British writer Patrick McGuigan praised the winner, calling the aged raw milk cheese “very gooey, very shiny, very buttery.” It also has a nice grassy bitterness. It’s up for grabs,” he added, perhaps using breadsticks.

The World Cheese Awards, organized by the UK-based Guild of Fine Food, are in their 36th year and are one of the top events in the calendar for artisan food lovers around the world. Winning cheesemakers see their products increase in sales, with cheesemakers around the world rushing to stock them. Portugal becomes the 10th country to win the World Cheese Awards. Last year, first prize went to a Norwegian blue cheese.

No UK prices

Britain haven’t won since Cornish Kern in 2017, and with no cheeses in the top 14 this year, it marks another disappointing performance, after just two in the upper echelons in 2023. There was speculation that British cheeses had failed to pass customs. . France also failed to make the top 14, but its neighbor Switzerland had four cheeses, while Italy had three.

The World Cheese Awards are increasingly a global affair and this year’s edition saw entrants from 47 countries as far afield as Chile and Kenya. More than 1,000 registered cheesemakers, including 52 from Portugal, and 240 judges, a mix of cheesemakers, buyers, producers, writers, cheese-loving comedian Marcus Brigstocke and many others, came from 40 country for the event.