In a towering warehouse on the flat, fertile outskirts of Modena, in northern Italy, hefty golden wheels of cheese sit stacked in columns that soar to the ceiling.
This cathedral-like space is where the more than 40,000 wheels of Parmesan made yearly by the producer Quattro Madonne come to ripen — and where they are judged worthy of carrying the hallowed name of Parmigiano Reggiano.
“You can hear this one sounds different,” said Alberto Pecorari of the Parmigiano Reggiano Consortium, after he taps a small metal hammer against one wheel of cheese, producing a wooden, knocking sound — then against another, which
