Lavialattea - Brignano Gera d'Adda (BG) - Lombardy

The Caseificio Lavialattea was founded in 1997. At the time, Valentina and Roberto both worked in the family business producing game meat, but after the birth of their third child, Roberto decided to change his life. He renovated the barns of the Arcene farmhouse, owned by Valentina's family, and began raising goats. In those early years, Lavialattea was a small farm with about ten goats, and cheese production was almost a hobby. Through a process of trial and error, Valentina and Roberto learned how to work with goat's milk. They attended a cheesemaker technician course in Bergamo, then decided to purchase about forty goats from a French farm. After some experimentation and a few encouraging results, they chose to take a further step: a trip to France, the homeland of cheese-making art, especially for goat cheese. In 2001, Valentina and Roberto moved to Brignano, leaving the livestock business behind to focus entirely on cheese production. During this period, they also began a collaboration with several schools and French institutions, where they periodically returned to exchange ideas on production techniques. Roberto produces around thirty cheese bases. These bases are then finalized by Valentina, who fills and decorates them with the most unusual ingredients, from red fruits to chocolate, from flowers to candied vegetables.