The results of the 20th British Cheese Awards were announced in a big top marquee on a quintessentially English village green in the heart of Cotswolds. Also the signal for the beginning of British Cheese Week, the great and the good of cheese making assembled to celebrate the Oscars of the dairy world, and the star of the Territorial Cheeses was a creamy nutty semi hard cheese– Wiltshire Loaf made by Ceri Cryer and her team at Brinkworth Dairy.
In fact not only did Wiltshire Loaf win Best Territorial cheese but their hard blue cheese “Brinkworth Blue” also won a bronze medal in its category. In 2006, Brinkworth Dairy’s Garlic and Pepper soft fresh cheese was awarded a bronze medal. Entries this year included over 221 raw milk cheeses, 117 organic, 83 blue, nearly 200 unique goat and ewe’s milk cheeses from tiny buttons to huge 20 kg wheels and in Wiltshire Loaf’s category, Territorial, there were 111 other entries.. The judges gradually narrowed the field to a list of just 60 gold medal winners which were then re-judged to determine the
20 Award winners, representing the nation’s finest cheeseboard.
It is also the 20th anniversary of the first awards held in 1994 in the very traditional “In-and-Out” Club in Piccadilly London.
A list of all Award winners over the past 20 years is attached while a full list of winners from this year can be downloaded on the CHEESE WIRE page of www.thecheeseweb.com.