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The World Cheese Awards 2024, held this past weekend in Viseu (Portugal), have raised to the podium of the contest the ‘Queijo de Ovelha Amanteigado‘, from the Quinta do Pomar cheese factory. This Portuguese cheese, produced by the master cheesemaker Sonia Marroyo in the town of Soalheira, has been recognized as the best in the world in the 36th edition of the most important event of the sector at international level.
The Queijo de Ovelha Amanteigado stands out for the ‘balance and voluptuousness’ offered by its washed rind sheep’s milk from Serra da Gardunha. ‘The combination of fat and protein is sublime, perfectly balanced. It is a fantastic cheese,’ stated the jury in its assessment.
It is here in the Serra da Gardunha, where our sheep and goats graze in peace and tranquility, to give us a living, clean and healthy milk, with which we can make every day a cheese with care and affection, so that whoever tastes it has in every bite, flavors, smells and textures that fresh and natural milk brings to our cheese every day’, described on the website of this historic cheese factory that has been working since 1983.
During the contest, this exquisite Portuguese iteration would take the gold medal among the 4,786 participating cheeses from a total of 47 countries, the product of a synchronized assessment of 240 expert judges in the sector -such as cheese classifiers, chefs or specialized journalists-. All of them would blind taste the cheeses, taking into account a series of aspects such as aroma, texture, mouthfeel and flavor of the cheese.
These are the 14 best cheeses in the world
1. Queijo de Ovelha Amanteigado, from Quinta do Pomar (Portugal), with 86 points.
2. Tea Fondada , from Chascharia Val Müstair (Switzerland), with 84 points.
3. Alpenhorn Mifroma, from Elsa Group-Mifroma-, (Switzerland), with 84 points.
4. La Cava Barus García-Baquero, from Lácteas Garcia Baquero S.A. (Spain), with 84 points.
5. Bayley Hazen Blue, from Cellars at Jasper Hill (USA), with 83 points.
6. Pecorino Bislacco al Rum and Tabacco, from F.lli Petrucci (Italy), with 82 points.
7. Blugins, from La Casearia Carpenedo (Italy), with 82 points.
8. Affineur Walo Creamy Lion Cheese, from Thurgau de Walo von Mühlenen (Switzerland), with 82 points.
9. Passionata, from Biopark, Brazil (81 points).
10. Snertingdal ysteri Godbiten, from Snertingdal ysteri drift AS (Norway), with 79 points.
11. Alte Hexe 9 Monate gereift, of Bodensee Käse (Switzerland), with 78 points.
12. Valleclaro, from Quesos y Besos (Spain), with 77 points.
