Bath Blue From The Bath Soft Cheese Co. Scoops World Champion Cheese 2014

A classic blue veined cheese made by The Bath Soft Cheese Co, has scooped the top award at the World Cheese Awards held in London on November 14th. From nearly 2600 cheeses, the Bath Blue triumphed with one judge Louis Aird from Canada describing it as "poetry; like a river of cream over rocks, a perfectly balanced blue cheese with long, long lingering flavours." The final Supreme panel of judges, representing nations including Australia, USA, South Africa, Brazil, New Zealand and Canada, concurred, awarding the Bath Blue the highest score of the final judging stage.

On hearing the news Graham Padfield, MD of The Bath Soft Cheese Co, said; "This is truly fantastic news. It's a huge privilege to be the winner and we can't quite believe that we are now the makers of the World Champion Cheese. This gives us great confidence for the future as we have just invested in a new dairy building and we were taking a leap of faith, but this award confirms that we are getting our cheese right and that is a wonderful endorsement.

"Our cheese is made without any mechanisation, the milk comes from our herd of 160 organic cows, the curds are milled by hand and at each stage, this cheese is made by hand. Hugh, my son joined the farm five years ago and he is continuing the passion for making cheese," said Graham.

The Bath Soft Cheese Co, is based at Park Farm in Kelston, Bath BA1 9AG, Tel: 01225 331601 and cheese is sold from a small farm shop, as well as Borough Market in London, farmers' markets around Bath and Somerset, and also through the web site at www.parkfarm.co.uk

Bath Blue was the last cheese to be tasted by the Supreme Panel of 16 judges, narrowly beating Barbers Farmhouse Cheesemakers of the UK and Croatian producer Sirana Gligora into joint second place. Until the final cheese was tasted, Barber's Sweeter farmhouse cheddar and Sirana Gligora's Dinarski Sir were neck and neck to take the top title.

John Farrand, MD of the Guild of Fine Food, organisers of the World Cheese Awards commented: "The final judging was inevitably extremely tight. You are after all comparing the top 16 cheeses in the world and so the margins were tiny. The Bath Blue was the last cheese the super jury tasted and it stole the show by only two points. I shouldn't say it but it's great to have a British winner in World Cheese."

Over 250 cheese experts from 26 nations travelled to London Olympia to judge in the space of a single morning. The final judging panel of top-name global experts – including Cathy Strange of Whole Foods Market in the US, Suzy O'Regan of Woolworths Foods in South Africa, Ros Windsor of London's Paxton & Whitfield and Kris Lloyd of Australian artisan cheese-maker Woodside Cheese Wrights – then tasted a shortlist of 16 cheeses to select the 2014 World Champion.

The World Cheese Awards, now in its 26th year, returned to London for 2014 after a three-year run at the BBC Good Food Show at Birmingham's NEC.

This year's event drew entries from 33 countries including New Zealand, Canada, South Africa, Mexico, Argentina and Brazil.

World Cheese Awards 2014 – the background

* 2014 is the 26th year of the competition

* ONLY cheese is entered – not yoghurt, cream, butter or other dairy

* 2565 cheeses from 33 different countries entered – including UK and Ireland, New Zealand, Canada, Australia, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Belgium, Sweden, Austria, France, Germany, Spain and more…

* 250 expert Judges travel from 26 countries to 'nose' and taste the cheese

* Judging broadcast live on World Cheese TV

* A panel of Supreme Judges decided the final winning World Champion Cheese

* 30,000 people had an opportunity to see the World Cheese Awards at BBC Good Food Show London

For further information please contact:

Joanne Myram at Positive PR: joanne@positivepr.co.uk 01935 389497 or 07970 029364.

Tortie Farrand at The Guild of Fine Food:tortie.farrand@finefoodworld.co.uk 01747 825200 or 07976 631929.