Price range: £4.30 through £25.80
Sardinian Pecorino Giuncato is a firm sheep’s milk cheese with a distinctive basket-patterned rind and a rich, savoury flavour with gentle sweetness and herbal notes.
Pecorino isn’t actually the name of one particular cheese. It comes from the Italian word pecora, meaning sheep, and is used for a whole family of Italian sheep’s milk cheeses.
Our Sardinian Pecorino comes from Sardinia, an island with a particularly strong tradition of sheep farming and cheesemaking. Sheep have grazed its rugged hills for centuries, feeding on the wild grasses and herbs that grow across the landscape, and sheep’s milk cheese remains an important part of Sardinian food culture today.
This particular Pecorino is known as Giuncato, and it’s a wonderfully rustic cheese with a firm texture, plenty of savoury flavour and a distinctive patterned rind.
Sardinia and sheep are rather inseparable. The island has one of the strongest pastoral traditions in Italy, and making cheese was historically a very practical way for shepherding communities to preserve their milk.
Over generations, different styles of Pecorino developed according to where they were made, how they were matured and, importantly, how they were intended to be eaten.
That’s why simply saying Pecorino doesn’t really tell you very much. Some are young, soft and milky; others are hard, salty and aged for months. Some are made for eating at the table, while others are destined to be grated liberally over your dinner.
Our Giuncato sits very happily somewhere in between. It has enough age to develop plenty of character but still retains the sweetness and richness of the sheep’s milk.
One of my favourite things about this cheese is its appearance.
The name Giuncato comes from giunco, meaning rush or reed. Traditionally, the curds were drained and shaped in woven reed baskets, which left their distinctive pattern pressed into the outside of the cheese.
Modern cheesemaking may have moved on a little, but that wonderful basket pattern remains part of its identity. It’s one of those cheeses you can often recognise before you’ve even tasted it.
Our Sardinian Pecorino is wonderfully earthy and savoury, with that characteristic richness you get from sheep’s milk.
The texture is firm but not excessively hard, and there’s a lovely balance between saltiness and a gentle underlying sweetness. I often pick up grassy and herbal notes too, which seem entirely appropriate for a cheese from an island where sheep spend so much of their lives grazing outdoors.
As you eat it, more flavours appear: a little nuttiness, perhaps something slightly fruity and a lingering savoury tang.
The rind is particularly distinctive, with that wonderful basket pattern running around it. It can also develop a little natural mould as it matures, which just adds to its rustic appearance.
You can eat the rind if you enjoy it, although there’s absolutely no rule saying that you have to!
Jen’s note: The Italian name for our Sardinian Pecorino is Giuncato. Its name comes from the reed baskets traditionally used to shape and drain the cheese. The basket leaves that lovely woven pattern on the outside, so this is one cheese you can often recognise before you’ve even tasted it.
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Ingredients (Allergens are listed in capitals)
MILK, starter cultures, rennet, salt
Normal opening Monday – Saturday 9am – 4pm until:
Sunday 22nd 9am – 4pm
Monday 23rd 9am – 4pm
Christmas Eve 9am – 12pm
Christmas Day Closed
Boxing Day Closed
Friday 27th Closed
Saturday 28th 9am – 4pm
Sunday 29th Closed
Monday 30th 9am – 2pm
Tuesday 31st 9am – 2pm
New Year’s Day Closed
Thursday 2nd January Closed
Friday 3rd 9am – 4pm then open as normal
After Christmas our courier delivery slots start from 8th January.
