Here they are, the 2012 American Cheese Society Best in Show winners, chosen from out of 1,711 entries and 122 categories:

Best in Show: Beecher’s Handmade Cheese Flagsheep, from Seattle, Washington.

2nd Place: Valley Shepherd Creamery Crema de Blue, a cave-aged, farmstead sheep’s milk blue from New Jersey

3rd Place: Emmi Roth USA Grand Cru® Surchoix, produced in southern Wisconsin in the traditional manner, in large copper vats.

Read the full list of winners here!