Sierra de Albarracin Cheeses win again at the World Cheese Awards 2017-18!

One more year we have to celebrate the success of our cheeses at the World Cheese Awards. This time, Quesos Sierra de Albarracín received 8 medals consolidating this cheese factory as the most awarded in Aragon.

The 30th edition of the largest and most prestigious cheese contest in the world, the World Cheese Awards, took place with 3,001 varieties of cheese being judged in a single day during the London Festive Edition with a historical record of countries participating in the event.

The different participating cheeses arrived to London through 12 points of consolidation spread all over the world: Australia, Bosnia Herzegovina, Colombia and South Africa, among others. A total of 230 professionals from 29 different countries met to compose the jury in charge of tasting, sniffing and blindly qualifying the 3,001 varieties, and awarding the Bronze, Silver, Gold and Super Gold medals to the deserving cheeses.

This professional jury was able to recognize once again the art and know-how of the small artisan cheese industry in Teruel "Sierra de Albarracín", making them worthy of a gold medal, three silver and four bronze medals: the most awarded cheeses in our region.

To date, there were already 5 varieties of our cheeses that had obtained the highest recognition of the contest, a gold medal or super gold. These were the semi-cured raw milk "Gold Label", "Blue Label", "Wine Cheese", "Green Label" and cured pasteurized milk "Silver Label". After this last edition we must add the "La Cava de Mía" soft cheese, the latest of the novelties from this Spanish cheese factory that came onto the market just over a year ago. With all this, the Albarracín cheese factory has won 36 World Cheese Awards medals to this day.

In summary, the World Cheese Awards 2017-2018 have been distributed as follows:

• La Cava de Mía soft cheese: Gold Medal
• Cheese "Gold Label": Silver Medal and Bronze Medal
• Cheese "Red Label": Silver Medal and Bronze Medal
• Cheese "Silver Label": Silver Medal
• Cheese "Green Label": Bronze Medal
• Red Wine Cheese: Bronze Medal

Buy these award-winning cheeses in our online store!

This international event coincided with the Aragon Food Awards, organized by the Government of Aragon, where "Sierra de Albarracín" cheeses have been called to receive the Award in Agroalimentary Crafts. The jury of these awards justifies this recognition in "having maintained a high level of quality, increasing its range of products while their penetration in the market and prestige". Without a doubt, these are days of celebration for this Spanish Cheese factory!

Tasting the artisan and exclusive Spanish cheeses from La Cava de Mia

Due to the growing reputation of Aragonese cheeses in Spain and internationally, the tv program "Objetivo" (Aragón TV) returned to our Dairy to record a report highlighting the role of the Sierra de Albarracín in this international recognition with our latest and successful innovation "La Cava de Mia" while obtaining the title of The Most Awarded Dairy in Spain at the World Cheese Awards 2016-2017.

"A family project with own livestock that since last year has a public facility." Sara Narro, communication manager of Sierra de Albarracín Cheese, welcomes the TV program team inside La Cava de Mía.

"This is La Cava de Mía, inside the Cheese Shop Sierra de Albarracín. It's a cheese refining cellar. Refining a product is to give it the touch of perfection and here is what we do in this kind of cave using the ultimate technology to generate the conditions of  natural cave. So we can control the temperature and aeration humidity."

The final result, which can be appreciated with the senses, is confirmed by Alberto Asensio, Dairy's manager with one of the cheeses born from this Spanish gourmet innovation. "One of the aspects to be evaluated in any tasting is that external format. Immediately after, its cut begins to speak of this product. This cheese aurea clearly defines the crust matured in a highly humid environment above 90 percent practically all weeks, two and a half months or two weeks, three months maximum. This 750 grams format is how we get the optimum timing."

To conclude the visit, Objetivo underlines our commitment to a different product that is added to the wide range of Cheeses Sierra de Albarracin exported to countries like Japan or Qatar.

We invite you to taste these award winning cheeses in our online shop!

The novelties of Cheeses Sierra de Albarracín in the Hall of Gourmets 2017

The Sierra de Albarracín cheeses once again participate in a new edition of the Salón de Gourmets (Hall of Gourmets)  the largest annual concentration of high-end food and beverage products in Europe. The international fair, of a strictly professional nature, is the biggest showcase for delicatessen products and the space where trade between producers and consumers is encouraged. A rich program of activities related to gastronomy which took place from 24 to 27 April at the IFEMA in Madrid and has broke the record with 93,346 professionals!

In our stand everything was prepared to welcome the interested foodies and lovers of the gourmet artisan cheese. This year Sierra de Albarracín participated as the current most awarded Dairy in Spain at the World Cheese Awards, a recognition that undoubtedly won the attention of those who came here.

