World Champion Cheese crowned in Bern

Bergkäserei Vorderfultigen’s Gruyère AOP Vorderfultigen spezial over 18 months has been crowned World Champion Cheese at the World Cheese Awards 2025 at Festhalle at BernExpo, in Bern, Switzerland.

The winner, the 37th cheese to take the title, is a raw cow’s milk cheese from Hinterfultigen, drained overnight and dry salted before being matured for more than 18 months.

Piuz Hitz, cheesemaker and managing director at Bergkäserei Vorderfultigen comments: “It’s a very great honour for me and for the daily work that goes into this, seven days a week, 365 days a year. It’s an honour for all the time that the cheese spends with us, around 20 months. The whole team will be very proud, and I am really looking forward to seeing how this impacts our business, but first, we must work out how to celebrate.”

Organised by the Guild of Fine Food, the World Cheese Awards is globally recognised as the pre-eminent event in the cheese world. Hosted by Switzerland Cheese Marketing, this year’s competition saw a record breaking 5,244 entrants from 46 countries. Cheeses were judged by a panel of 265 leading cheese experts, including affineurs, graders and producers as well as retailers, journalists, broadcasters, and other experts in the field.

Judging took place in three rounds, over the course of one day. The first round saw judges work in teams of two or three, identifying any cheeses worthy of a Bronze, Silver, Gold, or Super Gold award. Then, in the afternoon the Super Gold cheeses were re-assessed by a Super Jury made up of 14 of the most distinguished cheese experts to find the top 14 cheeses from across the globe. Finally, the top 14 cheeses went head-to-head to determine the World Champion Cheese.

The judges assess the look, feel, smell and taste of each entry, scoring aspects such as the appearance of the rind and paste, as well as the cheese’s aroma, body, and texture, with the majority of points awarded for flavour and mouthfeel. 

To ensure a completely fair competition, the entire judging process is ‘blind-tasted’; all packaging and identifying logos and markings are removed, and the judges are given a brief description, but no indication of origin or producer.
All the cheeses were entered through one of 20 consolidated shipping points located around the world to ensure that every competitor was delivered in the best possible condition for judging. This means even the smallest cheese producer can be supported in sending their cheese to the World Cheese Awards.

The Guild of Fine Food worked with the Swiss authorities to apply for a special licence, allowing the smallest artisan cheesemakers from across the globe to compete with bigger and better-known producers.

John Farrand, managing director of the Guild of Fine Food, organisers of the World Cheese Awards comments: “And there you have it: the host country scoops the biggest prize in cheese again. Perhaps it is that our judges are immersed in the terroir of the nation, perhaps it is the simple fact that the cheese has less far to travel, but the reality is that this cheese has won through our multi-layered and robust blind-tasting judging process and ended up achieving the highest score, impressing the Super Jury judges from 14 different nations.”

The Final 14 cheeses, all of them Super Golds, from the World Cheese Awards 2025 are:

• Yozawa Yagi cheese from Yozawa Goat Farm, Japan – 73 points
• Hechizo from Quesería La Zarcillera, Spain – 76 points
• Pave Cobble from White Lake Cheese, United Kingdom – 74 points
• 2.5kg wheel Ossau-Iraty AOP pasteurised sheep milk cheese from Agour, France – 78 points
• Aged Rutland Red from Long Clawson Dairy, United Kingdom – 76 points
• Sparkenhoe Red Leicester from Leicestershire Handmade Cheese Company, United Kingdom – 75 points
• Gruyère AOP Vorderfultigen spezial over 18 months from Bergkäserei Vorderfultigen, Switzerland – 85 points
• Königs-Chäs Rezent from Rüttiberg Käse AG, Switzerland – 78 points
• Montana Intenso from Maaz Cheese, Netherlands – 76 points
• Appenzeller® Edel-Würzig – aged 9 months, Käserei Ifang, Christian Tschumper from SO Appenzeller Käse, Switzerland – 83 points
• Eniquem Maly princ 4 months from Eniquem Cheese, Slovakia – 69 points
• Gantrisch Bergkäse from Bergkäserei Vorderfultigen, Switzerland – 81 points
• Stockinghall from Murray’s Cheese, USA – 78 points
• Crémeux des Aldudes aux fleurs – Etxaldia from Etxaldia, France – 84 points