British Cheese Awards: The Results Are In!
The long-anticipated results of the British Cheese Awards have been announced and Real Yorkshire Wensledale Blue took Supreme Champion! Read on for more details, and a list of winners:
The hotly anticipated results of the 19th British Cheese Awards were announced this evening at a sparkling event at the City Hall in Cardiff. On the eve of the Great British Cheese Festival and signalling the beginning of British Cheese Week, the great and the good of cheese making assembled to celebrate the Oscars of the dairy world, and the star of the show was a Real Yorkshire Wensleydale Blue made by Wensleydale Dairy Products, Hawes, Yorkshire.
Entries included over 750 vegetarian cheeses, over 200 raw milk cheeses, nearly 110 organic, 82 blue and just under 200 goat and ewe’s milk creations. The judges nosed, nibbled and narrowed the field to a list of winners in 22 categories, representing the nation’s finest possible cheeseboard and declared Real Yorkshire Wensleydale Blue, made by Wensleydale Dairy Products the best of the best.
An esteemed panel of cheese experts, food writers, chefs and gastronomes had previously assembled on 31st August to consider more than 900 magnificent entries from nearly 200 British and Irish cheese makers in a marquee on Churchill’s idyllic village green, in the heart of the Cotswolds.
Supreme Champion
Real Yorkshire Wensleydale Blue, Wensleydale Dairy Products
Also winner of 2012 Best Blue Cheese. The creamery at Hawes in Wensleydale have been making cheese and winning awards for over 100 years and recently created the Real Yorkshire Wensleydale brand to help protect the provenance of traditional Wensleydale, like this Blue Wensleydale. It has an unusual but attractive, dry grey “snake skin” crust, wrapped in a bandage pierced with small holes. A densely compact slightly dry texture that soon becomes almost velvety in the mouth, with well-spread threads of silvery blue that melt in the mouth releasing their spicy but surprisingly mild blue tang that hints of cocoa.Best English – Patrick Rance Trophy
Claxstone Shropshire Blue, Long Clawson Dairy Sponsored by H-E-B/Central Market
Part of Long Clawson’s new Claxstone range it is a tall cylinder with a dry, crusty rind beneath which the tangerine orange interior is slashed with a mass of blue streaks. Spicy but not as strong as Stilton it looks great on any cheeseboard..Best Welsh – Dougal Campbell Trophy
Perl Las Organic, Caws Cenarth Sponsored by Welsh Government
Created in 2013 by the Adams family, this elegant blue has a thin rind covered in grey & blue mould and a buttery smooth, yellow interior, streaked with thick purple-blue blotches. Stronger than Stilton with a snappish, peppery bite and a sea breeze salty finish.Best Scottish Cheese
Seriously Strong Vintage Cheddar, Caledonian Cheese Co Sponsored by Clarks Speciality Foods
The Seriously strong brand is no stranger to success at the British cheese Awards and this year beat off stiff competition to win this award. The judges chose it for its firm, dense almost chewy texture and its strong, forthright sweet-savoury tang with a big fruity finish.Best Irish Cheese – Eugene Burns Trophy
Killeen Goat Extra Mature, Killeen Farmhouse Cheese Sponsored by Irish Food Board
Also winner of 2012 Best Modern British. Based in east Galway all Killeen Cheese is handmade to a Gouda recipe using milk from their own herd of goats. Beneath the pale orange rind is a dense, compact pale ivory interior with superb savoury reminiscent of marmite, that goes on and on.
