Mini-retorta from Finca Pascualete, in Cáceres, Extremadura, has been named the Best Spanish Cheese at the 30th annual World Cheese Awards, following over 3,000 cheeses being judged at Tobacco Dock, in London.
Forming part of this year’s Taste of London Festive Edition, the 30th anniversary edition of the awards saw entries from 35 different countries, with the final Super Jury naming Cornish Kern, an alpine-style cheese made by the UK’s Lynher Dairies Cheese Company, as the World Champion Cheese of the year 2017.
The Mini-retorta from Finca Pascualete was also ranked the 6th best cheese in the world at the competition.
The producer describes the Mini-retorta as “hand-pressed unpasteurized sheep’s milk cheese made with traditional artisan mime. with soft but very personal and persistent flavour on the palate, with memories of a field due its vegetable rennet. It has a very creamy texture, almost liquid. To be eaten with a spoon, opening the top cover of the cheese, or spreading it in toasted bread.”
Spain had a total of 13 Super Gold, 78 Gold, 118 Silver and 165 Bronze awards going to its entries this year, and “the judges shined a spotlight on the hard work and dedication of the nation’s cheese makers on this truly international stage” the organisers say. Among the other winners taking awards back to Spain from the largest cheese-only competition on the planet, are a Super Gold winning Queso Curado Cabra Oregano made by Biogranja Montesdeoca SL, a Gold winning Uiziko Gazta from CRDOP Queso Idiazabal and a Gold winning Manchego D.O. Gran Reserva from Dehesa de Los Llanos SL.”
Cover image Finca Pascualete