Posted on 11/14/2025 11:35:10 AM PST by Red Badger
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https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2025/11/14/swiss-gruyere-crowned-the-2025-world-cheese-champion_6747449_4.html
The World Cheese Awards first prize winner, a gruyère AOP special over 18 months cheese presented by Swiss cheese maker Hitz Pius, from the Vorderfultigen cheese company, during the 37th edition of the World Cheese Awards, in Bern, Switzerland, November 13, 2025. GABRIEL MONNET / AFP A Swiss gruyère was crowned the 2025 World Cheese Champion on Thursday, November 13, seeing off competition from more than 5,000 rivals from 46 countries. The 18-month-old Vorderfultigen Spezial produced by Bergkaserei Vorderfultigen won the title at the World Cheese Awards, held in the Swiss capital Bern.
The winning cheese came from a mountain dairy in the pre-Alps region of Gantrisch, just south of Bern. Grand final judge Perry Wakeman said it was the kind of cheese "that would make people get excited about cheese." "It's a big old cheese – there's a lot going on. The texture is beautiful: it's flinty as you break it apart; the crystalline in there are so delicate," he said. "It is massive. It makes an impact."
It was the first time that the contest, created by the British-based Guild of Fine Food in 1988, has been staged in cheese-loving Switzerland – though gruyère cheeses have scooped the top prize five times before.
Kuba Maziarczyk, super jury member and Polish cheesemaker, smells a piece of cheese during the 37th edition of the World Cheese Awards, organised by the Guild of Fine Food, in Bern, on November 13, 2025. GABRIEL MONNET / AFP
Appearance, nose, flavor
Laid out on seemingly endless tables draped in white tablecloths, 5,244 cheeses were tasted by an international jury of 265 experts made up of cheesemakers, chefs, buyers, sellers and journalists from more than 40 countries, recognizable by their yellow aprons.
"First of all, we're looking at the visual appearance of the cheese: how it looks like from the inside and outside," Polish cheesemaker Kuba Maziarczyk, one of the judges in the final, told Agence France-Presse (AFP). The second step "is the nose: so all the aromas that the cheese is actually giving us." And then, it comes down to flavor.
The judges made an initial selection of the most outstanding cheeses before a second and then a final evaluation by a "super jury" of judges from 14 different countries.
"Cheese must reflect its terroir; it must be balanced in terms of taste, aroma and flavor," said French judge Laurent Dubois. "It shouldn't be too aged or too young. Cheese is always a question of harmony. That's why good cheeses are often those with a long tradition," he said.
The joy of cheese
Around 2,000 people watched the action inside Bern's Festhalle exposition hall. "We've got blues. We've got hard cheeses. We've got all different styles. That makes it really interesting," said British judge Nigel Barden, a food and drink broadcaster for the BBC. "Just when you think your palate's getting a little bit tired, suddenly a cheese comes along and really excites you," he said. "And that's the joy of the World Cheese Awards."
The Guild of Fine Food's managing director John Farrand told AFP that the awards were originally founded to raise the profile of small cheesemakers. In the 1980s, dairy production had become "quite consolidated," he said. "I think perhaps we'd forgotten the connection between the land, the milk, the animal, and the farm," and ultimately the cheese, he said.
The awards were established "to try and remind the world that small can be beautiful in cheesemaking terms." Next year's World Cheese Awards will be held in Cordoba, Spain.
Le Monde with AFP
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Not much call for cheddar around these parts
I prefer Vermont Sharp White.
New York Extra-Sharp in one of my faves.................
From Belloc’s “The Four Men”:
The Poet. “Besides this, what we need is
two large cottage loaves of new bread, and
butter, and some kind of cheese.”
Myself. “Poet, did you not tell me that
you were of this County and of this land?”
The Poet. “I did.”
Myself. “I think you lied. Who in
Sussex ever heard of ‘ some kind of cheese’ ?
You might as well talk in Hereford of
‘some kind of cider,’ or in Kent of ‘ some kind
of foreigner’ coming over by their boats from
the foreign lands. I think you must have been
out of Sussex, Poet, for many years of your
life, and at the wrong time. ”
The Poet. “Why, that is true. “
Myself. “And, undoubtedly, Poet, you
acquired in other counties a habit of eating
that Gorgonzola cheese, which is made of
soap in Connecticut ; and Stilton, which is
not made at Stilton ; and Camembert, and
other outlandish things. But in Sussex, let
me tell you, we have but one cheese, the
name of which is CHEESE. It is One; and
undivided, though divided into a thousand
fragments, and unchanging, though changing
in place and consumption. There is in Sussex
no Cheese but Cheese, and it is the same true
Cheese from the head of the Eastern Rother
to Harting Hill, and from the sea-beach to
that part of Surrey which we gat from the
Marches with sword and with bow. In
colour it is yellow, which is the right colour
of Cheese. It is neither young nor old. Its
taste is that of Cheese, and nothing more. A
man may live upon it all the days of his
life.”
I recommend the dark film “The Menu” Really
enjoyed it, and the fictional world class chef main character affirms that nothing is superior to American cheese in a cheeseburger
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Menu_(2022_film)
I just watched that movie about a week ago. Strange one.
Agreed.
"It's like you're dreaming about gorgonzola cheese when it's clearly brie time, baby!"
contest held in Switzerland, judged by Swiss people - was the outcome ever in doubt?
Next year in Spain...................
This was confirmed near the end of the movie “the hunt”. The grilled cheeses scene.
True, but loved how he handled the pretentious foodie suck up dork.
I’m not gonna argue.
Just bought a small 6oz block of cheese at our local Grocery Outlet store. Meister Cheese Co. Wisconsin. Jack cheese with bits of wild morel mushrooms and leeks in it. REALLY good, even Mikey the wife like it. “She doesn’t like anything”
</sarc>
Step into my office!!
Cheeses are so different, it would impossible to come up with a single best.
Isn’t that kind of like saying the bloodhound is declared the world’s best dog at Westminster?
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