After one hour, the mold is inverted and the cheese flipped top to bottom. This is repeated twice and assists in uniform draining of the whey. The molds with the cheese are allowed to drain overnight and this happens in a room at 18 degrees centigrade with very high relative humidity. The segmented rounds are transferred the next day to wooden barrels and coarse grain salt is placed at the bottom of the barrel as well as in between the rounds of cheese. The amount of salt put into the barrel is about 3% by weight of the mass of cheese. This dairy uses sea salt re-crystallized, produced by the salt flats at Mesologhi in western Greece on the gulf of Patras. This is the only salting that is done to the cheese. After 24 hours, the cheese is removed from these temporary storage barrels, rinsed with water and placed in the final barrel where it will age.

The barrels that are to receive the new cheese are first smeared on the inside surfaces with ourda, a fresh myzithra (fresh whey cheese) with high salt content.
The ourda is prepared along with the cheese and is fresh each time. Once the inside of the barrel is coated, the segmented wheels are placed in the barrel and a small amount of whey is used to fill the voids around the cheese. The barrel is sealed and transferred to ageing rooms where the temperature is between 18 & 21 degrees centigrade and the relative humidity 85-95%. This ageing step takes 15-20 days depending on the season.

Ageing is faster in the summer and slower in the winter. When this ageing step is completed, the barrels are transferred to refrigerated chambers (1-4 deg C) where the ageing process continues at a much slower rate. Nevertheless, the flavor continues to develop for sometime.

A word about the barrel: the barrels are made of birch wood and the wood has no direct influence on the cheese. It does not impart any woody taste. However, there is a very subtle role that is played by the wood. Beyond allowing the penetration of oxygen from the atmosphere into the cheese, it appears that cultures develop in the surface grain of the wood and the course of that process has a significant effect on flavor. Old barrels that are re-used produce better cheese. Barrels achieve equilibrium and are desirable after the third round of ageing of cheese. Cheese aged in a brand new barrel is very definitely of inferior quality because it does have some characteristics from the wood. After each use, barrels are disassembled, rinsed and steamed and reassembled for the next use. The cheese makers will carefully inspect the prepared barrels before putting cheese in them by looking at them, touching them and smelling them. The cheese is ready for consumption two months after being made. However, it continues to improve for another 2 or 3 months and the best cheese is at least five months old for those preferring a milder taste and 8 or 9 months old for traditionalists who like a bit of tanginess.

I prefer not to offer cheese to a consumer any earlier than four months. Ideally, the cheese should be eaten between 6 and 12 months old. The change, the maturation of the cheese, is gradual and continuous beginning with a very creamy milky taste of the very young cheese, which certainly is pleasant. One is inclined to eat it all by itself with complexity increasing over time. At six months I think we begin to really enjoy the complex flavors that come from a certain amount of protein and fat breakdown as the cultures continue to work. These are aromatic compounds that also have a peppery effect on taste. This cheese is a wonderful accompaniment to salads and is enhanced by a drizzle of olive oil. To my taste, cheese that is 9-12 months old is the best version of Feta because the maturation process is well advanced, intense aromas have developed and there is a peppery quality which develops unique to Feta.

This is great eating cheese but also wonderful cooking cheese. Adding crumbled Feta on baked dishes such as baked eggplant (papoutsaki) produces a superb flavor. Of course, to many people new to this kind of cheese, the flavor may be overwhelming. If I were to educate people in eating Feta, I would begin by introducing them (or their palates) to a very young cheese and then hopefully after only a few months, I could increase their knowledge and appreciation by onverting them to eating a year-old barrel aged cheese.