The first time Iván Suárez (45 years old, Oviedo) participated in the bidding for the winning cheese of the Cabrales Competition, he ended up taking it, despite the gestures made by his friend Joaquín Pajarón from the audience. With his right hand he told him to stop, not to bid higher. But Iván did not pay attention and ended up acquiring the piece for 14,500 euros. “I didn’t know how the bidding worked. I had taken 6,000 euros in cash and I thought that I had to pay them there and then. Before going on stage they told me that I could pay later. But Joaquín, who was the one holding the money, didn’t know that. That’s why he was so worried, of course,” explains Iván.
Descendant of a family of hoteliers, middle brother between two girls, working since he was 19, father of a 24-year-old son, owner of seven restaurant businesses in Asturias —among them the Colloto cider millwhere the winning cheese has gone—and a herd of oxen, Ivan has become a media star at the end of summer. It has won the winning piece in the last five competitions. Last Sunday it broke its own record: 36,000 euros for the just over two kilos – discounting the barely 200 grams tasted by the jury – of Cabrales cheese that was the champion in the 52nd edition of the competition.
The portrait of Iván Suárez posing with the winning cheese appeared in dozens of media outlets. “Everything is a bargain when others do it, but beyond the profitability and the publicity —“it is priceless”, “super profitable”, “any brand would pay much more for that repercussion”, say three media agencies consulted for this report— there is the need to create a topic of conversation, to do something that is really special. And the Cabrales competition is one of them. Also the return in affection that people give you”, they say.
The competition to select the best Cabrales cheese is organised by the Regulatory Council on the last Sunday in August in Arenas de Cabrales. Each cheese factory – there are 20 certified ones and 15 participated in this edition – presents ten cheeses. An innocent hand, usually a person from the Regional Office of Cangas de Onís, chooses which cheese will be in the competition. Each piece is assigned a three-digit code. And the tasting begins.
The jury is made up of ten people. Six tasters from the Denomination of Origin and four experts from other fields. They are presented with two wedges of each candidate: one for visual tasting – which will return to the cheese – and another to taste it. They write down their ratings on the tasting sheet. 126 points are distributed as follows: appearance (up to 14 points); smell (21 points); taste, aftertaste and persistence (28 points); texture (28 points) and overall impression (35 points).
The different scores are consolidated in an Excel sheet and the winning cheese factory is determined from there. This year’s cheese factory had 1,071 points. When the corresponding three-digit code was deciphered, the name of Encarni Bada (63 years old, Tielve) appeared. She runs the cheese factory named after her husband, Ángel Díaz Herrero. “It was a joy and a bit overwhelming at first, with so much press and so much attention,” she recalls. Encarni produces her cheese in a cave in Maín, at 1,500 metres above sea level, opposite the Naranjo de Bulnes. Every year, “about 3,000 cheeses” come out of the cheese factory. She says that, as soon as the success was announced, there was a “flood” of followers and messages. on the cheese factory’s social networksbut since he doesn’t understand it very well, it’s not a topic that particularly interests him.
After celebrating the victory, the most anticipated moment of the morning arrived: the auction of the winning piece. The staging is quite cinematic. A bit like the hippo auction scene from the movie An indecent proposalbut with bagpipes and joy. The people who bid – nine in this edition – get up on a stage, paddle in hand (this year they were new and they went with a phrase; Ivan’s said “I am universal”). They sit on green plastic chairs in a semicircle facing the public, escorted by large screens. Each raise of hand is 1,000 euros more. Until the 15,000 are reached, things go quickly and quietly.
“At first I don’t usually bid, I just let things happen. But Sunday was the first time since I started coming to the contest that I really knew I wanted to win it,” explains Ivan. It’s obvious that he feels comfortable on stage and manages his timing. “It’s really nice to see people waiting for your reaction. I raise my hand halfway, from there to the top, it’s the audience who raises it.”
However, on Sunday things got tense. The bidding was already at 30,000 euros and there were still four people bidding. “Yes, of course you have doubts. You wonder how far this is going to go.” Those present say that for the first time they saw him a little nervous during the bidding. That he raised his hand instead of the paddle. Also that, every time Ivan raised his arm, the audience went into a frenzy. “Iván is a showmanunderstands the show very well,” explains David Fernández-Prada (49 years old, Mieres), owner of Gustatiothe company specialising in gastronomic events that has been producing the competition since 2017. David also presents and directs the bidding. He repeats the word record. “This has a lot to do with psychology,” he argues before highlighting the role played by those who bid and do not take home the cheese: “Without their participation, it would be impossible.”
Three arrived at the final stretch. The jubilation with Iván’s climbs contrasted with the contained joy when the representatives of the Madrid cider houses Carlos Tartiere either Viole’s thing They went a little further. Aitana Castaño, the herald of this edition who even sang and told a story, dressed in a gala villager’s work outfit, was accompanied by some friends from Madrid: “People from outside are amazed by this. It is very interesting and entertaining.”
The auction closed at 36,000 euros. Of that money, 21% will go to pay taxes, 15% to the Galban Association which helps children with cancer. The rest will go to the Regulatory Council, to organize next year’s competition. “That money helps us to keep improving,” explains Julia Sánchez (47 years old, Oviedo), a biologist who works as Certification Director of the DOP, which has three employees.
With this edition, Ivan has already invested 117,000 euros to win the best cheeses. To this we must add, for example, the 33 pieces from the winning cheese factory that he won on Sunday. At a more market price: 36 euros per kilo.
—And what are you going to do with the winning cheese?—
“It’s always a dilemma,” he says. “In previous years, we have ended up consuming the cheese from the auction with family, friends and tastings for clients. We sell the rest of the cheeses. This year I gave a piece to my father and I’m saving another for my birthday, which is in a few days. But I would like to do something more social, so that more people can enjoy it. But I don’t know how to do it yet. I’m thinking about it…”
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