Best Greek Cheeses Named At World Cheese Awards 2022

Over 4,400 cheeses from across the world, including several Greek ones, competed for the title of world’s best cheese at the World Cheese Awards (WCA) which took place in Cardiff, Wales, U.K., on Thursday.

Although this year none of the Greek entries made it to the Super Gold category, which rewards the World’s 16 Best Cheeses, several products from Greece won acclaims.

In total, Greek cheese producers fetched three gold awards, seven silver, and three bronze.

Greek cheese winners

A goat cheese by Menoikio won gold and was also named Best Greek Cheese for 2022. The same cheese producer company had won a Super Gold award for its organic feta PDO in 2021.

“It’s Gold again!” Menoikio rejoiced on its Facebook fan page.

Another two Greek cheeses won gold awards in different categories; the aged barrel feta by Arvanitis S.A. and the organic anevato cheese by Kourellas S.A.. Both cheeses are of Protected Denomination of Origin (PDO).

The silver and bronze Greek cheese winners included graviera, kefalograviera and manouri cheeses, as well as more feta and goat cheese brands.

An event for global cheese lovers

A truly global cheese event, World Cheese Awards brings together international cheesemakers, technical experts, buyers, retailers, food commentators and writers to judge over 4,000 cheeses from over 40 countries in a single day.

Judges work in carefully assembled teams of three to identify any cheeses worthy of a gold, silver or bronze award, evaluating the rind and the body of the cheese, its colour, texture, consistency and, above all, its taste.

 

Each of the teams of judges then nominate one exceptional cheese as the Super Gold from their table. These are the best in the world, and are then judged a second time by the Super Jury of internationally-recognised experts, who each selected a cheese to champion in the final round of judging, WCA explains on its website.

As well as striving for Bronze, Silver, Gold and Super Gold, there are country- and cheese- specific trophies.

World’s Best Cheese 2022

Sixteen Super Gold winners are officially the world’s best cheeses for 2022.

These include four UK cheeses, three cheeses from France and three from Italy, and one from each among USA, Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany, Spain and Belgium.

The two top spots, which gathered the highest rating, were awarded to a PDO Vorderfultigen Gourmino surchoix gruyere cheese from Switzerland (Interprofession du Gruyère) and a PDO gorgonzola cheese from Italy (De’ Magi), which scored 103 and 98 points respectively.

Three cheeses shared the same score for the third place at 94 points.

Those were an Âlde Fryske cheese from the Netherlands (De Fryske), a bufflone and a goat cheese from France (both Cave Jacobine by Prolactine).