Manchego is a pressed sheep's-milk cheese from La Mancha, and a protected name. The milk comes from Manchega sheep. The traditional rind shows a herringbone pattern from the old esparto molds.
Young Manchego is supple and milder. Aged Manchego is firmer, sharper, and good in shards. The protected cheese is sheep's milk only. It is the tapas cheese many people outside Spain meet first.
History
La Mancha is the high, dry plain of central Spain, the country of Don Quixote and of huge flocks of Manchega sheep. The cheese is the sheep cheese of that plain. Shepherds and later dairies pressed wheels that could keep in a dry climate. The zigzag rind comes from the esparto-grass baskets once used as molds. Modern molds press the same pattern so the wheel is still recognizable.
The protection limits the cheese to Manchega milk and to the defined region. Ages are sold under words you will see on labels: a younger cheese, a curado, and a viejo, the old one. This page does not pin those words to a count of months. The words are enough to shop by. Some aged wheels are rubbed with olive oil until the rind is dark. That oil is a finish, not a different cheese.
How it is made
Manchega sheep's milk is set, the curd is cut, cooked, and pressed into a short cylinder, and the cheese is salted and aged. The herringbone is on the side. A wheat-ear or similar pattern is often pressed into the top. The rind is natural. Younger wheels stay flexible. Older wheels dry and become a grating and shaving cheese as well as a table cheese.
Sheep's milk is mandatory for the protected cheese. A cow's-milk cheese in a zigzag rind is a lookalike. It may be sold near the real wheels because the shape sells. Read the milk. Pasteurized and raw-milk versions both exist inside the protection under different rules and ages. The flavor difference you will notice first is still age, not a story on the back label.
Taste
Young Manchego tastes of sheep's milk, salt, butter, and a slight tang, with a smooth chew. Aged Manchego tastes sharper, nuttier, and more savory, sometimes with a little crystal crunch and a longer finish. It should taste clean. A lanolin or sheep note is the milk, not a fault. A soapy or bitter note is a fault.
The rind is edible in the sense that it will not hurt you, and many people leave a thin line of it on a bite. A thick, dry, oil-caked rind is better left. If a wedge tastes like mild cow's-milk cheese, check the label. The sheep flavor is the reason to buy Manchego rather than a young Gouda.
In the kitchen
Serve slices or sticks as a tapa, with bread, olives, or membrillo, the quince paste that is the classic partner. Eat aged cheese in shards with nuts or grate it over a finished vegetable. Melt a younger cheese gently on toast. It softens. It does not become a pizza stretch.
Do not substitute a cow's-milk cheddar and expect the sheep and the quince to make the same plate. Do not substitute Pecorino Romano in equal amounts. Romano is saltier and more aggressive. Idiazábal is the substitute when you want another Spanish sheep cheese and can accept smoke. A younger Manchego is the substitute for an older one only in a casual snack, not on a board that was built around the aged wheel.
Around the world
La Mancha makes the protected cheese, and Spain eats it as a normal, proud table cheese. Abroad it became the default Spanish cheese of boards and tapas menus, sometimes the only Spanish cheese a shop carries. That fame is fair. The cheese travels well and tastes clearly of sheep without being as salty as a pecorino for pasta.
The name is protected. A sheep's-milk cheese from another region, even a good one, is not Manchego. Look for the region and for Manchega milk when you care. Look at the age when you cook or when you set a board. Curado and viejo will disappoint a person who wanted a mild flexible slice, and a very young wheel will disappoint a person who wanted shards and quince.