JERSEY ISLAND Victory at first world Jersey cheese awards
Cherie Bayer
Tuesday July 15, 2008
After a day of intense judging the results are in for the first ever World
Jersey Cheese Awards. The result is excellent news for Jersey as seven out
of 17 categories were won by local cheese makers with four wins being secured by the Classic Herd.
The biggest accolade went to Jan Dirk Van Der Voort from Holland who goes away as the winner of the World's Best Jersey Cheese. HIs entry is titled
'Oulde Remeker' and impressed the judges with its full, melt in the mouth
flavour, rich colour and superb texture.
It was a exciting day for the elite judging panel of Chris Ashby, Alasdair
Crosby, Catherine Vint, Tim Pedley, Derrick Frigot, Andrew Baird, Robert
Jones, Donna Le Marrec, Victoria Langlois, Shaun Rankin, Gerald Fletcher,
Eileen Buicke-Kelly, John Le Maistre, Colin Macloed, Cherie Bayer and Tim
Crowley.
Their day began with a cheese judging tutorial from UK cheese expert Chris
Ashby where they learnt about the correct textures, tastes and smells. Their palates were also challenged with a taste test to see how well they could distinguish between acidity and bitterness.
They were then split into four groups for the actual judging of over 100 cheeses made solely from Jersey milk, from ten different countries. All packaging and anything that could identify the cheeses were removed before they entered the judging room, so they had to judge solely on the cheeses merits.
Three local cheese-makers entered the competition and proved how good their products are by each winning at least one category.
Classic Herd achieved an outstanding result, winning four categories all with Gold Awards. Independent cheese-maker Julie Vetier, who made the cheeses in her home kitchen, pleasantly surprised everyone with two category wins. Finally, Jersey Dairy came up trumps winning their category with their
Le Fronmage Mature and then winning 'The Best Use of Jersey Brand' category for their promotion of the Jersey breed through marketing and packaging.
Leading UK cheese expert, Chris Ashby, said: "The overall standard was extremely good, it compares very favourably with any other place I've been.
There were some superb cheeses and the supreme champion is a true supreme, it's a cheese that makes you go weak at the knees! It's a very worthy winner and I think it would win in any cheese competition. The judges did remarkably well. They needed to become objective and look at all the characteristics and they did a great job."
Andrew Baird, Head Chef at Longueville Manor, commented: "Today was really a great eye-opener. I never realised there was such a variety of Jersey cheeses. The quality was superb. Out of the 25 cheeses that I tasted, I would be happy to have as many as ten on the Longueville Manor cheese board.
I never imagined the standard in this competition would be so high."
The final results were:
Class winners:
Class 1 - Julie Vetier (Jersey) - Sunny - Bronze Award
Class 2 - Classic Herd (Jersey) - Camembert - Gold Award
Class 3 - Ballard Family Farm (USA) - Jersey Dream - Silver Award
Class 4 - Exmoor Blue (UK) - Somerset Blue Cheese - Gold Award
Class 5 - Roger Crudge (UK) - Kingham Green - Silver Award
Class 6 - Alexandrina (Australia) - Cheddar Cheese Vintage - Silver Award
Class 7 - Classic Herd (Jersey) - Jersey Cache - Gold Award
Class 8 - Jersey Dairy (Jersey) - Le Fronmage Mature - Bronze Award
Class 9 - no winner
Class 10 - Consider Bardwell Farm (USA) - Dorset - Bronze Award
Class 11 - no winner
Class 12 - Julie Vetier (Jersey) - You'll Do - Silver Award
Class 13 - Classic Herd (Jersey) - Pepper Brie - Gold Award
Class 14 - no entries
Class 15 - Jan Dirk Van Der Voort (Holland) - Oulde Remeker - Gold Award
Class 16 - Three Sisters Farmstead (California) - Serenita - Silver Award
Class 17 - Classic Herd (Jersey) - Camembert - Gold Award
Proprietor and published by Bowes Publishers Limited at 4504 - 61 Avenue, Leduc, Alberta, Canada T9E3Z1
