It’s official: th best cheese in the world is Swiss. As if it was in doubt? An 18-month-old Swiss Gruyère AOP beat out more than 5,000 participants from 46 countries for the honor of world’s best cheese.
An 18-month-old Swiss Gruyère AOP has beaten more than 5,000 competitors from 46 different countries for the honor of being named the world’s best cheese.
The World Cheese Awards, held in Bern, Switzerland on November 14th were judged by a panel of more than 250 judges. At the event, there were more than 100 tables full of cheeses of all kinds, 14 of which advanced to the final round.
This year’s winning cheese came from a cheese dairy in canton Bern, not far from where the competition was held. Pius Hitz’s Vorderfultigen cheese dairy produced the award-winning Gruyère.
Hitz’s Gantrisch mountain cheese also received high marks at the competition, earning fourth place overall.
“Having two products among the top 14 is of course fantastic,” Hitz told Berner Zeitung.
Hitz took over Vorderfultigen’s cheesemaking operation in 2023. Before that, Urs Leuenberger ran Vorderfultigen. In 2022, Leunenberg won the world’s best cheese award, also for a Gruyère. Hitz told BZ he had been able to benefit from his predecessor’s incredible success.
Because of quotas placed on Gruyère AOP, Hitz won’t be able to ramp up production in response to his win. Even so, some say this award could raise the overall profile of Gruyère cheese.
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In a statement on Thursday, the Gruyère Interprofessional Association said this award “rewards the excellence of an iconic product of Swiss heritage, the result of know-how passed down from generation to generation for more than nine centuries.”
Though Hitz won’t be able to make more Gruyère, he could start making more of his mountain cheese because it’s not part of a protected appellation. But this could prove challenging for Hitz’s relatively small business. He and his three employees typically produce six to seven wheels of Gruyère and a few wheels of mountain cheese each day, he told BZ.
