|
A French
ewe's milk cheese from the region of Pays Basque in France has walked
away with the coveted title of Supreme Champion in the annual World
Cheese Awards - the worlds most prestigious international cheese
event. According to organisers, The UK Cheese Guild, the standard of
entries was outstanding, however the depth of flavour and sheer
quality of the Brebis cheese won over the judges to be crowned
outright winner.
The Ossau
Iraty Brebis is made in the Basque area of France from pure sheep's
milk by the Fromagerie Agour and is imported solely by Roots
Delicatessen in High Wycombe. It beat off competition from over 1,500
cheeses from across the world to scoop top place in the Awards.
The Supreme
Judging Panel, made up of cheese experts from across the industry and
throughout the world were particularly impressed by the Brebis'
complex and well-rounded flavour and comments ranged from 'it's a
privilege to eat' and 'a great combination of flavours: nuttiness,
salt yet also slightly sweet" to 'it simply melts on the palate
- a superb sheeps cheese."
This year the
World Cheese Awards were held at Taste of London in Regents Park and
samples of winning cheese were available for consumers to try
throughout the four days of the show. Judged by 120 experts from
around the world, this year the awards were of an outstanding
quality, featuring more cheeses from more countries worldwide than
any other competition. Entries were received from as far afield as
Spain, Holland, France, Italy, the USA, South Africa Australia, New
Zealand and Switzerland. In total, 135 gold awards were presented,
along with 132 Silver and 157 Bronze awards, demonstrating the sheer
quality and diversity of the huge variety of cheeses now available.
Other notable
winners include Healey's Farmhouse Cheddar which was awarded the
Agri-Expo trophy for Best South African Cheese, The Antigo Cheese
Companies Aged Stravecchio Parmesan, which was awarded best US Cow's
Milk Cheese, Lactalis' President Palet de Chevre, which was awarded
Best French Goat's Cheese, Brindisa's Vicente Pastor Zamorano Gran
Reserva, which was awarded Best Spanish Cheese, Defendi Gorgonzola
Caravaggio which was entered by Bradbury & Son and won Best Blue
PDO Cheese and Wensleydale Dairy Products Traditional Wensleydale was
awarded Best English Cheese.
The Supreme
Champion was awarded 90 points out of a maximum of 100 by the Supreme
Jury of 10 experts. According to Bob Farrand, Chairman of the UK
Cheese Guild; "The judging was the closest this year that it has
ever been in the Awards 19 year history with two cheeses scoring the
same amount of points. The Brevis was overall winner due to the fact
that it received three maximum scores from the judges, but the
Gorgonzola Caravaggio came a very close second. This just goes to
show the fantastic quality of the cheese entered, however the Ossau
Iraty Brebis was outstanding and truly deserved to win. Once again
this was a truly memorable competition."
|
