Eating cheese and drinking wine on a warm summer night. Does life get any better? It does if the cheese board is entirely made up of championship winners from the Australian Grand Dairy Awards. The AGDA celebrated the cream of the crop with a spread of delicious dairy treats. After rigorous judging, the top 18 dairy products in Australia were awarded championship trophies in a night dedicated to recognising (and tasting) excellence in Australian produce.
The winners spanned from speciality products to supermarket favourites – with the champions including Western Star’s cultured butter and Jalna Greek Natural Yogurt. However, the experience of tasting the products was anything but ordinary. My plus one announced true love mid bite of Berrys Creek Tarwin Blue. She then moved on the Mil Lel Superior Parmesan and declared it life changing. We were also charmed by Little Big Dairy Co’s assertion that their pure double cream is so thick the glass jars can be turned upside down.
At the end of the evening, the crème de la crème rose to the top. Pure Gelato’s Salted Pistachio scooped up a people’s choice award from the consumer judging panel. Then they were back onstage again collecting the trophy for Grand Champion Dairy Product.
Montefiore Ovoline took out Grand Champion Cheese, with their sweet, milky mini mozzarella balls. This was the first time in the history of the AGDA that a fresh, unripened cheese won the Grand Champion Trophy. The head judge (with the enviable task of tasting cheese around the world) called it ‘world class’ and asserted that ‘it doesn’t get any better than this’. We agreed. It was a brie-lliant night of dairy bliss.
– Jenny
Jenny Schmidt’s love affair with dairy started with a part-time job in a creamery as a university student. When she’s not stuffing her face with cheese, you can find her sampling the latest craft beer or sipping a creative cocktail.
For the full list of winners (and the ultimate shopping list) visit legendairy.
Disclosure: The Plus Ones were invited guests of Keep Left
