Gourmino’s Village & Mountain Dairies Awarded Top Marks
March 15, 2016 | 2 min to read
We may be small, but when it comes to cheese we’re mighty! This was proven by Gourmino’s village and mountain dairies at this year’s World Champion Cheese Contest in Wisconsin, USA, where they achieved top-10 rankings in five categories:
1st place for Chili Cheese and 3rd place for Le Gruyère AOP
Kurt Keusen and Urs Leuenberger from Vorderfultigen village dairy took the gold with their semi-hard Swiss Chili cheese made from thermised milk. But that’s not all; the pair also won the bronze award in the highly competitive Gruyère category.
3rd place for Emmentaler AOP
In the Emmentaler category – Gourmino’s core product range – six cheeses ranked in the top 12. Of these, Beni Näf and his team from the Guntershausen village dairy won 3rd place. Other top prizes went to master cheesemakers Markus Hengartner (Illighausen village dairy), Bernhard Meier (Hüpfenboden mountain dairy), Fritz Baumgartner (Trub mountain dairy), Hans Hofer (Heimenschwand mountain dairy) and Hansruedi Gasser (Oberei mountain dairy).
Top spots for speciality cheeses
In the speciality cheese category Smear Ripened Hard Cheeses, which attracted 50 competitors, Michael Spycher (Fritzenhaus mountain dairy) came in 8th place with his Hornbacher cheese. Meanwhile, Yan Sutterlin (La Fromathèque dairy, Martigny-Croix) bagged 5th place in the Sheep’s Milk Cheese category with his semi-hard Brebidoux (selected and proved by Gourmino).
Swiss cheesemaking enjoys wide acclaim
The unofficial World Champion Cheese Contest is held in Wisconsin every two years. This year, over 2,900 cheeses in 110 categories were entered into the contest. Gourmino would like to congratulate its cheesemakers on their achievements and thank them for their passion, pride and commitment to traditional Swiss cheesemaking, which today enjoys wide acclaim among international cheese experts.
About Gourmino – “selected from the cheesemakers”
In the difficult economic climate of 2001, five master cheesemakers joined forces to promote their centuries-old craft. And so the cheesemakers’ company was born: Gourmino AG. The result is a collection of masterfully hand-crafted Swiss cheeses made in small village dairies.
Our philosophy
Gourmino belongs to the cheesemakers. Our greatest expertise lies in the ageing of long-ripened cheeses made from raw milk. For this, we use only the best-quality cheeses selected from our own dairies. Our dairies are family businesses that use fresh milk supplied daily by local farmers. The cheesemakers not only care passionately about their craft, they are also highly skilled.
By selling our products we secure a brighter future for our cheesemakers and their families. We promote small dairies, local production and traditional manufacturing methods.
Contact: Gourmino AG, Karina Jeker, phone: +41 (0)79 483 83 53, email: karina.jeker@gourmino.ch
www.worldchampioncheese.org
Source: Gourmino