CultureACS 2026: Winnimere Is Best in Show, and a Blue Cheese Got a Sake Bath
The 2026 American Cheese Society Judging & Competition wrapped up in Louisville, Kentucky on July 8th — and the results are exactly as exciting as you'd hope. 1,592 entries across 123 categories, and one clear winner: Winnimere from Jasper Hill Farm in Greensboro, Vermont.
Best in Show: Winnimere, Jasper Hill Farm
Winnimere is a bark-wrapped, washed-rind cheese made from raw winter milk. Jasper Hill strips spruce bark and cinches it around each wheel — which does two things: holds the soft, yielding paste together as it ages toward a nearly spoonable texture, and contributes a woodsy, resinous note that no other style of cheese quite replicates.
The result is something you eat with a spoon. Rich, funky, smoky at the edges, deeply creamy through the middle. Think campfire crossed with crème fraîche. It's a seasonal wheel — made only in winter when cows are eating hay rather than fresh pasture — and it shows.
Jasper Hill walked away with five total awards this year, including four first-place finishes. Best in Show was the crown on an already dominant showing.
Winnimere is the kind of cheese that can't be faked or scaled. It's raw milk, it's spruce, it's Vermont winter. Every element is of a place.
2nd Place Best of Show: Artze, Blakesville Creamery
Runner-up honors went to Artze, a sheep's milk cheese finished with Piment d'Espelette from Blakesville Creamery in Port Washington, Wisconsin. Sheep's milk brings a natural sweetness and lanolin richness that absorbs the earthy Basque pepper beautifully — warm, nutty, gently spiced. A deserved podium finish.
3rd Place Best of Show: Nati Gouda, Urban Stead Cheese
Third place went to Nati Gouda from Urban Stead Cheese in Cincinnati, Ohio — a quietly impressive urban creamery earning serious respect in competition circles. A great reminder that you don't need a barn and rolling hills to make world-class cheese.
Wisconsin's Year (Again)
If you're keeping score: Wisconsin walked away from ACS 2026 with 106 total awards — 32 first-place finishes, and more than 31% of all competition awards. That's more than double the next highest state.
The standouts:
- Klondike Cheese Company: led the state with 20 awards
- Marieke Gouda: 9 awards, plus the Highest-Scoring American Original designation for Marieke Gouda Golden Mature
- BelGioioso Cheese Inc. and Schuman Cheese: 9 awards each
- Crave Brothers Farmstead Cheese: 3 first-place finishes
- Deer Creek Cheese and Arena Cheese Inc.: 7 awards each
Wisconsin makes more than half of America's specialty cheese. Numbers like these aren't a surprise — but they're still a statement.
Vermont Holds Its Own
Vermont's 15 competing cheesemakers collectively earned 54 ribbons. Beyond Jasper Hill's sweep at the top, that's a deep bench of producers punching well above their state's size — and a reminder that small-batch, raw-milk farmhouse cheesemaking is alive and thriving in New England.
New on the Shelf: Rogue Creamery's BluZu
Away from the competition circuit, Rogue Creamery (Medford, Oregon) launched their summer 2026 release: BluZu, a blue cheese soaked in yuzu-infused sake and decorated with yuzu peel.
This is a wild idea that works. Rogue's blue is already punchy and savory-sweet — adding yuzu (think floral grapefruit with a citrus-blossom edge) and sake softens the sharpness and adds a juicy brightness that makes this genuinely different from anything else you'll find on a cheese board. It's available through Rogue's Cheese Club subscription and at Wegmans.
Summer is usually rough territory for blue cheese marketing — people reach for fresh and light. Rogue's bet is that yuzu changes that equation. Smart positioning for the season.
By the Numbers
US cheese production continues to look healthy: total output (excluding cottage cheese) hit 1.28 billion pounds in May 2026, up 2% versus May 2025. CME block prices have climbed through July, currently sitting around $1.57/lb. Steady supply, strong demand — no alarm bells, and no bargains either.
Peak competition season is delivering. Winnimere winning Best in Show is a win for raw-milk, bark-wrapped, deeply seasonal American craft cheese. If you haven't tracked it down yet, now's the time — it ships in limited quantities and it won't last.
Full ACS results are posted at cheesesociety.org.