The ‘best cheese in the world’ 2021 is Spanish

(CNN) – A soft goat cheese from Spain won first place in the World Cheese Awards on Wednesday, among 4,079 copies from more than 40 countries on five continents.

The winning cheese, called Olavidia, from an artisan cheese factory with the trade name Cheeses and Kisses, obtained 103 votes, beating the second classified, a soft cheese from the French Fromagerie Berthaut washed with Marc de Bourgogne liqueur, with 98 votes, which was ahead until the last minute.

A British judge, Jason Hinds, told his fellow judges on the panel just before voting that goat cheese had a “rich, seductive, creamy texture” and “a round, warm taste.”

“I just wanted to sleep with him,” Hinds added, with a smile, at the ceremony broadcast live by organizers from the northern city of Oviedo, in northern Spain.

“A humble little cheese factory”

Silvia Peláez, owner of the producer of the winning cheese, said: “We are a small and humble cheese factory in Jaén,” a city in southern Spain best known for its olives, which are widely exported.

“Daily work pays off,” Peláez said, adding that the cheese factory, officially known as Lácteos Romero Peláez, has only six employees.

Their goat cheese has a noticeable black stripe down the middle, which was mentioned by the judges. Organizers of the competition said the cheese was “matured with penicillium candidum and olive ash.” Some comments indicated that the ash was the black stripe.

The previous winner was an organic blue cheese, Rogue River Blue, the first American champion at these awards. That was in October 2019 in Bergamo, Italy. The annual cheese showdown did not take place last year due to the covid-19 pandemic.

The latest winner, in 2019, was an Oregon blue cheese called Rogue River Blue. (Beryl Striewski)

This is how the best cheese in the world is chosen

About 250 judges, including food scientists, cheese vendors, chefs and sommeliers, mix with the cheeses and each other during the competition. It started with 88 tables in a large conference room, each with three judges who tasted and scored about 45 cheeses distributed before them at each table.

They focused on “the appearance, touch, smell and flavor of each entry, scoring aspects such as the appearance of the crust and the pasta, as well as the aroma, body and texture of the cheese, with the majority of points awarded for taste and sensation in the mouth, “read the organization’s website.

That reduced the field to 88, or one “big cheese” per table. The 88 semi-finalists then gave way to just 16 finalists. Their fate was decided by a so-called “superjury” of 16 judges who have no commercial ties with the producers of these cheeses, the organization said.

In the final round of judging, each of the 16 judges spoke about a cheese, praising its characteristics, and then the 16 judges tasted that same cheese and voted by holding up cards with a number, on a scale of 1 to 10, assigning points to that cheese, in full view of the audience. The same method was then used for the other 15 finalists.

The winning goat cheese was the last to be judged among the finalists and took the day.

But is he the best in the world right now?

Its title is “world champion cheese,” John Farrand, managing director of the UK-based Guild of Fine Food, which organizes the awards, told CNN. “The judges consider it the best cheese in the world. It has the new crown.”