2008 Winners | 2008 Sponsored Winners
It was the closest ever finish in the 20-year history of the World Cheese Awards in Dublin on 29th September. Four cheeses tied for the World Champion crown after the 12 members of the Supreme Jury had finished tasting. In front of an audience of tense and excited cheese makers and visitors to the SHOP exhibition, each jury member was asked to write down the name of one of the four final cheeses they believed deserved to be the new World Champion.
The votes were announced to the audience one by one and after 11 of the 12 had been counted. three of the four cheeses were still level on 3 points each.
The previous day, over 90 experts had flown to Dublin from around the world to join a further 50 Irish judges on the Monday to taste and judge an incredible 2400 cheeses from almost every cheese-making nation apart from South America.
By lunchtime, 174 cheeses had been awarded gold and they were all judged a second time early in the afternoon before each of the 12 members of the Supreme Jury selected one cheese each for the final stage.
The TV cameras rolled as the top 12 cheeses in the World Cheese Awards 2008 were tasted, and discussed before each judge voted directly to camera. Tension mounted as first, a soft cows’ milk cheese from Canada called Cendré de Lune achieved 47 points out of 60, followed by identical scores for a Von Muhlenen Le Gruyere AOC, a Fourme d’Ambert, produced by Morin Père et Fils and a goats’ milk for Queso Arico curado pimentón.
A Stilton from Colston Bassett represented the UK through to the final stages but just failed to make it into the final four. All the results will be here at 14.00 1st October.
