Producers of Queijo de Ovelha Amanteigado from Quinta do Pomar in Portugal looked “cheeeeeese” in the photo as they received first prize at the World Cheese Awards 2024, the annual competition that celebrates global excellence in cheese. It is therefore a raw sheep’s milk cheese, soft, curdled with thistle flower and matured for a period ranging from six weeks to three months which convinced the jury. For this 2024 edition, 4,786 cheeses from 47 countries were submitted to 240 judges from 40 countries, made up of cheese experts such as technologists and cheese graders, as well as retailers and buyers, chefs and cheese makers. journalists. The ceremony took place in Portugal.
During the presentation of the cheese at the final stage of judging, the British journalist Patrick McGuigan, author of several books on cheese, was particularly enthusiastic about the Portuguese cheese: “The thistle rennet gives the cheese a wonderful decomposition , which makes it very gooey and buttery, but you also get this nice grassy bitterness from these cheeses. This is a very good example of this balance. »
In the “Best French cheese” category, an Ossau Iraty from the Agour company in the Basque Country won the prize.
The complete winners of the World Cheese Awards 2024
- World cheese champion 2024-2025 : Queijo de Ovelha Amanteigado from Quinta do Pomar (Portugal), a soft raw sheep’s milk cheese, curdled with thistle flower and matured for a period ranging from six weeks to three months.
- Best cheese USA: Bayley Hazen Blue from Cellars at Jasper Hill, a raw cow’s milk blue with a natural rind, produced from animal rennet and matured for three to six months.
- Best cheese Australia: Raw Tom from Bruny Island Cheese Co., a semi-soft tomme-type raw cow’s milk cheese, produced from vegetable rennet and matured for a maximum of 5 months.
- Best cheese Austria: Kronprinz Rudolf de Obersteirische Molkerei eGen, a hard raw cow’s milk cheese, produced from vegetable rennet and matured for six to nine months.
- Best Belgian cheese: Lotenhulle Rouge from Little Cheese Farm, a soft pasteurized cow’s milk cheese, with a washed rind, refined with mold, produced from animal rennet and matured for four weeks.
- Best French cheese: raw sheep’s milk cheese AOP Ossau Iraty from the Agour company in the Basque Country, produced from animal rennet and matured for three to six months.
- Best cheese Germany: Baldauf 1862 Meisterstück Alpkäse from Baldauf Käse, a hard, raw cow’s milk cheese, produced from animal rennet and matured for at least eight months.
- Best cheese Greece: the Graviera Naxou PDO Pittara from Nikolaos Emm. Pittaras, a hard pasteurized cow’s milk PDO cheese, produced from animal rennet and matured for at least three months.
- Best cheese Ireland: Mount Leinster Clothbound Cheddar from Coolattin Cheddar Ltd, a raw cow’s milk cheese, farm cheddar type, produced from animal rennet and matured for fourteen months.
- Best Italian cheese: F. lli Petrucci’s Pecorino Bislacco al Rum e Tabacco, a cheese made from pasteurized sheep’s milk, washed with rum and wrapped in smoked tobacco leaves.
- Best cheese in Japan: Setana de Cheesedom, a pasteurized milk cheese from Brune des Alpes and Jersey cows, soft, refined with mold, produced from animal rennet and matured for a period ranging from seven days to a month.
- Best Latin American cheese: Passionata from Biopark (Brazil), a semi-soft pasteurized cow’s milk cheese, produced from vegetable rennet, the curds of which are washed with a passion fruit infusion.
- Best cheese Netherlands: Kaashandel Remijn’s MA Montbeliarde, a semi-soft raw Montbéliarde cow’s milk cheese, produced from vegetable rennet and matured for three to six months.
- Best cheese Norway: Snertingdal ysteri Godbiten from Snertingdal ysteri drift AS, a pasteurized goat’s and cow’s milk blue cheese, semi-soft, produced from animal rennet and matured for six to nine months.
- Best cheese in Portugal: Queijo de Ovelha Amanteigado from Quinta do Pomar, a soft raw sheep’s milk cheese, curdled with thistle flower and matured for a period of six weeks to three months.
- Best cheese in South Africa: Oak Smoked Stanford from Klein River Cheese, a pasteurized cow’s milk, semi-soft cheese, smoked with oak wood, produced from vegetable rennet and matured for three to six months.
- Best cheese Spain: Cava Barus García-Baquero from Lacteas Garcia Baquero SA, a cheese made from raw cow, sheep and goat’s milk with a washed rind, produced from animal rennet and matured for six months.
- Best Swiss cheese: Alpenhorn Mifroma from the Elsa Group (Mifroma), a raw milk cheese from a horned cow, semi-soft, with a washed rind, produced from animal rennet and matured for three to six months.
- Best New Cheese : Leirgrøv Naturall Vellagra from Hol Ysteri – Norway