World Cheese Awards: Portugal triumphs as Brexit torpedoes UK chances

Queijo de Ovelha Amanteigado.  

Heard of it?

It’s a soft and buttery sheep’s milk cheese from Portugal, made by Quinto do Pomar in the Serra da Gardunha in the centre of the country. It has been named the best in the world.  

The cheese topped the charts at this year’s World Cheese Awards, which was held in Viseu, northern Portugal, beating two Swiss cheeses (Tea Fondada and Alpenhorn Mifroma – coming in second and third place), as well as Spanish and American cheeses (La Cava Barus García-Baquero and Bayley Hazen Blue, which rounded off the Top 5).  

Scroll down for this year’s winners.

The event, run by the British-based Guild of Fine Food, saw a record 4,786 entries from 47 countries around the world – making this year’s edition the most significant to date.

However, British cheesemakers missed out after the country’s entries were hit by post-Brexit custom checks.

It turns out that the cheeses hadn’t passed customs, with up to 252 cheeses from 67 British makers that may have been affected.

John Farrand, director at the Guild of Fine Food, said the delays “would not have been a thing” before the UK left the EU.

“The reasons are unclear to me, even on Friday we were still fighting to get some clarity and clear instruction on what wasn’t right, but we had no success,” Farrand told the Observer.

“Before Brexit, this wouldn’t have been a thing. That’s a fact.”

Judge James Grant, co-founder of the Real Cheese Project, chimed in by singling out the “Brexit red tape”, branding the incident “devastating.”

“The UK’s going through an incredible change as far as cheese is going,” Grant told the Observer. “There’s an incredible amount of hard work from these cheesemakers who are putting handmade artisan cheese back on the map. It’s really, really sad.”

Britain hasn’t won since 2017, and had no cheeses in the top 14 this year.

Here are this year’s winners:  

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1. Queijo de Ovelha Amanteigado, Quinta do Pomar, Portugal 
2. Tea Fondada, Chascharia Val Müstair, Switzerland 
3. Alpenhorn Mifroma, Elsa Group (Mifroma), Switzerland 
4. La Cava Barus García-Baquero, Lacteas Garcia Baquero, Spain 
5. Bayley Hazen Blue, Cellars at Jasper Hill, USA 
6. Pecorino Bislacco al Rum e Tabacco, Petrucci, Italy 
7. Blugins, La Casearia Carpenedo, Italy 
8. Creamy Lion Cheese, Walo von Mühlenen, Switzerland 
9. Passionata, Biopark, Brazil 
10. Godbiten, Snertingdal Ysteri, Norway 
11. Alte Hexe, Bodensee Käse, Switzerland 
12. Valleclaro, Quesos y Besos, Spain 
13. Baldauf 1862 Meisterstück Alpkäse, Baldauf Käse, Germany 
14. Tatie, Latteria Moro di Moro Sergio, Italy

The 4,786 cheeses were marked on four categories – visuals; body and texture; aroma; flavour and mouthfeel – and were evaluated by 240 judges from 40 countries.  

Additional sources • Observer