The La Puebla de Montalbán cheese company has won five medals at the latest World Cheese Awards, the global cheesemaking championship. Research and the pursuit of new flavors are key to its success.
Quesos Corcuera is a family business rooted in decades of tradition while facing the future through innovation and research. The company’s history dates back more than 70 years. In 1947, the father of the current owners opened his own cheese factory in the town of La Puebla de Montalbán, Toledo. Carmen Corcuera, daughter of founder Eusebio Corcuera, recalls those early years, with animals helping transport the product and sales focused on the closest local markets. In 2000, the owners built the new factory.
Recently, Quesos Corcuera has won another award at the World Cheese Award, the most important international competition in the sector. The Puebla-based company returned from the competition with five medals, confirming its continued presence among the international elite of producers. In the 2018 edition, the five award-winning cheeses received medals in the categories of goat cheese with paprika (silver), aged Manchego cheese (silver), semi-cured Manchego cheese (bronze), cured Manchego cheese (bronze), and natural goat cheese (bronze).
Since it began operating more than seven decades ago, Quesos Corcuera has won more than 50 awards in the most prestigious national and international competitions. One of the Toledo cheese factory’s signature cheeses was even honored at the International Taste & Quality Institute (iTQi) chef and sommelier gathering with the Superior Taste Award, receiving an outstanding sensory evaluation.
More than three-quarters of Quesos Corcuera’s production is dedicated to Manchego cheese with a designation of origin. The seal awarded by the regulatory council guarantees the quality of a product linked to the land like few others. In addition to Manchego cheeses, the La Puebla de Montalbán cheese factory offers its customers goat cheeses and blended cheeses (made with cow, goat, and sheep milk).
Carmen Corcuera views the outlook for her company as positive. “We’re adapting to changing consumer tastes. And we’re always innovating,” explains the manager. At the factory, they try to translate customer demands into new products that satisfy them. “We think about what we can bring out new, what we can offer the market,” she says. Recent successful products include a moldy goat cheese roll, two mild but strongly flavored cheeses made with blue cheese paste but with a white finish, and a lactose-free fresh cheese.
The company is pleased to be “entering the big box stores” and maintaining a strong export presence. Manchego cheese seems to be enjoying a better reputation abroad. Corcuera exports just over half of its DO production to the United States, a quarter to third countries, and the rest to the domestic market. “My distributor planted the seed in the United States; before, there was hardly any Manchego cheese there,” says Carmen. In the territory of the great world power, they operate with the brands Campo de Montalbán, Trigal – “the most” – and Corcuera.
