Mar 19 (THAINDIAN NEWS) Cheesemakers from Switzerland and Austria walked away with the top honors at the 2010 World Championship Cheese Contest which was held in Madison Wisconsin. They were the top out of 2300 entries from 20 different countries. The first place winner was Cedric Fragniere, for his Gruyere which had a creamy texture and light hint of herbs that the 30 judges loved. “It’s very smooth, it’s aromatic and it has a very clean cheese flavour,” said Bill Schlinsog, one of the judges “It has a burst of flavour and then it settles down very nicely in the mouth.”

Second place went to another Swiss, Andeer Sennerei from Switzerland won the spot with his smear-ripened “Andeerer Traum.” The third place winner was Alois Pesendorfer from Gmunden, Austria. He entered in the category of open class soft cheese with a Gmundner Berg Premium.

The competition lasted for three days, and featured 77 categories of cheese. There was soft cheeses, hard cheeses, mixed milk cheeses, almost any cheese imaginable, and two categories of butter. Although the top three spots went to other countries, Wisconsin won 21 of the 79 categories. You can check the World Championship Cheese Contest Website for the complete list of winners.

The judges would take several minutes with each cheese which scored as a finalist. With a method similar to wine tasting, they swirled samples in the mouths, taking time to note each flavor, and then spat them into trash cans. A few judges even wiped their tongues with napkins between entries.