This year’s World Champion Cheese has been announced, and the 2026 accolade goes to Fromageries Arnaud from France for their 24-month aged Comté.
Organised by the Guild of Fine Food, the World Cheese Awards is globally recognised as the most influential event in the cheese industry. The 38th edition of the event was hosted by Instituto del Queso and formed part of the Andalucía-Gusto del Sur International Cheese Festival 2026.
There were 5,330 entries from 45 countries which were judged by a panel of 270 industry experts from 51 countries.
The fourteen Super Jury judges who announced Comté PDO Fort des Rousses, 24 Months as the winner noted its dark, thick, developed rind, which was crumbly and slightly sticky. They noted that it was clearly a very well-aged cheese which was evident from the dark golden colour which only comes with time. The development of texture and flavour was evident.
Rafael Dominguez Gonzalez, who nominated Fromageries Arnaud said; “Characteristically speaking, the cheese has a very nice texture. It was a very beautiful yellowy, orangey colour. When I saw the cheese for the first time, it really caught my eye. When you see something like this for the first time, you’re thinking, will I like it? It was delicious! It also had a really lovely texture. The flavour was very nice and layered – there were new waves coming after five, six, seven seconds. It is very playful in the mouth. Going from a beautiful nutty cheese to amazing, wonderful savoury tones, it was very interesting and ooh, the lingering! It just kept giving the vibe that I was enjoying a really good piece of cheese.”
Jean-Charles Arnaud, fourth generation of cheesemaker and affineur Fromageries Arnaud said: “It’s a real family affair, we’re from the mountains in the Jura and make the four AOP cheeses Comté, Morbier, Mont d’Or, Bleu de Gex du Jura, and we specialise in making quality, long maturing cheeses.
“The area has hundreds of traditional, natural caves in which the cheeses are matured. We can have really different atmospheres in there, indeed very small Comté Juraflore, 18 months, where we seek out an aromatic complexity, texture. We’re all but the largest producers [of Juraflore Comté] – we represent roughly 12% of production, but we’re really centred on quality. For us, this is major, we are located on mountain roads at the heart of a natural park, the microbial diversity of our milk is essential, and we use affinage methods that preserve the very oldest production methods.
“We’re very proud, for the milk producers, for the cheesemakers, for the affineurs, for everybody – for the whole company.”
The top 14 cheeses in the World as decided at the World Cheese Awards 2026 are:
- Comté PDO Fort des Rousses, 24 Months from Fromageries Arnaud in France, www.juraflore.com
- Ossau-Iraty from Agour in France, www.agour.com
- Le Gruyère AOP Réserve from Village Dairy Rossens from Gourmino in Switzerland, www.gourmino.ch
- Erborinato di Capra from Latteria Sociale Di Cameri in Italy,
- Queijo de Ovelha Curado – SoalheirAlves from Joaquim António Duarte Alves & Filhos in Portugal, www.soalheiralves.pt
- Curado Fuente La Sierra from Queseria Fuente La Sierra in Spain, www.fuentelasierra.com
- KALTBACH Appenzeller from Emmi Group in Switzerland, www.emmi.com
- Riserva del Fondatore Special Edition from Caseificio Il Fiorino in Italy, www.caseificioilfiorino.it
- Stärnächäs Extra 10 from Affineur Walo von Mühlenen in Switzerland, www.affineurwalo.ch
- Tomme Agnès from Gourmino, in Switzerland, www.gourmino.ch
- Queso Curado de Cabra con Flores Comestibles from Queronsa in Spain, www.queronsa.es
- Parmigiano reggiano DOP 30 Months from Consorzio Gourm.it in Italy, www.gourm.it
- Queso de Oveja Viejo El Roble De Campollano from Food Manchegos in Spain, www.quesoscampollano.com
- Blu Notte – La Fossa dell’Abbondanza from Italian Food Hunters Artisanal National Cheese Team in Italy, www.italianfoodhunters.com
The Super Jury panel of experts assessing the final stage of the competition included: Antoine Farge – Cheese of the World | Chizuru Nishimura – Fermier | David Asher – Milk Lab, Blacksheep School | Falco Luiz Bonfadini Araujo – Galeria do Queijo | Inga Arina-Vilne – Soira | Joey Wells, World Wide Grocery Stores – Whole Foods Market & Amazon | Joost van Nijnatten – Het Kaasatelier | Mansi Jasani – The Cheese Collective Malin Dahl – Möllans Ost | Nurper Özcan – Fratelli Cheese | Oksana Chernova – ProCheese Academy by Ardis Group | Perry Wakeman – Rennet & Rind | Rafael Dominguez Gonzalez – Chacón e Hijo | Suzy O’Regan – Woolworths.
