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Once-In-A-Lifetime Maserati Collection and $1,000 Aged Cheese Blocks Feature As Main Attractions At Legendary Italian Farm

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Come through the gate and into the Hombre Farm, and you are greeted by an oasis of rare automotive and food culture. Proceed a couple of hundred meters up the path and you reach the Panini Maserati Collection and cheese factory. The Panini Family, owners of this extraordinary property some 20 minutes outside of Modena in northern Italy, have been making parmigiano reggiano cheese, or better known globally as ‘parmesan’ here since the early 90s. They also just happen to own the world’s most impressive collection of classic Maserati cars, machines driven by the likes of Fangio and Moss. During a recent trip to Italy, I visited the farm to check out this rare marriage of aged parmigiano and excruciatingly gorgeous legendary autos.

But that’s not where this story begins. Back in 1961, Giuseppe Panini started a sticker company that would soon turn into one of the biggest, most successful firms of its type in the world. Fans of European soccer are most probably familiar with the name Panini as makers of popular stickers for more than half a century. 

Then, in 1992, the family bought the Hombre Farm, 700 dairy cows and started making parmigiano reggiano. Within a few years, the family’s interests in stickers and cheese had generated a healthy bank balance, enough to consider making a significant contribution to the Modena economy. It was in 1996, that Giuseppe’s son Umberto caught wind of a collection of 19 Maserati classic cars that were up for auction in London. Not wanting to lose this rare collection of Modena’s motoring magic, he jumped into action, bought all 19 cars, and built a museum to house them right next to his cheese factory. 

So, in a way, you could say that Panini’s act of philanthropy rescued a once-in-a-lifetime collection of Modena’s cultural heritage that was on the verge of being lost from its home forever. One look at the caliber of cars and you realize what the family did for Modena. Many of these cars are more than mere classic cars. The highlight of the collection is undoubtedly the F1-winning ‘250F’ racing car from 1957 driven by F1 legend Juan Manuel Fangio. Seeing this car in the flesh was like looking at the lunar landing module piloted by first man on the moon, Neil Armstrong. Then there is the ‘6C 34’ which won grand prix races in Modena and Naples and was piloted by Le Mans’ winner Tazio Nuvolari. But my personal favorite was the 420M Eldorado race car once driven by none other than the legendary Stirling Moss.

But for me, the car museum was just as eye-opening as the hi-tech parmigiano reggiano cheese factory next door. As I entered the dedicated aging room for Panini’s parmigiano reggiano, I was met by Umberto Panini, patron of the farm. When he explained that the aging room we were standing in contained some 8,000 wheels (0r circles) of cheese, a phrase used to describe the tire-shaped blocks in which parmigiano reggiano is aged, I felt compelled to ask how each wheel is formed.

“To make each wheel requires some 500 liters of milk, and in our process, we don’t use preservatives or chemicals to preserve the cheese. Into the milk, we add whey and calf rennet (an enzyme) to help curdle the milk and make it into a yoghurt-like consistency. Then we put it through a brine bath to absorb salt,” said Panini.

That’s the abbreviated version. After a little extra study, I learned that making parmigiano reggiano is actually a challenge in temperature management. Whey is added to the milk at 33C, and calf rennet is mixed in at 35C. Then at 55C, the curd is broken up into small pieces for easier processing. Subsequently, the cheese goes into an aging room, set at 18-20C, for 3-4 weeks. After that, the parmigiano is swept through a brine bath to absorb salt and improve the flavor, before it is squeezed and formed into its customary wheel shape.

Incredibly, the world of parmigiano reggiano is as fascinating as that of champagne. In fact, like champagne, which can only be grown and produced in a small, finite area of France, parmigiano can only be produced in a finite area of northern Italy around Parma, Reggio Emilia, Bologna and Modena.

According to Panini, parmigiano production is restricted to this area because, as it turns out, there is a particular type of bacteria essential for cheese-making peculiar to this region. And surprisingly, cooking the curd at 55C kills the bad bacteria while allowing the good bacteria to survive and help ferment the cheese.

When Panini mentioned that his aging room contained 8,000 wheels of cheese and that each wheel cost a little south of $1,000 each, well, you can do the math. That aging room was like a bank vault to Panini and it certainly looked like it with thousands of golden colored salty ingots being meticulously wiped, cleaned, and turned every two weeks by a specially programmed robot. 

When Europeans strike success, they invariably buy luxury cars like Maseratis, or purchase cheese farms or wineries. And when they do really well, like the Panini family, they contribute to the local community with philanthropic gestures, thus adding to, and in some cases, creating their own culture. Modena’s cultural heritage is richer and prouder because of Panini’s unique Maserati classic car museum and its population, not ignoring a wider international clientele as well, enjoy the family’s parmigiano reggiano as some of the finest cheese coming out of Italy. Rare classic cars and addictive cheese. If you’re ever in Modena, this place is a must-visit.