gianna. For her too, cheese is a history that belongs to everyday life: since she was a girl, in the family house on the hills of Castelcucco, she helped to raise cows and lead them to pasture, milking milk and helping to transport it on foot, every morning up to the dairy, along the paths and the banks that lead from the woods to the town center. Battista married Gianna two years later, in 1960. In the same year he founded Toniolo Casearia.
Classic Cheeses
Traditions, well-kept secrets, exclusive interpretations
and expert ageing processes combine in a crescendo of aromas and nuances. All the cheesemakers skill and just milk, salt and rennet, encapsulated within the rind.
They are made in the foothills of the mountain, when the morning mists fill the air with dense humidity and where the first hint of light and the noises of an already awake countryside set the scene. They are the fruits of patience and art, a synthesis of ancient recipes and knowledge. The con- tinual phases of their creation are tangible signs of inces- sant labor, of the attention to every single detail and to the exclusive pocesses that have been used for over fifty years. Just what it is that makes these cheeses so good remains a well-kept secret locked into the sites of their initial creation, into silent places where they patiently mature. Shaped by art, they are the Classic Cheeses by Toniolo.
What we do
The enhancement of the territory and its typical features is the interpretation that at Toniolo we give of the responsibility of our time. In a market where we cannot and do not want to run on the path of infinite volume growth and the flattening of values, our philosophy must necessarily be another. A philosophy capable of enclosing the complex agri- food history of this land, which extends up to reach Venice, and meeting the productions of neighboring territories. All these complex plots have taken shape, in the dairy world, becoming part of traditions and habits, even before than becoming typical products. Every mountain hut had its own recipe of the cheeses it produced. In the panorama of the many cheeses of our province, for those who want to produce them, the main issue is to encode a recipe, which takes into account the tradition and character of a certain product, its history, improving what has been handed down thanks to the greater competence and to the progress of production technologies. None of this ignores or detracts from the human element; a cheese always comes from milk, through the hands of a cheesemaker, in the humid heat of a boiler. And it always rests, more or less long, in dedicated environments, where the microclimate, the mold and many other elements, in perfect harmony, allow to regulate the temperature and the humidity of the air, to guarantee a perfect aging and to exalt the most features, aromas and taste. Our research and development work was done first of all by respecting the history of cheese and territory but, at the same time, characterizing it to make exclusive products, difficult to imitate. The research has led us to typify cheeses from a scientific point of view, schematizing what had always been done empirically, with the help of some precious traveling companions, such as the Veneto Agricoltural Biotechnology Institute, based in Thiene, and the University of Padua.
Where we do it
The territory, for a company that lives it, is above all what the company is built on, what you see from its windows, which flows around it. The expression of a bond necessarily starts here, from sites built in the best way, surrounded if possible by a well- kept garden, wrapped in ivy or embellished with rose bushes. With systems constantly improved and adapted to human work, subject to various expansions and new installations, always in search of perfection in every single cheese. Without neglecting anything: from the smallest detail, to the responsibility of a company, which includes every aspect of its action: social, economic, environmental. The relationship with our land is at the base of the assortment of the Great Veneto Cheeses. From the respect of the territory and its rhythms we have drawn the secrets for the production of these exceptional cheeses, made with unique raw material, the milk of sustainably bred cows, chosen among the best ones. Precisely for this reason, we brought back to the table some cheeses that risked being forgotten, taking advantage of the experience of the old cheesemakers, that guided us towards unique and very refined products. But at the same time, the PDOs as well as the Great Veneto Cheeses of the range, are produced in a factory that boasts the highest degree of certifications, just as the markets require, and innovative plants made in a totally personalized way and under our direct control, thanks to a significant know-how available to the company. Production is concentrated in the dairy of Selva del Montello, where over 100.000 liters of milk are processed per day. A modern dairy that is located in the center of the country, just like it used to be, and is the emblem of how we like to do things at Toniolo.
