For the second year in a row, a Canadian cheese has taken Best of Show at the American Cheese Society’s prestigious annual judging. More astonishing, the winner was the same creamery. Québec’s Fromagerie La Station won with a different cheese this year, but still. It’s back-to-back victories for this fourth-generation family business specializing in farmstead cheese from organic raw milk. What a validation for traditional practices, and a reminder of how much we are losing by not having freer trade with our northern neighbor. The cheese that placed third overall—Grand Trunk from Stonetown Cheese—is likewise Canadian.

This year’s champion is Alfred Le Fermier, an eight-month-old wheel weighing about 11 pounds and made in the style of French and Swiss mountain cheeses like Comté and Appenzeller. Formaggio Kitchen in Massachusetts carries the cheese and describes it as having “a supple texture and complex flavor that’s fruity and nutty with caramel-like notes.” Based on the one little cube I was able to snatch at the American Cheese Society conference last week, I would echo this description. The cheese’s name references the family patriarch.

The competition had 1,588 entries this year, comparable to last year but still not back to pre-Covid levels. Judges awarded 120 blue ribbons so it’s not possible to highlight them all, but you can find the complete list of winners here.

A few notable wins:

Jasper Hill Farm took second place overall (just behind Best of Show) for Withersbrook Blue, this new cheese’s competition debut. It is exquisite, a creamy, fruity raw cow’s milk blue marinated in local ice cider.

“What I’m most proud of is the solid showing across our whole collection,” said Jasper Hill co-owner Mateo Kehler in a post-awards interview. This company’s achievement is hard to overstate. Of the 15 cheeses it entered, seven took first place and six finished either second or third. Jasper Hill’s Alpha Tolman, a large alpine-style wheel, received a perfect score.

Top Ten finisher from Nicasio Valley Cheese

At the awards ceremony, the judges revealed the ten highest-scoring cheeses. Which doesn’t mean they’re the ten best. A top-scoring cheese in the fat-free category is still probably one I don’t want to eat. That said, this year’s Top Ten scorers included the lovely Nicasio Square from California’s Nicasio Valley Cheese, a terrific showing for this family-owned farmstead creamery.

Bloomy-rind beauty: Briar Rose Butterbloom

Judges also loved Briar Rose Creamery’s Butterbloom, awarding it a blue ribbon in the hyper-competitive category of soft-ripened cow cheeses. Butterbloom has been a hit in my classes as well. Briar Rose’s fromage blanc also placed first in its category, scoring a perfect 100 points. That tally means the technical judge found zero flaws and the aesthetic judge gave full marks for appearance, aroma, texture and flavor.

Shepherd’s Way Sogn/courtesy of Talbott & Arding

I’m always thrilled to see Jodi Ohlsen Read win awards for her Shepherd’s Way Farms cheeses. This woman is the poster child for persistence. Her Minnesota creamery is one of the few in the U.S. to make farmstead sheep cheese, and she has been at it for 30 years. Shepherd’s Hope, her freshest cheese, may be my favorite, but the judges gave a first-place ribbon to Sogn, her aged tomme.

One explanation for Canada’s outstanding performance over the past few years is that more Canadian producers are sending entries. Until recently, transportation logistics and paperwork made it cumbersome for Canada to compete. Now, thanks to a determined effort by the competition organizers, Canadian entries are consolidated and trucked to the judging site by a produce distributor.

Thanks to Provisions International, a Vermont specialty food distributor with business ties to Québec, we should be seeing more artisan Canadian cheeses in the U.S. in future. Provisions sales rep James Hanly told me that his company has been importing Fromagerie La Station cheeses for the past year. “The plan was that if we could make it work with La Station, we’re going on from there,” says Hanly. Provisions is now importing cheese from a half-dozen Québec creameries and is in talks with more. To my surprise, Hanly said these imports are not subject to tariffs. Volume would have to grow dramatically to trigger duties.

Here's hoping this import effort is successful enough to encourage more cheese trade in both directions. In the meantime, look for Alfred Le Fermier at Brattleboro Food Coop (Brattleboro, VT); Cheese Shop of Salem (Salem, MA); Formaggio Kitchen (multiple locations); Nibblesford (Biddeford, ME); Rubiner’s Cheesemongers (Great Barrington, MA); and Talbott & Arding (Hudson, NY). And check out this list of East Coast retailers that likely have some of these Canadian newcomers.