What do you get if you combine 2700 cheeses with 216 international cheese judges? Answer: Today's World Cheese Awards held at the NEC in Birmingham England. Amazingly, 75% of the cheeses represented were from overseas producers and judges were also drawn from countries as diverse as Russia, South Africa and Mexico.

For the overall winner, Ossau Iraty made by Agour of France, the win was an incredible case of deja vu since they also won the competition in 2006 - remember this was out of 2700 cheeses!

The USA should be justly proud of the many awards given to some of its best producers including Sartori who took overall third place, Beatje Farms who won a Super Gold Medal plus cleaning up several Silver and Bronze awards, Rivers Edge Chevre with a Silver for their Mayor of Nye Beach, Leelanau Cheese Co for their Aged Raclette and Fiscalini who won a Gold for their Lionza.

It’s a credit to the people and places of northern Spain to report that even though I had my backpack robbed on a recent trip to that region, my visit was nonetheless fantastic. One of the best foreign forays I’ve ever had.