The largest cheese, butter, and yogurt competition in the world has selected its champion. Esquirrou, a hard sheep’s milk cheese imported from France was honored on Thursday night by being named,the 2018 World Championship Cheese Contest winner. Savencia Cheese USA from Pennsylvania, entered Esquirro into the competition this year and it is created by Maukeon Fromagerie in France.
The 2018 World Championship Cheese Contest took place March 6-8, in Madison, WI at the Monona Terrace Convention Center. This contest bring together cheese enthusiasts from across the world to compete for the title of World Champion Cheese.
The contest this year the judges were tasked to evaluate 3,402 different cheese entries varying in classification. These entries came from the 26 different nations represented at the two day competition. Wisconsin cheese producers had great success during the competition as five Wisconsin cheeses found their way to the top 20 selection.
After a tough two days of judging the top three cheeses were announced during the Champion Cheese banquet held at the Monona Terrace.
The results are as follows:
2018 World Champion
Cheese name: Esquirrou
Country: France
Company: Savencia Cheese USA / Mauleon Fromagerie
Champion Round Score: 98.376
2018 First Runner Up
Cheese name: Arzberger Ursteirer
Country: Austria
Company: Almenland Stollenkäse GmbH
Maker/Team:Franz Möstl and Team
Champion Round Score: 98.267
2018 Second Runner Up
Cheese name: Mont Vully Bio
Country: Switzerland
Company: Fromagerie Schafer
Maker/Team: Ewald Schafer
Champion Round Score: 98.256
Before the champion was named judges from around the world had the demanding job of evaluating the over 3,000 entries. Bill Schlinsog, the Chief Judge Emeritus said, when evaluating the cheese judges look, feel, smell and most importantly taste the cheese. This is done to properly judge if the entry represents its category correctly.
Schlinsog, has been an a chief judge for the contest in the past and now has the opportunity to be the Chief Judge Emeritus. In his many years at the competition he has seen it change and develop exponentially.
“When I first started judging we had eight judges and now we have 56 judges. We had at bet 500 entries now we have over 3,000. You can see the growth and a lot has to do with the new varieties and specialty cheeses being created,” said Schlinsog.
For more information on the 2018 World Championship Cheese Contest hosted by the Wisconsin Cheese Maker’s Association and the results visit, https://www.worldchampioncheese.org/