US Championship Cheese Contest | Wisconsin Dominates Sheep Cheese Entries

Last month, the US Championship Cheese Contest saw a large volume of winners from Wisconsin, with many categories being swept by Wisconsin dairy processors. Wisconsin dominated cheese curd entries and processors Cedar Grove, Lynn Dairy, and LaGrander’s took first, second, and third places in the category.

An area of particular interest is Wisconsin’s domination of the Sheep’s Milk Cheese categories.

Soft and Semi-Soft Sheep’s Milk Cheeses Category

• Hook's Cheese Company, Inc. – Best of Class, Hook's Little Boy Blue
• Carr Valley Cheese Company, Inc. – Second Award, Marisa
• Carr Valley Cheese Company, Inc. – Third Award, Sante

Hard Sheep’s Milk Cheeses Category

• Cedar Grove Cheese Inc. – Best of Class, Donatello
• Hidden Springs Creamery LLC – Second Award, Wischego
• Cedar Grove Cheese Inc. – Third Award, Donatello

Surface Ripened Sheep’s Milk Cheeses Category

• Landmark Creamery – Third Award, Anabasque

Flavored Sheep’s Milk Cheeses Category

• Hidden Springs Creamery LLC – Best of Class, Driftless Habanero Honey
• Hidden Springs Creamery LLC – Second Award, Driftless Cranberry and Cinnamon
• Hidden Springs Creamery LLC – Third Award, Driftless Garlic and Herb

Karen Nielsen of the Sheep Dairy Association of Wisconsin weighs in on the results from last months placings, “It is amazing to me that our cheeses do so well when you consider that there are 83-89 cheeses entered in each of these categories,” she said, “also great is to have all of our members’ cheeses placing in the top finishers in each category.” Due to the competitive nature of each category, even placing in the top 6 out of nearly 100 entries is extremely difficult. Anna Landmark clinched 3rd place in the highly sought after Surface Ripened Sheep’s Milk category, an impressive feat for Landmark Creamery, which has only been in the business for twelve years and is already making waves on a national level. Her Anabasque cheese is processed with milk from the prized Assaf sheep breed.

The flavored Sheep’s Milk Cheese category was completely dominated by Wisconsin’s only farmstead sheep milk creamery. Hidden Springs Creamery, owned by Amy and Travis Forgues won first, second and third place, with their Driftless Habanero Honey, Driftless Cranberry and Cinnamon, and Driftless Garlic and Herb. They won 5th, 6th, and 7th place as well in this category with 86 national entries. Hidden Springs Creamery also placed 2nd with their Wischego entry in the Hard Sheep’s Milk Cheeses category between Cedar Grove Cheese’s Donatello entries. Amy credits the exceptional quality of their cheese to their pasture-grazed Lacaune sheep.

Hook’s Cheese won 1st place in the Soft & Semi-Soft Sheep’s Milk Cheeses competition with their entry of Little Boy Blue, a cheese processed with sheep’s milk produced by Hidden Springs Creamery. Hook’s Cheese describes this unique blue cheese as being rich, with notes of grapes and honey and is a favorite among many of the employees at the company as well as their customers.

Cedar Grove Cheese sources the milk for their award winning Donatello from Forever Young Sheep Dairy and Full Fleeced Dairy in Waterloo, WI. They not only won 1st and 2nd in the Hard Sheep’s Milk Cheeses category, but also won 1st place in the Hard Mixed Milk Cheeses category with Faarko made with both sheep’s and cow’s milk.

Speaking of mixed milk cheeses, Wisconsin processor Carr Valley Cheese Company won best in class with their Mobay in the Soft and Semi-Soft Mixed Milk Cheeses category. This cheese was also judged to be in the top 20 of all finishers in the entire competition. This incredible cheese has individual layers of goat’s and sheep’s milk cheese, separated by a layer of grapevine ash. This gives the Mobay an extremely diverse and unique flavor profile that many describe as tangy, sweet, and nutty, with a grapelike finish. Carr Valley also won 3rd place in the same category with their Gran Canaria, another goat’s and sheep’s milk cheese as well as 2nd place in the Surface Ripened Mixed Milk Cheeses category with their Cave Aged Mellage, crafted from a mix of sheep, goat, and cow’s milk.

Nielsen explains that mixed-milk cheeses are an important category because, “There aren’t many farms producing sheep’s milk and sheep don’t produce nearly as much milk by volume in comparison to dairy cows.” She goes on further, “Mixed cheeses allow cheesemakers to produce larger volumes of cheese using cow’s milk but with the flavor profile benefits of sheep’s milk, allowing them to produce a wider variety of very delicious and award winning cheeses.”

Soft and Semi-Soft Mixed Milk Cheese Category

• Carr Valley Cheese Company, Inc. – Best of Class, Mobay
• Carr Valley Cheese Company, Inc. – Third Award, Gran Canaria

Hard Sheep’s Milk Cheese Category

• Cedar Grove Cheese Inc. – Best of Class, Faarko
• Lake Country Dairy/Schuman Cheese – Third Award, Cello Romano

Surface Ripened Mixed Milk Cheese Category

• Carr Valley Cheese Company, Inc. – Second Award, Cave Aged Mellage

Karen Nielsen believes Wisconsin’s dominance in the sheep category is due to a variety of factors including Wisconsin’s superior dairy infrastructure. Wisconsin is the only state that requires cheesemakers to hold an official license, earned by completing a specialized program through the state’s advanced dairy education system. “We consistently win a lot of dairy product awards because our cheesemakers and dairy processors are very knowledgeable as well as talented,” she further commented, “We also have the most sheep dairy producers and processors in the US.” This combination sets Wisconsin up to be the epicenter of the growing US sheep dairy market, which is expected to experience rapid growth over the next decade as consumers discover the quality, taste, and nutritional benefits of sheep’s milk.

All Wisconsin sheep’s milk cheesemakers can be easily found through our Curd and Cone Map.