The World Cheese Awards winner is ewe

Credit: The Guild of Fine Food
The Portuguese Queijo de Ovelha Amenteigado, by Quinta do Pomar – Joaquim Duarte Alves, a soft ewes’ milk cheese, was selected as The World Cheese Awards 2024’s top cheese, from 4,786 cheeses and 47 countries, last Friday.
Patrick McGuigan, a long-time super jury member at the Awards, described this cheese as “buttery, glossy and gooey one, to be enjoyed by the spoon or with breadsticks.” It is made with a vegetarian rennet, which comes from a cardoon thistle flower.
The cheese is produced in Serra da Gardunha in Portugal and is a marker for the Portuguese culture, as super jury Manuel Maia described it. “This cheese is an icon, it’s like our Eiffel Tower. It is a really sublime match of protein and fat. It’s really a fantastic cheese.”
The city of Viseu welcomed 240 industry experts, including cheese mongers, wholesalers, writers, journalists and producers, from all corners of the world, to be part of the 36th and largest edition of the event since its beginning in 1988. John Farrand, managing director of The Guild of Fine Food, described the experience as “very punchy” – as expected from thousands of fresh and matured cheeses at room temperature.
Judges were split into teams of two and three through the 104 tables at the main hall in Pavilhão Multiusos de Viseu arena, where they had three hours to evaluate 46 cheeses according to their aroma, texture, mouthfeel, flavour and visuals. In the first round, each team had to choose a “Super Gold” cheese, which was submitted to a second evaluation by the Super Jury to produce the winner of the World Cheese Awards.
Despite the odds in favour of Switzerland – with five cheeses making it to the final – and with entries from Brazil, the United States, Norway, Italy, Germany and Spain, the Queijo de Ovelha did its country proud.
Sonia Marroyo, a Spanish cheese producer based in Portugal, commented: “This is a very emotional win for us, and the creation of this cheese came from a lot of team work and dedication.”
As a yearly tradition, the location for next year’s World Cheese Awards was announced at the closing dinner for all the judges, who will be meeting again in Bern, Switzerland in November 2025.
The list of all the awarded cheeses can now be found here.