Success at the 2021 International Cheese & Dairy Awards

We added nine new awards to our belt at the International Cheese & Dairy Awards in Nantwich, UK. These wins have brought the grand total of our brand’s awards to 119. 

At this year’s ICDA, a handful of our cheddar and blue cheeses placed in categories for both their district flavors and unique packaging. Most notably, our bandage wrapped sweet finish Cheddar, The Imperial Buck, earned the Trophy for Best USA Cheese. This was a very exciting win, as it is the same Trophy the cheese won at ICDA in 2016 during the first year of its release. This richly nutty, robust extra-aged handmade Cheddar is no stranger to first place wins, though. 

In 2019, The Imperial Buck took Gold at the World Cheese Awards and a first place at the American Cheese Society Competition. In 2018, it won the Trophy for Best Vintage Cheese at the WCA, along with Gold medals in its category at both the WCA and L.A. International Dairy Competition. In 2017, it took first place at the ACS Competition.

With repeat top-tier wins at major competitions, it might seem that favoritism is at play. However, these strictly regulated competitions review all entries without company names or labels while judging flavor classes to mitigate bias. The cheese professionals who judge these competitions tend to change their roles, so new individuals taste and evaluate each year. 

When asked about how cheeses are selected for competition, Chris Gentine said that they are just the next items going out the door. “We try to select a nice-looking wheel so we don’t lose points for aesthetics, but we don’t taste it. We just submit it. We might as well submit what we’re selling to our customers.” he said. 

“To us, it’s super important to have the cheese that wins a competition be cheese that everyone gets to try. The cheese mongers that are selling our items have to stand behind them, so the consistency really matters,” Chris explained.