Wine-soaked cheese selling for €200 a wheel

A dairy in Treviso in northern Italy is selling wine-soaked cheese wheels nicknamed ‘drunken’ cheese at €200 a pop.

‘drunken’ cheese dunked in wine

As reported by Business Insider, La Casearia Carpenedo soaks its cheese wheels in wine as part of the refinement process.

The tipsy cheeses, which are made from pasteurised cow’s milk, have been nicknamed “ubriaco”, which literally means ‘drunk’.

The wheels are dipped and washed in everything from local red variety Raboso to Prosecco, and are left to soak in the wine for up 150 days.

From start to finish the entire process can take up to two-and-a-half years, as some of the cheeses undergo an ageing process before they’re dunked in wine.

The dairy makes 15 types of drunken cheese, with Raboso – a deeply tinted red native to the Veneto – proving the most popular. Over 20,000 wheels are made at the dairy each year.

The process of soaking cheese in wine dates back to the First World War, when local farmers would hide cheese from hungry soldiers in barrels of wine.

Priced between €100 to €200, you don’t need to fly to Treviso to get your fix, as the wine-soaked wheels are on sale in Borough Market.