Azienda Agricola Manerba Ermes · The unvarnished truth of craftsmanship

Closed-loop farm, local village character, and the art of cheesemaking beyond the digital radar.

Those looking for the Azienda Agricola Manerba Ermes in the moraine hills of Cavriana will find neither a website nor social media profiles. What you will find is a guard dog and a farm shop that only opens when someone pulls into the yard. The clientele consists almost exclusively of residents from the surrounding villages, who have been buying their cheese directly from the stable door for generations. The inclusion of this microcosm in the MaWa portfolio is the result of a personal encounter on equal terms: during an expert exchange between co-founder Marta and owner Ermes regarding traditional salumi and cheese culture, a depth of craftsmanship revealed itself behind the initial Lombard reserve—a depth that has become an absolute rarity today.

“We do everything here as a family. No employees, no automation—just us and the craft.”

The independence of one’s own milk

The roots of the farm go back a long way. In the 1980s, Ermes took over the farm from his grandfather and initially supplied all the milk to large dairies. In the 90s, he made the decision to become independent: Ermes began to process the milk from his own animals by hand. Today, the family keeps a herd of around 300 cattle, about 150 of which serve as dairy cows. Only the daily fresh raw milk from these animals is used for their own cheese specialties—no transport routes, no stopovers, and in an uncompromising zero-kilometer cycle directly on the farm.

Pure craftsmanship and village roots

The farm is run exclusively by four family members. While son Nicolas and his brother carry the daily responsibility for animal welfare and feed quality, Ermes and his wife transform the raw milk in the on-site caseificio into characterful specialties such as Montano and traditional Caciotte. Production follows exclusively the rhythm of artisanal capacity—for instance, for holidays, as few as 20 wheels of cheese are sometimes produced upon direct pre-order. Each form is tended to, brushed, and turned by hand in the aging room.

For MaWa, Manerba Ermes is an indispensable piece of the puzzle: proof that authentic culinary excellence does not lie in digital presence, but in radical scarcity, seamless provenance, and the undivided dedication of a single family.

Secure a quota from the microscopic allotment of Manerba Ermes—for a sophisticated private cheese selection, as an undiscovered item in gastronomy, or as an honest culinary gift.