This year’s best Swiss cheese, selected from over 800

Over the weekend a group of judges sniffed and tasted their way through more than 800 different cheeses at the tenth Swiss Cheese Awards hosted in the Vallée de Joux, in Vaud, Switzerland.

SWISS CHEESE AWARDS ©FROMARTE/Marcel Bieri

The most pleasing to nose and mouth was an Alpine gruyère AOP (Appellation d’Origine Protégée) made by Jean-Claude Pittet, from Brassus in Vaud.  Brassus is not far from where the event was held, and despite the cheese’s name, is not in the Gruyère region.

The Gruyère name is applied to cheese made to a specific recipe, which can be traced back as far as 1115. Much of the cheese bearing the name Gruyère AOP, is produced outside of the eponymous region of Gruyère, found in the canton of Fribourg. In the 18th and 19th centuries, numerous cheese makers left the canton and moved to neighbouring cantons, expanding the region, to include the cantons of Fribourg, Vaud, Neuchâtel, Jura, and parts of Bern.

While the name was officially recognised in the 17th century, it wasn’t until 2011 that it received the protected designation AOP across all of Europe.

The Swiss Cheese Awards were started in 2001 to showcase the quality and diversity of Swiss cheeses.

For a full list of prize winners click here.

More on this:
Full press release (in French) – Take a 5 minute French test now

For more stories like this on Switzerland follow us on Facebook and Twitter.