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14 The Cheese Guide summit BY LORRIE BAUMANN Little Mountain from the Roelli Cheese Company, Inc., won the first place award in Best of Show competition at the American Cheese Society's annual awards. Little Mountain, made by Wisconsin Master Cheesemaker Chris Roelli, won the top award from among this year's 1,843 entries from 260 companies. In second place were Buff Blue from Bleating Heart Cheese and St. Malachi Reserve from The Farm at Doe Run, which finished in a tie. Buff Blue is a blue cheese made with water buffalo milk by California Cheesemaker Seana Doughty, who took the win as redemption as she fights her way back from a 2014 listeria recall that nearly put her out of business. "Winning this award was huge for me," she said. "When I won this award, I just went back to my room and called my husband and just cried." "I finally cracked the 'code di bufala,'" she added. "I finally can say I think I am a good cheesemaker now." Third place was also tied two ways. Jeffs' Select Gouda was submitted by Caves of Faribault but made in a collaboration with Maple Leaf Cheese. Master Cheesemaker Jeff Wideman at Maple Leaf made the original Gouda that became Jeffs' Select Gouda after affinage by Jeff Jirik at Caves of Faribault. Together, Wideman and Jirik are the Jeffs after which the cheese is now named, after a working name for the project became the cheese's official name when it was submitted for the contest. Greensward by Murray's Cheese shares the third-place honors. Murray's aged Jasper Hill's Harbison, washing it with cider, to make this cheese, which was originally created four years ago exclusively for Eleven Madison Park restaurant. "It's been a project we've been collaborating on for four years, and they are dialing it in," commented Jasper Hill Cheesemaker Mateo Kehler. Under the ACS competition rules, each cheese may be entered only once per calendar year, even if it's sold under different labels, so for the collaboration cheeses to be entered separately, the aging by a separate affineur must have changed the cheese's character so signficantly that it requires a separate identity. That's a judgment call that's made by the original cheesemaker and affineur on the honor system. For a first in the competition's history, there were two first-place ties for subcategory winners. Under the contest's rules, ties are allowed for second- and third-place awards but not for first- place awards. Each cheese is judged by a pair of judges: one looking at technical criteria who subtracts from a starting point of 50 points for any defects in the cheese, and the other looking at aesthetic criteria who awards points from a starting point of zero for characteristics just as flavor, aroma and visual beauty for a possible total score of 100 points. In the past, a tied score for first place has been broken by asking the aesthetic judge to go back to two best cheeses to see if there's anything that elevates one over the other for a possible addition to the aesthetic score. Points are never deducted from the technical score once that judge has spoken. This year, though, six cheeses in two different categories earned perfect 100-point scores. Two of those were Lenberg Farms Classic Reserve by Celebrity, Lindsay Bandaged Cheddar from Atalanta Corporation's Mariposa Dairy and Avonlea Clothbound Cheddar – Aged Over 12 Months from Cows Creamery. They competed in the category for cheddars wrapped in cloth or linen and aged over 12 months, made from any milk. And in the open category for soft-ripened cheeses made from cow's milk, an astounding four cheeses tied for first place with at ACS contest Chris Roelli Little Mountain takes the

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