Cheese · PAT · Alto Adige
Also labelled Formaggio magro Aschbacher
A semi-soft cow's milk cheese from Algund near Meran, named for the mountain hamlet of Aschbach.
Aschbacher Magerkäse is the lean cut cheese of the Sennerei Algund and shares its name with Aschbach, one of the mountain hamlets whose farms supply the dairy. It is on Italy's list of traditional agri-food products (PAT). The data sheet gives a loaf of about 6 kg made from skimmed and whole cow's milk, with 8 percent fat (15 percent in the dry matter) and 35.4 g of protein per 100 g.
Made in: Algund near Meran, named for the mountain hamlet of Aschbach
The Sennerei Algund describes a mild, faintly sour, clean and specific taste in a paste that slices softly but does not run. The data sheet lists 2.2 g of salt per 100 g.
Wine and cheese
This is a lean cheese, 8 percent fat, mild and faintly sour. A dry, medium-bodied Müller-Thurgau with high acidity and an aromatic lift echoes the faint sourness and has no weight to bury a lean paste.
The grapes behind these winesMueller-Thurgau
From the source
Cooperative founded in 1899 near Meran, taking milk from 52 mountain farms. It makes cow's and goat's milk cheeses including the PAT Algunder Bauernkäse and Ziegenkäse, and sells them in its own shop. Its guided tasting "Mein Käse" lets visitors make a cheese; the page gives no dates or price, so telephone to arrange it.
Affineur's shop founded in 1994 by Hansi Baumgartner, a trained cook, which selects cheeses from small dairies and finishes them, ripening them in a former military bunker. The counter in Vahrn offers tastings of 12 cheeses (EUR 24) or 15 (EUR 30), with drinks charged extra.
Pur Südtirol's first market, in the Meran Kurhaus since 2010. A cheese sommelier, a wine academy graduate and a meat sommelier advise; the speck ripening cellar is downstairs, and there is a wine bar and a sunny terrace on one of Meran's shopping streets.
Mila's shop in Bruneck, where its cheese dairy is, with the whole range and other South Tyrolean specialities. The Senni Bar at the same address opens at 6:00 on weekdays and from 7:00 to 13:00 on Sunday, when the shop lists no hours.
Branch of the Sennerei Drei Zinnen at Burgweg 1, a few steps from Innichen's pedestrian zone and station. It is closed on Sunday and on Thursday afternoon, and can be reached on +39 0474 913317.
Cheese market and festival in the Ahrntal's main village, with producers from South Tyrol and beyond, a cooking arena and tastings run with Slow Food. ONAF calls it biennial. The 16th edition was held 13 to 15 March 2026.
Museum, production area and ripening cellar behind glass. Self-guided in opening hours, with cheese being made Tuesday to Friday until about 13:00; public guided tours are paused until Tuesday 29 December 2026, groups of 15 or more on request.
Two weeks of Graukäse: an opening festival with market and tastings, 12 participating businesses, producer visits and a closing five-course dinner by registration. The 9th edition was held in September 2026.
Tasting of the Eggemoa raw-milk cheeses, starting with the mild Candidum and moving to the larch-needle and alpine-herb cheeses, rind included, with advice on which drink fits. Reserve through the form on its website; no dates or price are published.
A guided tasting at the Algund dairy where up to 16 visitors make their own cheese under staff guidance and take it home, and taste the dairy's cheeses. The page gives no dates, price or booking link and names no season, so telephone +39 0473 448710 to arrange it.
Family theme trail on a forest path beside a stream, with stations on how milk becomes cheese and on local specialities. It ends at the Käserei Sexten at 1,310 m, where the dairy sells its cheese. The tourist board gives no season.
The data sheet gives 8 percent fat, or 15 percent in the dry matter, which makes it far leaner than the dairy's farmhouse cheese at 20 percent fat.
About 6 kg, according to the dairy's data sheet.
The dairy names Aschbach among the hamlets around Algund whose farms deliver its milk, and the PAT list gives the cheese as Aschbacher Magerkäse. Neither page states the naming outright.
Same cheeseboard
Plan the trip
Tastings and tours where it is made, and somewhere to stay.
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Sources: protection register, www.sennereialgund.it, it.wikipedia.org. The drawing is made from the cheese's recorded shape, rind and paste, not a photograph.
