The highly coveted prize was awarded to a raw cows' milk farmhouse cheddar. Made with animal rennet and matured for 14 months, this cheese wowed the judges at the Pavilhão Multiusos de Viseu, in Portugal during an intense day of judging on Friday 15 November. Tom Burgess, who produces the award-winning cheese in West Wicklow for twenty years, says: "The milk we use to make Coolattin Cheddar is special for a number of reasons, we process in the summer months when the cows are grazing fresh clover-rich pasture only which is the ideal diet for cheese processing milk.
"We use early morning milk which is high in melatonin which aids relaxation and sleep. It is pumped directly to the cheese vat, not stored or pasteurized, this natural goodness and flavor is preserved by our traditional cheese-making process. Sign up to IrishCentral's newsletter to stay up-to-date with everything Irish! "We add beneficial Lacto-bacilli & Rennet to our milk, the curd is cut, scalded, drained & pitched the cheddar, milled, salted & mixed by hand.
"Following this, we place in 40b molds and press for 2 days. It is the matured over a year at 10°C.” Other notable wins for Ireland included 2 Golds, 6 Silvers, and 6 Bronzes.
Organised by the Guild of Fine Food, the World Cheese Awards is the world’s largest cheese-only event of its kind, 4,786 cheeses from 47 countries were entered into the 36th iteration of the competition. A total of 240 judges from 39 countries were split into 104 teams to underta.