For the first time in 28 years, an American-made cheese won the World Championship Cheese Contest. Emmi Roth, based in Wisconsin, won top honors over an international slate featuring nearly 3000 cheeses from countries around the world, like Holland and Switzerland.
Winning the competition for Emmi Roth was their Grand Cru® Surchoix, a type of smear-ripened cheese which is apparently pretty difficult to make. The cheese takes nine months to make, creating complex flavors with caramel and mushroom undertones.
"This is very humbling," Tim Omer, president of Emmi Roth USA in a report by the Wisconsin State Journal. "Our cheesemakers in Monroe, our cheesemakers in Platteville and our cheesemakers in Shullsburg, they are killing it every day."
Emmi Roth USA is owned by a Swiss company, the Emmi Group, and is one of the leading producers of cheese not just in America, but in the continent. Although the competition was stiff, it's not a surprise that the Wisconsin-made cheese brought home the bacon.
"The flavors, they're really big flavors but they're balanced," said Russell Smith, one of the judges who hailed all the way from Australia. "The texture is just perfect. Following up with a really nice texture is just as important as the flavor."
There were also other American-made cheeses in the final 16, with a Winnemere cheese from the Cellars at Jasper Hill in Vermont. One belonged to Central Coast Creamery in Califonia, who presented a sheep's milk cheese. Rounding it up was a type of hard cheese created by Uplands Cheese in Dodgeville.
Emmi Roth's cheese won the contest with a score of 98.882, while first runner-up Urnäscher Milchspezialitäten AG of Switzerland got 98.758. Rounding up the podium was FrieslandCampina Export of the Netherlands.
Known as America's Dairyland, Wisconsin is known for its amazing cheeses and is the largest producer in the country. It is the United States' cheese capital and has a long tradition and history of producing the food product throughout history.
