Great British Cheese Awards winners announced

The Great British Cheese Awards, which celebrate British cheese produced and distributed by independent cheese makers and retailers, has announced its category winners.

Now in its second year, this year’s awards saw a record number of entries, with over 9,000 people voting for their favourite cheeses, producers and retailers.

The panel of judges included: Brian Turner, chef restaurateur and president of the Royal Academy of Culinary Arts; Chantelle Nicholson, group operations director for Marcus Wareing Restaurants & head chef at Tredwells by Marcus Wareing; Paul Thomas, dairy technologist; Signe Johansen, cook and author, Owen Davies – cheese buyer, Harvey & Brocklessl; and Matthew Carver, owner of The Cheese Bar, among others.

Ollie Lloyd, CEO and founder of Great British Chefs, says, “We launched The Great British Cheese Awards last year with the objective of producing a catalogue of great artisan cheese and to also discover up-and-coming cheesemakers.

“The response we have received again this year was way above expectation and we are grateful to the remarkable support from producers, retailers and especially the general public.”

The category winners and runners-up are:

Best Speciality Cheese Retailer – The Bristol Cheesemonger, Bristol, UK

Runner-up – Country Cheeses, Totnes, Devon, UK

Runner-up – George & Joseph Cheesemongers, Leeds, West Yorkshire, UK

Best Artisan Cheese Producer – Fen Farm Dairy, Bungay, Suffolk, UK

Runner-up – Cote Hill Cheese, Market Rasen, Lincolnshire, UK

Runner-up – Errington Cheese, Lanark, South Lanarkshire, UK

Best Hard Cheese – Lincolnshire Poacher – Lincolnshire Poacher Cheese

Runner-up – Hafod Cheddar – Holden Farm Dairy

Runner-up – Cornish Yarg – Lynher Dairies Cheese Company

Best Blue Cheese – Barkham Blue – Two Hoots

Runner-up – Lanark Blue – Errington Cheese

Runner-up – Beenleigh Blue – Ticklemore Cheese

Best Soft Cheese – Tunworth – Hampshire Cheeses

Runner-up – Renegade Monk – Feltham’s Farm Cheese

Runner-up – Wigmore – Village Maid

Best New Cheese Producer – Sinodun Hill, Norton & Yarrow

Runner-up – Fellstone, Whin Yeats Dairy

Runner-up – St Bartholomew & Bix, Nettledbed Creamery

People’s Choice – Cornish Blue, Cornish Cheese Company

Runner-up – Cornish Yarg, Lynher Dairies Cheese Company

Runner-up – Godminster Organic Brie, Godminster Cheese

This is the second time that Cornish Blue has won the People’s Choice award. Philip Stansfield of the Cornish Cheese Co, says, “It’s brilliant to win because the competition is like no other. The fact that the public could get involved and learn all about cheese on the way was great.

“Events like this raise the profile of every cheesemaker involved. Winning awards is a big thing in our industry as it gives us lots of publicity and allows us to spread the word and get it in front of new customers.”

Only those cheese producers and retailers who received the most votes in each category were shortlisted for an award.