Our recent trip to northern Spain was as much a seafood deep dive as a cheese journey, but I did visit two top-tier creameries in Galicia and two impeccably curated cheese shops in Madrid. It was torture to encounter so many tantalizing cheeses and not be able to bring them home. But you should know about these must-see shops in case Madrid is in your future. And I want to highlight two of the cheeses that wowed me—one of them already available in the U.S. As for the other—recently named Spain’s best—well, we can hope.

First, the cheese we can get: KM 39 (pictured above). Its name in Spain is different—Galmesán, a mashup of Galicia and Parmesan. Importer Michele Buster of Forever Cheese renamed it to reference the creamery’s location in Arzúa—39 kilometers from the end point of the Camino del Santiago. Buster was hiking the Camino five years ago when she realized she was just a few minutes away from the producer of a cheese she had heard about. “You’re on the wrong path,” people warned her when she detoured to visit Galmesán. “No, I’m on the right path,” she replied, and for that we can be grateful. Forever Cheese began importing KM 39 in 2022. Here’s a retail list.

Doug and I showed up at the creamery in time to witness most of the production process. The cow’s milk comes from local farms and is skimmed, pasteurized and cultured with whey from the day before. The curd is cut small, warmed in the whey, then drained, pressed, transferred to round forms and pressed again. The roughly 25-pound wheels spend 15 days in brine, then 18 months on pine boards in the cave. Mature wheels are firm, deep gold and crystalline, with a friable texture and a deeply nutty, faintly citrusy aroma. Watch how creamery manager Carmelo Cano makes the critical decision about whether the curd is ready to cut.

To my surprise, Cano served the cheese to us in slices. I would have probably made chunks as I do for Parmigiano Reggiano, but she believes it tastes better sliced thin. Serve it as a tapa with olives and fino sherry or Cava or on a cheese board at the end of a meal with a big red wine.

Blue cheese from Airas Moniz — Champion cheese: Savel from Airas Moniz

We also visited Airas Moniz in the Galician village of Chantada, producers of Savel, last year’s winner of the Cheese from Spain awards. Made with pasteurized Jersey cow’s milk (rare in Spain), Savel is an easy-to-love blue truckle, creamy and mellow. Its toasty aroma reminds me of Saltine crackers, and it has the butteriness and approachability of Bayley Hazen Blue. We saw it everywhere in Galicia and Asturias, a big success for this 9-year-old creamery whose three partners are driven by a desire to revitalize the farm economy in Galicia. Anyone can book a tour and tasting at Airas Moniz; if you do go, be sure to reserve a table for lunch at nearby A Faragulla. In this video, watch how a creamery worker seals the exterior of the cheese to halt the blueing.

The two Madrid cheese shops that so impressed me are Cultivo and Formaje. Cultivo has a slightly larger selection, with a more resolute focus on Spain. Both shops are champions of small producers and raw-milk cheese and do some affinage (cheese maturation) and tasting classes. (Book those well ahead.)

The enthusiastic and knowledgeable Jorge Diéguez was behind the counter at Cultivo when we visited. I finally had to say “uncle” or he would not have stopped giving me samples. I was particularly taken with Masiega, a raw sheep’s milk blue from near Valladolid, and Isla Corazón, a raw goat’s milk wheel from the Canary Islands. Importers, get on it!

At Formaje, the young cheesemonger barked at me—politely—when I picked up a wrapped cheese. No touching. This did not offend me in the least. I took it as a sign of how deeply management cares about protecting the product. We got another display of this shop’s high standards when the clerk demonstrated how she wraps only the cut faces of a wheel, never allowing plastic wrap to smother the rind. This is gold-standard cheese handling.

Monger mastery: Carlota Real shows the right way to wrap

Spain has so many more gorgeous cheeses to share with us than we currently get. I know nothing about the challenges involved, but I’m hoping that importers will consider expanding their Spanish portfolio in the years to come.