Ricotta, raviggiolo, fresh and semi-seasoned pecorino cheeses, under walnut leaves, in ashes or even flavored with truffles and blue cheeses: the list of products of Cugusi Silvana Cheese Factory is really interesting, is the result of a long family tradition and a great desire for experimentation, accompanied by constant attention to quality.

Silvana's eyes shine when she talks about her work, the production of dairy products in the family dairy that her father Raffaele bought in Montepulciano in 1962 when he moved from Sardinia with his wife, nine children and many sheep. "The Sardinian sheep willingly eat in the wild and have a rather high productivity, which is why my father decided to bring his flock here in Tuscany" says Silvana: "As soon as we arrived my father needed to milk the sheep immediately but he didn't want to lose their milk, so he asked a nearby cheesemaker how he made the cheese. The encounter between Tuscan and Sardinian culture has made it possible to revitalize and give back to the territory a product that traditionally existed on Tuscan tables, but which was failing at that time ".

Papa Raffaele had a brilliant intuition and his hard work and that of the whole family gave life to a reality that has been producing high quality cheese for over 50 years with mastery, attention to production processes and to final taste.

Pecorino Gran Riserva deserves a place of honor among the tasty products of the Cugusi Cheese Factory, a seasoned pecorino cheese that was awarded in the most important world competition dedicated to dairy products, the World Cheese Award. And to think that Silvana decided to put her Gran Riserva into play by chance, after reading about the competition in a trade magazine in 2016: she sent a sample to the jury who tasted the cheeses and assigned a score without having any information on the name of the product or the producer: it ranked second in the category of aged cheeses. From the first participation, the Gran Riserva has received numerous awards up to the Super Gold in 2019, or the title of best aged cheese among the 84 selected out of over 3000 participants.