Cheese Lovers To Sample 100 Best Artisan Cheeses In Canada At Awards Tasting Gala

The Great Canadian Cheese Festival Deli March 29, 2016

The 100 best artisan and farmstead cheeses made in Canada—featuring the 2016 Cheese of the Year—will be presented to the public for sampling at a Tasting Gala on April 14 at Palais des Congrès in Montréal.

The Tasting Gala concludes the 2016 Canadian Cheese Awards/Le Concours des fromages fins canadiens. With 301 entries from producers coast to coast, it’s the biggest cheese competition in Canada.

The Awards Ceremony with announcement of winners takes place in the afternoon followed by a reception for the cheese industry. The Tasting Gala opens to the public at 6 p.m. in Hall 511 at Palais des Congrès in downtown Montréal.

More than 100 cheeses will be on display at the Tasting Gala, finalists in the competition after two days of judging in February at University of Guelph in Guelph, Ontario, the second oldest dairy school in Canada. In the spotlight at the Gala will be 31 category winners and the Grand Champion, Canada’s Cheese of the Year. Many producers will be present at the Gala to engage with consumers.

Also available for sampling at the Gala will be fine wine, craft beer and cider, as well as bread and charcuterie.

Click here to order tickets online at $25 per person plus tax. Space is limited so order your tickets today!

This year, the Awards are being held in conjunction with SIAL Canada: International Food & Beverage Tradeshow at Palais des Congrès. The biennial Awards rotate between Toronto, Montréal and Vancouver.

Finalists are equally divided between Québec and other cheese-producing regions in Canada. They include large and small producers from Nova Scotia to British Columbia.

The Farm House Natural Cheeses, a small producer in Agassiz, British Columbia, and Quality Cheese in Vaughan, Ontario, each garnered the most nominations as finalists: eight. That Dutchman’s Cheese Farm of Upper Economy, Nova Scotia, has five nominations. One of the newest cheese producers in Canada, Stonetown Cheese in St. Mary’s, Ontario, is a finalist in the new-cheese category.

In Québec, Fromagerie du Presbytère of Sainte-Élizabeth-de-Warwick has been named finalist in seven classes. Fromagerie F.X. Pichet of Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pérade, Cheese of the Year in 2014 with Baluchon, is finalist in five classes. Fromagerie Fritz Kaiser of Noyan, one of the pioneers in artisan cheese in Québec, has three nominations.

The big battle in Québec is for Best Québec Cheese honours. There are seven finalists:

Click here for more information by e-mail. For assistance in English, call 613.893.0959, in French, 613.888.5527.

Loblaw Companies and Provigo are Marquee Sponsors. Additional support is provided by Dairy Farmers of Canada and Desjardins Group. SIAL Canada is the venue sponsor, Slow Food Montréal, the presenting partner.

Judging took place in February at University of Guelph, Department of Food Science, headed by Dr. Arthur Hill, Chair and Professor in Food Science and an internationally recognized authority in cheese technology. The Awards Jury comprised 12 experts in cheese.

The independent competition is open to all milks used in cheesemaking in Canada—cow, goat, sheep and water buffalo—with only pure natural cheese accepted for judging. That means with no artificial colours, flavours or preservatives, and no modified milk ingredients.

The biennial Canadian Cheese Awards/Le Concours des fromages fin canadiens is organized by The Great Canadian Cheese Festival as a service to the cheese industry and a guide for consumers. The Festival is the biggest artisan cheese show in Canada held annually in June in Ontario's Prince Edward County, in Bay of Quinte Region near Belleville.

Source: The Great Canadian Cheese Festival