All of our award winning cheeses were present, in different sizes. Among them, the great novelty of this year: the cheeses of La Cava de Mia (soft paste and pressed pasta), which were premiered at this Fair and thus announced in the exhibition space for the gourmet novelties in 2017.

In the meantime, we could not be better accompanied, within the space of Aragón Alimentos, sharing the experience with other exemplary agri-food companies to which we thank their company from here.

Artículo de @JuanBarbacil publicado en @heraldoes sobre la participación de empresas @Aragón sector #Agroalimentario en @SalondeGourmets pic.twitter.com/El3rlbqfkZ

— Aragón Alimentos (@aragonalimentos) 26 de abril de 2017

Among the thousands of visitors who passed by our gourmet space, it was nice to see our friend Antonio Mariscal or the Aragonese chef Rubén Pertusa again.

🧀 Con @CheesefromSpain saboreando algunos de los mejores quesos del mundo y que también llevamos a #Altafulla ¡y más allá! #SalondeGourmets pic.twitter.com/nlvzBoGwAO

— Mariscal & Sarroca (@GourmetFoodES) 27 de abril de 2017

The spanish actress Lluvia Rojo and the TV show "Dani & Flo" (Cuatro) ran into our stand and it caused a very original proposal!

In short, we return to Albarracín from the Salon de Gourmets with many things to tell ... and many fewer cheeses!. 

Thanks for both! We remind you that you have available our online store so that you can also enjoy at home our gastronomic treasures.

Interview: Cheeses Sierra de Albarracin at Radio 5

The cheeses from Albarracín were protagonists in the radio program "Degustar España" of Radio 5 (RNE). Alberto Asensio, Sierra de Albarracín Manager, was interviewed live by the journalist Paloma Zuriaga who brought our gourmet cheeses to all her listeners and foodies. You can listen the interview here (in spanish): 

You can also read the transcript of the interview below: 

Alberto, all the Sierra de Albarracin's cheeses are from sheep's milk...

Yes, indeed, because it's the livestock itself that dominates the origin of milk. And since we have sheeps, our cheeses has to be and must be from sheep's milk.

And all controlled by you.

The principle of everything is in that raw material. Our own livestock, with almost 2,000 sheeps and a really intensive production, allows us to have a stable level of sheep's milk troughout the year to transform it into our precious cheeses, both raw milk and pasteurized milk.

Enough raw material in a small company that is already ten years old.

Yes, in 2016 we celebrated our 10th anniversary. We are delighted to remember how we started with the sheeps and cheeses. With a constant and conscientious work by the team, young people as you can imagine, because the company was born with the idea of ​​creating and forming people committed to a project. We are getting that first phase for the moment.

For now, you have achieved many awards because the Sierra de Albarracin cheeses are highly prized. Not only in Aragon, but in the World Cheese Awards from where you came back with a lot of medals.

As you say, the World Cheese Awards are the international competition par excellence and the reference for the whole sector and well, this year was celebrated after a long time in England, moved to San Sebastian where we had the fortune and privilege to attend personally in this edition of 2016. It was a pleasure. Imagine being surrounded by three thousand and so aspirants in all three types of sheep's milk and goat's milk. And since 2010, when we started to win the first gold medals, we came back from this edition with 13 new awards: a Super Gold, a Gold, four Plates, seven Bronzes ... In total there are already 28 medals in the last five years, which place us as the most distinguished Spanish cheesemaker in this contest. Which makes us feel frankly proud.

Of course. We have many cheeses to choose: Silver label, Blue label, Green label, Black label... I do not know where to start but maybe about the Silver Label, one of the most awarded, right?

Precisely the Silver Label, in this last edition of the World Cheese Awards, was the one that received that Super Gold medal, an award for the 55 best cheeses in the world: one for each table of jurors, composed of 7 or 8 members each, who choose the best cheese from each table. We had the chance to once again a Super Gold medal, because in 2012 we already obtained it with the Blue Label cheese. In 2016 we bet for a matured cheese, at least 9 months, with sheep's milk like mentioned, without forgetting the rest. In short, a cheese is a question of raw material and - second - time of maturation. 

How can we buy these cheeses?

The distribution is relatively limited. We are not a big company and, therefore, we have a reduced production and this prevents us to work in large areas or large commercial areas. We don't do it through distributors, but through direct sales to the traditional delicatessen or the specialized shop. The big cities of this country make the difference in this type of consumption, because there is a select market of products that is demanded by people of average and high economic capacity, who look for differentiated products, exclusive and of the highest quality. At a fair price too, logically, but the big cities are our market and that gourmet shops in most cases are our customer. 

We invite you to taste these award winning cheeses in our online shop!