A Herve cheese from Liège province has been named Cheese of the Year at a competition held by the Agency for Agricultural Promotion (Apaq-W).
The Herve cheese is one of the few Walloon food products and the only Belgian cheese to have gained the Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) label.
The Exquis Herve PDO with beer, produced by one of the largest Herve cheese manufacturers, Terre de fromages, is made from pasteurised cow's milk and boasts a soft texture. During its maturation in the cellar, the cheese is washed with brown beer from the Val-Dieu Abbey in Aubel.
Two years ago, another producer from the Herve region won the competition, the Plateau cheesery, with its Fondance cheese, which has a different recipe to the PDO model.
Held biennially, the Apaq-W competition featured 86 cheeses produced by 29 Walloon cheesemakers at this round, with a large majority made from raw cow’s milk. 20 goat's milk cheeses and five sheep's milk cheeses were also in competition. In addition to the Cheese of the Year title, gold and silver medals were awarded in each of the ten cheese categories.
The Liège province dominated the competition, bagging six gold and six silver medals. Four golds went to Terre de fromages.
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Samson cheesery, based in Marche-en-Famenne (Luxembourg province), won three gold medals for its Tiesse di Fou, fresh goat cheese Nature and Bleu des Grottes.
Throughout November, Apaq-W is conducting a promotion campaign entitled 'Our local cheesemaking expertise'. The agency noted a significant divergence in Walloon consumers' behaviour.
While more than half claim to prefer cheeses made by small producers or brands committed to respecting artisanal work, nearly nine out of ten source their cheese from supermarkets, according to a survey conducted in August on cheese consumption habits in Wallonia and Brussels.
