San Francisco Frontiers - Swiss Gruyere crowned world cheese champ

The 18-month-old Vorderfultigen Spezial produced by Bergkaserei Vorderfultigen won the title at the World Cheese Awards, held in the Swiss capital Bern.

The winning cheese came from a mountain dairy in the pre-Alps region of Gantrisch, just south of Bern.

Grand final judge Perry Wakeman said it was the kind of cheese "that would make people get excited about cheese".

"It's a big old cheese -- there's a lot going on. The texture is beautiful: it's flinty as you break it apart; the crystalline in there are so delicate," he said.

"It is massive. It makes an impact."

It was the first time that the contest, created by the British-based Guild of Fine Food in 1988, has been staged in cheese-loving Switzerland -- though Gruyere cheeses have scooped the top prize five times before.

- Appearance, nose, flavour -

Laid out on seemingly endless tables draped in white tablecloths, 5,244 cheeses were tasted by an international jury of 265 experts made up of cheesemakers, chefs, buyers, sellers and journalists from more than 40 countries, recognisable by their yellow aprons.

"First of all, we're looking at the visual appearance of the cheese: how it looks like from the inside and outside," Polish cheesemaker Kuba Maziarczyk, one of the judges in the final, told AFP.

The second step "is the nose: so all the aromas that the cheese is actually giving us".

And then, it comes down to flavour.

The judges made an initial selection of the most outstanding cheeses before a second and then a final evaluation by a "super jury" of judges from 14 different countries.

"Cheese must reflect its terroir; it must be balanced in terms of taste, aroma and flavour," said French judge Laurent Dubois.

"It shouldn't be too aged or too young. Cheese is always a question of harmony. That's why good cheeses are often those with a long tradition," he said.

- The joy of cheese -

Around 2,000 people watched the action inside Bern's Festhalle exposition hall.

"We've got blues. We've got hard cheeses. We've got all different styles. That makes it really interesting," said British judge Nigel Barden, a food and drink broadcaster for the BBC.

"Just when you think your palate's getting a little bit tired, suddenly a cheese comes along and really excites you," he said. "And that's the joy of the World Cheese Awards."

The Guild of Fine Food's managing director John Farrand told AFP that the awards were originally founded to raise the profile of small cheesemakers.

In the 1980s, dairy production had become "quite consolidated", he said.

"I think perhaps we'd forgotten the connection between the land, the milk, the animal, and the farm", and ultimately the cheese, he said.

The awards were established "to try and remind the world that small can be beautiful in cheesemaking terms".

Next year's World Cheese Awards will be held in Cordoba, Spain.

R.Baker--SFF