Gordal Variety & Pairings

The queen olive with a fine and delicate flavor.

Olive Variety: Gordal Variety

Curing Method: Traditional curing method

Origin: Sevilla

Time of Harvest: Early September (‘verdeo’)

The name gordal means “the fat one” due to its round shape and large size (over 6g). Due to its low oil content, they are exclusively used as table olives.

It has a fine, delicate flavour and a firm, meaty and crunchy texture.

¿How is the Gordal Olive?

It has a fine, delicate flavour and a firm, meaty and crunchy texture.
Our neutral brine allows you to really appreciate its delicate flavour and well-balanced saltiness and bitterness.
Otherwise known as queen olives, these olives can be enjoyed on their own or stuffed with any variety of items, from blue cheese to pickled garlic.

The Gordal olive is produced in Seville

This variety is produced in Sevilla, and is one of the most prominent products we make. Even though you can find similar varieties (in terms of shape or size) in other countries (such as Bella di Cerignola, Chalkidiki or Azizi olives), the difference in terms of flavour and texture with Gordal Sevillana olives is so significant that in 2019, a Regulatory Council (Control Board) was created to promote and protect the Protected Geographical Identity (IGP) of Manzanilla and Gordal olives from Seville.
This IGP is a European Quality classification which protects a farming or food product due to its origin in a specific geographical area.

Gordal Sevilla olives definitely live up to their name Gordal Sevillana

PAIRING OF THE GORDAL OLIVE

GORDAL OLIVES: Mencía, Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot – IPA Beer
Castilblanco Capri, La Retorta and Afuega’l Pitu Cheeses

GORDAL: It has a fine delicate flavor, and a firm, meaty and crunchy texture.

We will look for the cheeses that pair with textures, looking for a contrast with smooth cheeses having soft and creamy textures.
Trying to find three options we have thought of three intensities of flavour.

Starting in Seville with goat’s cheeses (Castiblanco Capri Cheese, from Mare Nostrum) we will visit Extremadura for a pairing with an unpasteurized sheep’s cheese (La Retorta Cheese, Finca Pascualete) and finally we will arrive in Asturias with the explosion of Afuega’l Pitu cheese from Quesería Rey Silo, which has only raw cow’s milk and is made by traditional methods.

God save the queen!

Our recomendation:

Taste our Gordal olives with the aromatic notes of lavender of Castilblanco Capri Cheese, (Mare Nostrum).
Use La Retorta cheese to stuff our olives; the crunchy texture will contrast with the creaminess of Finca Pascualete Cheese. Feel the crispy Gordal with the vegetal rennet of this cheese.
The final experience will be the combination in your mouth of the delicate flavor of Gordal joined to the intense flavor of Afuega’l Pitu cheese.

Goat: Castilblanco Capri Cheese, Mare Nostrum (Sevilla)

Made with goat’s raw milk from Seville’s countryside. Elaboration is based on lactic curdling, normally found in French goat cheeses. The breed is called “Florida Sevillana”, born and grown in extensive livestock where they’re free to feed on the pastures. We just use natural and autochthonous enzymes. The result is a soft and smooth cheese with memories of dried unroasted fruits. One is a round 60 gr. cheese with an intense and very clean goat smell.

Melting, smooth and oily on the palate, with a few notes of aromatic herbs, like lavender. At the end the taste is clean and very long, reminiscent of fresh milk and yogurt.

Sheep: La Retorta, (Finca Pascualete, Extremadura)

Un-pasteurized sheep’s milk cheese pressed by hand and elaborated with mime artisan in the traditional way. Its taste is soft but very personal, well defined and persistent on the palate, with memories of the field due to its vegetal rennet.
It is very creamy, with an almost liquid texture, as the result of a daily and continuous tumbling. It melts deliciously on the palate. It is to be eaten with a spoon, opening the top cover of the cheese, or spreading it on toasted bread, although it also offers multiple applications in the culinary scope.

Cow: A Afuega’l Pitu (Quesería Rey Silo, Asturias)

Using only raw cow’s milk and traditional methods, Rey Silo has captured the best of the Asturian artisanal cheese tradition in an Afuega’l Pitu that is aged in our cellars in Pravia on the banks of the Nalon River.

The fresh milk, which has not been chilled, is transferred into small vats and coagulated before being hand-ladled into cheese molds. After the curd has drained, the newly-formed wheels are unmolded and individually salted by hand, with crystal salt sourced from the French Camargue.

Cheeses are then allowed to dry and the batches of Rey Silo are moved to underground cellars for further aging. The cellars’ proximity to the Nalón River means the cellars are naturally at the ideal temperature and humidity for maturing cheese, resulting in the “terroir” of the region clearly showing through in the finished Rey Silo. Rey Silo is produced in two styles, a white version and a red version (see separate entry).

The texture of the white cheese is semi-firm, dense and slightly chalky. Flavors are quite intense but balanced with notes of cream, salt, hazelnuts and butter. For cheeses produced during the summer months, you can also detect floral and grassy aromas.

The name ‘Afuega’l Pitu’ is derived from the “bable” Asturian dialect. It means ‘choking cake’ because its unusual texture makes the cheese stick to the taster’s palate and pharynx. The name ‘Afuega’l Pitu’ also symbolizes one of the Spanish legendary customs, ‘drowning the rooster’, referring to cheese producers feeding a piece of the freshly made cheese to a rooster

Would you like to plan a Saturday brunch in Seville?

You can have a guided cheese tasting in Casa Ordaez.
Casa Ordaez is a very special place in Seville, with slow food and cheese store.
Run by Ordaez sisters, second generation of the Ordaez family, cheesemakers of Mare Nostrum, the goat’s cheeses from Castilblanco, Seville.
Their mother makes the goat’s cheeses from Florida cows in the north of Seville.

CASA ORZAEZ Avda. de Cádiz, 13 41004 Sevilla