A goats cheese from southern Spain has won the award for the world's best cheese, topping the list of 4,079 entries from more than 40 countries.
Olavidia, a soft goat's cheese which features a distinctive layer of olive stone ash from the Spanish producer Quesos y Besos (Cheeses and Kisses), notched up 103 votes, surpassing a French cheese, from the Berthaut dairy, by five votes at the last minute.
The final round of judging had a dramatic ending, CNN reports: 16 judges are all assigned a single cheese to support. After presenting that cheese's attributes, all the judges then taste it and raise a card showing their score from one to ten. Olavidia was the final cheese to be discussed.
A cheese made in Sierra Morena (Jaén) has received the highest score in the World Cheese Awards final, in which 16 cheeses competed after being chosen from the 88 that were classified as "Super Gold". https://t.co/v0HByQlfnz
— FoodWineSpain (@FoodWineSpain) November 4, 2021
The Spanish cheese received 103 points in a last-minute victory, shocking the previous front-runner (and now the second-place cheese) Fromagerie Berthaut, a soft French cheese washed with the spirit Marc de Bourgogne.
British judge Jason Hinds stated that Olavidia had a “rich, seductive and creamy texture.” This year, the competition brought together 250 international judges, including food scientists, sommeliers and cheese salespeople from 38 different countries.
The World Cheese Awards has been running for more than 30 years. After 2020's event was cancelled due to Covid-19, cheese fans once again welcomed a new champion.
