Naming things is an important action; and naming cheeses is a real art.
Some cheeses take their name from the area of production (Parmigiano Reggiano, Gorgonzola), others from the animals that produce the milk (Pecorino, Caprino); other names come from far away and their roots and meanings are lost in the mists of etymology (Toma perhaps coming from ancient Greek, Robiola perhaps from Latin).
Caseificio Bertagni, in the Alta Garfagnana, has instead chosen to call its cheeses by relying on the ancient words of its local dialect.
For example, Tuada, their most important cheese, a mighty seasoned sheep's milk cheese with intense, earthy aromas, takes its name from the cellar in which it is left to mature, which in the dialect of the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines is called 'tuada'.
Taula di Mennei, a fresher pecorino with herbaceous notes, on the other hand, takes its name from the wooden board on which it is placed as soon as it is extracted from the whey, a board that the local dialect calls 'taula', and from Mennei, the historical nickname of the Bertagni family.
But places are also important in naming cheeses: and so the Soraggio is named after the valley where the Bertagni dairy is located, the Palareto after an alpine pasture, and the Pradolta is named after Mount Prado, the highest mountain in the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines, where the animals go to pasture.
