GREENSBORO, Vt., Nov. 27, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cellars at Jasper Hill, LLC announced today that its cheese, 'Harbison' was awarded 'Best American Cheese' at the World Cheese Awards, staged yesterday in Birmingham, England. The World Cheese Awards, now in its 27th year, hosted an international panel of 250 judges, which evaluated over 2700 cheeses. After initial rounds of judging, ranking cheeses into Gold, Silver, Bronze and 'no award', 62 standout cheeses were chosen for Super Gold awards. A subsequent round narrowed this list down further. A final round of judging determined supreme winners within the top 16 entries. Harbison won a Super Gold award, and subsequently made it into the final round of 16 World Champions, where it was officially recognized as a trophy winner under the heading of 'Best American Cheese.'
A photo accompanying this release is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=37864
Cellars at Jasper Hill also took home a Gold award for their 'Winnimere', Silver awards for two different vintages of 'Cabot Clothbound' and Bronze awards for their 'Moses Sleeper' and 'Kinsman Ridge'. Another Vermont cheesemaker, Vermont Creamery, was also recognized with several awards. Jasper Hill is pleased with this follow-up win after their Bayley Hazen Blue took home 'World's Best Unpasteurized Cheese' at the 2014 World Cheese Awards competition, which was also a top 16 score.
For official results: http://finefoodworld.co.uk/awards/world-cheese-awards
More about the winning cheese:
Harbison is a soft-ripened cheese with a rustic, bloomy rind. Young cheeses are wrapped in strips of spruce cambium, the tree's inner bark layer, harvested from the woodlands of Jasper Hill. The spoonable texture begins to develop in our vaults, though the paste continues to soften on the way to market. Harbison is woodsy and sweet, balanced with lemon, mustard, and vegetal flavors. Harbison also took top honors at the American Cheese Society Awards this year. Harbison can be purchased where fine cheeses are sold, at Jasper Hill's retail counter within the newly constructed Boston Public Market, or from Jasper Hill Farm's online store.
For more on our other winning cheeses: jasperhillfarm.com/cheese
More about Jasper Hill Farm
Jasper Hill is a working dairy farm with an on-site creamery in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. The Cellars at Jasper Hill, an on-site, underground aging facility, maximizes the potential of cheeses made by the creamery, as well as those made by other local producers. Leftover whey from the cheesemaking process is fed to heritage breed pigs, roaming the woodlands beyond the cows' pasture.
Jasper Hill's mission is to make the highest possible quality products in a way that supports Vermont's working landscape. We are driven to be the standard bearer of quality and innovation in the artisan cheese industry while promoting our regional taste of place. jasperhillfarm.com/about
Notably, Jasper Hill Farm just designed and implemented an innovative hay-drying system, Eureka Cropping Center, in order to localize sourcing and improve feed and milk quality for their two herds of cows. This structure, the only of its kind in the USA, boasts an 11,000 square food solar array, which is poised to offset up to half of Jasper Hill Farm's electricity usage. Further, Jasper Hill Farm is currently transitioning to non-GMO grain rations to supplement their cows' regionally-sourced, grass-based diet. jasperhillfarm.com/eureka
