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Next: about 8 Sept 2027

Idiazabal cheese contest in Ordizia

On the Wednesday of Ordizia's Basque Festival, shepherds' raw-milk Idiazabal is judged and the winner auctioned.

Ordizia, Goierri. Gipuzkoa, Ordizia, Goierri. Gipuzkoa, Basque Country.
Photo: Euskalduna, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Cheeses for Idiazabal cheese contest in Ordizia

Ordizia, in Gipuzkoa, has held a market every Wednesday for centuries, and on the Wednesday of its Euskal Jaiak, the Basque Festival in early September, it holds the Idiazabal cheese contest. Shepherds bring cheeses made from the raw milk of latxa or carranzana sheep; a jury tastes them in the morning and the winner is announced at midday, after which half the winning cheese is auctioned in the main square for remarkable prices. Idiazabal is pressed and firm, sometimes lightly smoked, and the auction is a celebration of the Basque shepherd's craft. The day also has dancing, sport and a market.

The cheeses

IdiazabalRaw-milk latxa sheep's cheese, sometimes smoked.
About this page

Written by the EveryCheese desk with AI assistance. Background: "Ordizia" on Wikipedia. Customs differ from place to place and family to family. If this is your tradition and we have it wrong, tell us.

Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

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