Smith spoke highly about the evolution NZ cheeses have enjoyed over his decade of judging the competition.
The premier trophy awards selected from the judged medal winners will be announced in late May.
Dominating winners tend to vary depending on the cheese category, with Fonterra claiming multiple gold medals in the Champion Cheddar range, while Canterbury based Barry’s Bay cheese was a clear favourite through the European style and gouda ranges.
The rapidly emerging goat cheese sector was dominated by Cartwheel Creamery from Manawatu while the new Italian style cheese sector was claimed by Massimo’s Italian Cheeses. The company claimed four of the seven gold medals in the category.
Smith was particularly excited by the fresh Italian cheese category, introduced this year.
“What was wonderful to see was while well-known Italian favourites such as mozzarella, ricotta and mascarpone showed great cheese-making technique so did other styles which are less familiar in NZ.
“Not only was there a huge increase in the number of Italian style cheeses entered in the competition, importantly, the quality was excellent too. The judges had a challenge picking the winners because the Italian cheeses were new, exciting and well made.”
Soft, fresh, Italian cheeses are among the fastest-growing categories of cheese demand globally as consumers become more discerning and seek out fresh, simple taste options. The category attracted 28 cheeses.
While including well-known favourites like mozzarella and ricotta it is the arrival of scamorza, stracciatella and stracchino that drew the judges’ attention.
Two are similar to mozzarella, while stracchino is a creamy, spreadable, white cheese.
The cheeses were assessed by 21 cheese experts tasting 280 entries.
The return of butter and yoghurt also featured this year with butter awards shared between Fonterra, Lewis Road Creamery, Bellefield Butter and Westland. The Clevedon Buffalo company dominated the yoghurt sector and was also the winner of last year’s Outstanding NZ Food Producer Award with its marinated buffalo cheese.
The Champions of Cheese trophies will be announced on May 21 in Hamilton.
