A buttery, spoonable sheep cheese from Portugal beat thousands of other competitors to snag the top prize at the 2024 World Cheese Awards, according to a press release from the organisers, the Guild of Fine Food.
Hosted in Viseu in central Portugal, the world’s largest cheese competition saw 4,786 cheeses from 47 countries compete, whittled down through a multi-stage judging process to crown the overall winner: Queijo de Ovelha Amanteigado, a runny cheese made by Quinta do Pomar. Made with raw sheep’s milk and vegetarian thistle rennet (known as cardoon), it’s eaten by cutting off the top rind and spooning out the creamy liquid centre. Manuel Maia, a Portuguese super jury member, called it a “sublime match of protein and fat.” After it won, he hailed the cheese as “an icon” and Portugal’s “Eiffel Tower.”
The Spanish cheesemaker who crafted the winning Portuguese cheese, Sonia Marroyo, addressed the audience remotely, said she was feeling “a lot of emotion” and emphasised the importance of a local cheese winning – Quinta do Pomar is located around 60 kilometres from the venue. “It was a great team effort, and a lot of hard work. It means the world.”
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The nearly 4,800 cheeses were evaluated by 240 judges from 40 countries, comprising experts in the field of cheese ranging from technologists and cheese graders to retailers and buyers to chefs and journalists. Entries were organised into 104 tables with around 46 cheeses per table, assessed by judges in groups of two or three and allocated points on the basis of appearance, aroma, texture, mouthfeel and flavour, with the tally equivalent to a bronze, silver, gold or no medal.
Then, the judging groups selected a ‘Super Gold’ from each table to be evaluated by a “super jury” of leading figures in the cheese world, who narrowed down the 104 cheeses to a final 14. The jury then sat down with panel hosts Nigel Barden, Leyla Kazim and Patrick McGuigan to choose the ultimate winner, each judge awarding a score out of 7. Queijo de Ovelha Amanteigado was awarded 86 points, beating out its competitors by as much as 14 points.
In addition to the top prize, Portugal took home three Super Golds, 11 golds, 34 silvers and 38 bronzes for a total of 87 awards. “The Portuguese cheesemakers have done their country proud,” the director of the Guild of Fine Food, John Farrand said. He praised the new world champion as putting an “extraordinary” twist on a cheese typical of central Portugal.
