Beppino Occelli, the white knight of the Langhe.

In the world of cheese, the figure of Beppino Occelli represents an absolute vanguard. His cheeses have created a true myth: many wonder if he actually exists or if he is just a brand of butter or cheese.

Beppino Occelli: a love story for cheeses

It all began in the mid-70s, more precisely in 1976. Beppino was an employee and sought something new that could give him greater satisfaction than his routine job. It was not just a financial factor, but a passion he carried with him since childhood. It is the passion for milk and all its derivatives. Giuseppe dreamed of giving meaning to that passion and finally succeeded.

The start was not easy. He had no stables, animals, or materials to produce cheese. Initially, it was all in his mind and in the few tools he kept at home. Was it really possible to become a cheesemaker in the Langhe? In a land with so few recognizable cheeses, practically only the tuma of the Langhe. Beppino always thought he wanted to produce cheeses that were, yes, an expression of his land, but also gourmet products that could contain other natural elements of the Langhe. Therefore, he assigned the task of producing cheese to a number of women from his village. He did this to understand how they could interpret the cheese to be served at the table. Numerous experiments followed, which defined the foundations on which the brand's success still rests today.

The cheeses of Beppino Occelli

From the recipes of those women, cheeses such as Testun, Casutin, Tuma d’l a Paja, Tuma del Trifulau, etc. were born. His cellars in the Borgo di Valcasotto, entirely restored by Beppino, contain hundreds of wheels that breathe the breezes coming from the Maritime Alps, a favorable climate that for hundreds of years has offered these mountain lands the peculiarity of cheese maturation.

Beppino uses multiple types of woods for aging, woods that allow the production of different types of molds, white, pink, green, dark. All with typical natural aromas and scents that contribute to the differentiation of the final products. Beppino Occelli can sometimes be found among the stalls of the most important cheese events in Italy. One of the most notable is the Cheese festival in Bra.

He is an extraordinary person who, if allowed to speak about cheese, enchants. He has given value to cheese and, above all, has been able to reinterpret the ingredients of the territory, blending them into milk. His creations are white works of art and perhaps that is why he is referred to as the white knight of the Langhe. After cheese, Beppino's great frontier has been the butter, which he branded with the edelweiss. A touch of class and simplicity defines his life, his peasant character, and his genius as an entrepreneur in love with the land of the Langhe.

Bernardo Pasquali