From the Cheese Portraits series.

"Montebore" is believed to have been Leonardo da Vinci's favorite cheese.   Historical accounts (or rumors?)  say he bestowed it upon the 1489 wedding of Isabella of Aragon to Gian Galleazo Sforza. 

known as the "wedding cake cheese", it's made of about 70% cow's milk and the remaining 30% from sheep. The curd, broken with a wooden spoon, is placed in the molds, turned over and salted. Extracted from the mold, three shapes with decreasing diameter are left to mature, one on top of the other, from one week to two months.  The initially soft smooth rind dries with beautiful wrinkles and the past produces slightly spicy and sour with a milky and buttery chestnut notes to finish.

The three-tiered layered format looks like a wedding cake and some believe it's an homage to the tallest tower in the castle of its quaint namesake village in northwest of Italy.  After World War II, the area was all but deserted in the countryside and artisanal cheese-making was overtaken by industrialization.  Montebore was lost for around 30 years.  In 1999 Roberto Grattone tracked down Carolina Bracco, the last known producer, to revive this historic cheese before it was extinct forever.

Big thanks to Anna from Cheese Journeys for offering it and to Tenaya Darlington for hauling it back to Philadelphia so I could have this exquisite and rare cheese model to paint 

Origin: Italy

Availability: sold