There are expensive cheeses, very expensive cheeses and then there are the cheeses that are sold by the whopping 14,800 euros per kiloas they just checked in Asturias. There, in the town of Arenas, they just proclaimed the most expensive cheese on the planet, a piece of 2.5 kilos with Denomination of Protected Origin of Cabrales that, after the Plant of the judges, has reached neither more nor less than 37,000 euros On a bid.
Shortly after the auction was on the ground.
Don’t say cheese, di cabrales. Asturias is known for many things. By Your cider, Your houndsits beaches, its mountainous places and also (and rightly) for its cheese. The Cabrales is one of the gastronomic icons of the Principality and to claim it Arenas de Cabrales has celebrated every summer, for decades, A contest which usually arouses interest both inside and outside the region.
The appointment is not famous just by giving visibility to Dop Cabrales. The contest arrives accompanied by a bid for the best cheeses in which amounts of infarction are reached, assumable only by privileged pockets. Offer are so high in fact that they have managed to make a place several times in the pages of the Guinness book. It has happened Other editions. And it has happened again in this.
A figure: 37,000 euros. The Arenas de Cabrales appointment is divided into several parts. First the jury decides which of the title aspiring cheeses is the best, it has a more attractive aspect and offers better flavor and aroma. Then that same piece goes to auction and businesses interested in taking her to her pantries pujo for her at the crossroads worthy of the Sotheby’s house. In this edition (the 53rd already) the starting price was € 3,000 and participated near a dozen hoteliers from different parts of Asturias (Gijón, Oviedo and Castrillón) and Madrid.
The winner was Iván Suárez, owner of El Llagar de Colloto, in Oviedo. It didn’t have it easy. Last year Suarez had already taken home winning cheese by 36,000 eurosa figure that this year exceeded slaughtering. A Madrid cider house matched the figure, another Gijonesa rose the bid to 36,500 and the owner of El Llagar de Colloto ended up setting up the dispute when lifting his palette to offer the whopping of 37,000 for a piece of about 2.5 kg. Himself I calculated which came out at € 14,800/kg.
Records at full speed. The truth is that Cabrales accumulates records at more speed than the Guinness organization is capable of digesting them. New Spain remember that this will be the fourth consecutive world plusmarca of Asturian cheese and if you consult The web From the Guinness World Records you will find the curious chance that just two months ago those responsible echoed that the most expensive cheese on the planet is a cabrales auctioned in Asturias for 36,000 euros. It is not a mistake. It is simply the brand that the DOP reached in 2024.
It has already been outdated.
Does Cabrales cheese have a roof? That is The question That some media have been made in recent days, especially if you take into account the speed with which the offers have grown by the winner of the Arenas contest.
The Europa Press agency remember That the winner of this edition already disbursed 14,300 euros in 2018, 20,500 in 2019, 30,000 in 2023 and 36,000 last year, a figure that has been pulverized by the 37,000 of 2025. In the price, however it goes more than the value of the product. The bid is also a huge advertising showcase, both for the Dop Cabrales and for the winning hotelier.
Of headlines and anecdotes. “The head of having the most expensive cheese in the world is what leads to this. In the end if the cheese had cost 20,000 euros instead of 37,000 because yes, it would have been the winning cheese of the contest, but we would not have worldwide news, we would not open the news, nor would we have international recognition, which is what we all look for, Suárez confesses to The voice of Asturias.
Interestingly this year he has monopolized holders by Another reasonmore anecdotal … and juicy. After winning the bid the Ovetense hotelier rose to collect the piece proud and when he lifted his arms to show the tray the cheese drained and finished falling to the ground. An anecdote that the businessman was taken with humor. The cheese, he explained, will divide it into three parts: For his father, for him and his family and for his clients.
In cave already 1,500 meters. Record prices and anecdotes apart, the main protagonist of the contest was the cheese that elaborated the winning piece: Ángel Díaz Herrero, by Tielve. Its representative, Encarna Bada, remembers that the cheese is made with cow’s milk and mature for several months at 1,500 meters of altitude in the Los Mazos cave. “It is the coldest cave, it has little cheese and matures more slowly. It is the caves that give the flavor to the cabrales, because factors such as moisture, temperature and height influence it,” Explain.
The task is not simple. Bada acknowledges that going up and down with cheese pieces is arduous work because to the area “They don’t even get cars” To transport them in fact they have to resort to horses. What there is no doubt is that your technique and know how to do work: last year The same cheese managed to win the coveted first position of the contest and, incidentally, settle his name in the Guinness.
Images | Wikipedia and Javier Lastras (Flickr)
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