Best Brands Survey results: Cheese

CONTINENTAL
1st – Rouzaire Brie De Meaux
2nd – Kaserei Champignon Montagnolo
3rd – Vacherin Mont D’Or

Analysis
Brie De Meaux is always the most popular Continental cheese but, every year, many surveyed retailers fail to name their maker of choice.

This year, Rouzaire gained enough votes for it to be declared outright winner, closely followed by the award-magnet German blue Montagnolo Affiné from Käserei Champignon and Mont D’Or’s alpine classic Vacherin.

BRITISH
1st – Snowdonia Black Bomber
2nd – Colton Bassett Stilton
3rd – Montgomery’s Cheddar

Analysis
Cheddar and Stilton are crowd-pleasers so this result was entirely expected.

On the face of it, Snowdonia’s Black Bomber seems to trump more traditional styles of cheddar but if you were to combine the many brands of farmhouse cheddar (Montgomery’s being the most frequent) named in the survey, it would be more popular than its creamy waxed counterpart.

Colston Bassett was by far and away the retailers’ Stilton of choice.

Modern cheesemakers should also take heart from the fact that several of this year’s new cheeses were mentioned multiple times.

For all Best Brands results, you can view the digital edition here.