Affineur of the Year 2026: A Celebration of Cheese

Caroline Wood reporting back from Affineur of the Year 2026

What is the Affineur of the Year Competition?

The Affineur of the Year competition is a unique opportunity for cheesemongers and cheesemakers to showcase the skill and craftmanship needed to age a cheese to its full potential – and to push the very boundaries of cheese innovation. Cheese enthusiast and Academy Member Caroline Wood reports back on the 2026 final.

You know you are among your people when everyone around you presses forward with excitement as a man cuts an enormous truckle of Cropwell Bishop Stilton into two. Jubilant cries erupt as the halves are held aloft: “Its blue! It’s blue!”

How Affinage Transforms Great Cheese

Welcome to Affineur of the Year, a cheesemaking competition like no other. Hosted each year by the Academy of Cheese, this specifically showcases the art, craft and science of maturing a young cheese to the point of perfection – the process known as affinage.

The competition entrants are sent a very young identical cheese from the same batch and given free rein to put their own spin on it, whether that is bathing it in booze, smoking it or even breaking into entirely different post-make categories. Crucially, they must first declare a ‘Statement of Intent’ which outlines their desired objective for the finished cheese. After caring for their cheeses (for a period which varies according to the type of cheese), the entrants convene with their creations for the grand finale. Here, a panel of cheese industry superstars judge the cheeses and decide who will be crowned as the Affineur of the Year.

The Affineurs Behind This Year’s Most Innovative Cheeses

Now in its fifth year, Affineur of the Year 2026 is bigger than ever, with 47 entries across five different cheese categories. What makes this competition distinct is that cheesemakers and mongers alike can compete on the same platform, ranging from newcomers to those with decades of experience. The judging process is based around two key elements: sensory qualities (appearance, flavour, aroma and texture) and the affineur’s documentation of the decisions behind their techniques.

And I can’t wait to get stuck into the action. Unlike most cheese competitions, Affineur of the Year positively encourages cheese enthusiasts like me to join in, with each category having a fiercely-contested ‘People’s Choice Award’. It is with eager anticipation that I arrive at the stunning finale venue, Christ Church Spitalfields, to check in and collect my scorecard – so many cheeses, so little time!

The imposing building has been transformed into a festival of fromage, the nave filled with stalls of cheesemakers, mongers, and distributors from across the UK and even overseas. As the volume of excited chatter demonstrates, this is more than simply a competition, but a valued opportunity for those in the industry to catch up and show off the best of their wares. But I barely have time to look around before Tracey Colley, Founding Director of the Academy of Cheese, is calling us to head below to the crypt to witness the ‘cutting of the cheeses.’

The Science (and Art) of Cheese Ageing

Downstairs, in what we all agree is ‘the hottest crypt ever’, the air is supercharged with nervous excitement. The competitors line up behind their entries, the precious ‘cheese babies’ they have been carefully tending for so long (from just over a month for the Baron Bigod entries to ten months for the Quicke’s Cheddars). Laid out side by side, some of the cheeses look so different from another that it is a struggle to believe they all originated from the same batch. But the affineurs have no idea of what lies beneath the rind: will the paste be cracked or smooth? Will they have nailed that chalky texture they were aiming for? Will there be any rogue moulds? Will the Penicillium roqueforti have taken hold and formed a beautiful blue mould throughout?

When Tracey gives the word, the knives come out and the entrants dive in to settle the mystery. Reactions range from relief, consternation and “Oh…er, that’s interesting!” The cheeses are swiftly divided into portions, some of which remain in the crypt for the official judging with the rest being dispatched back upstairs to the nave.

Affineur of the Year is such a great event to catch up with cheesemongers and makers. It’s also a great source of inspiration – seeing what other people do to the cheese helps you understand how their minds work.

Mike Thomson, Mikes Fancy Cheese

I join the crowd trooping after them and get started on the Baron Bigod category. I can never hope to match the expertise on the 15-strong judging panel, but as an eligible voter for the People’s Choice Award, my opinion is keenly sought as I make my way round the different entrants. The level of innovation is astonishing. In the Baron Bigod category alone, entrants have experimented with smoking, using annatto, washing with Jägermeister, and rolling in peppercorns.

“Our Baron Bigod – bathed in stout then smoked – is very much a local collaboration,” says Lucy Lee-Tirrell, of Chiswick Cheese Market. “The pub where Chiswick Cheese Market is held, the George IV, provided the Fuller’s Imperial Stout, whilst the smoking was carried out by our long-term partner, London Smoke & Cure. There were no guarantees with the combination, but we are very happy with how it turned out.”

Paxton & Whitfield, meanwhile, went for a textural transformation with their Baron. “A typical Baron Bigod is smooth and silky throughout. I wanted to retain that under the rind, but enhance a chalky element in the core,” explains Jazz Reeves. “We put the cheese on metal racks, then wrapped the racks in clingfilm to create a microclimate. Later we rolled the outside of the cheese with peppercorns, which go really well with the chalky, fresh interior.” As I take a sample and scribble on my scorecard, I have to agree.

I wonder how the makers of the competition cheeses feel about these deviations to the originals, so have a word with Jonny Crickmore of Fen Farm Dairy. “We are always trying to be consistent when we make Baron Bigod, so it’s really fun to see people doing random, sometimes weird, things to it,” he tells me. “The competition is also an important opportunity to bring cheesemakers and mongers together.”

‘Random, sometimes weird’ things are certainly going on for the washed rind cheese, White Lake Cheese’s famous goat’s cheese, Rachel. Cropwell Bishop Creamery have crossed genres entirely with their ‘Blue Rachel’. India Bosden tells me the rationale: “Rachel is a cheese I have always loved and it seemed the obvious thing to do to combine it with our family’s expertise in making blue cheese. The competition is a fantastic thing to be involved in, even if it is a little stressful. It has taken over my life a bit!”

But perhaps the prize for ‘most wackiest innovation’ has to go to Mike’s Fancy Cheese, who decided to mature their Rachel in custom-made sealed clay pots. The results look like moon rocks, but beneath the gnarly, craterous exterior the core is pleasingly smooth and sweet. “I just thought the competition was a great excuse to put some cheese in a pot,” Mike Thomson says. “Affineur of the Year is such a great event to catch up with cheesemongers and makers. It’s also a great source of inspiration – seeing what other people do to the cheese helps you understand how their minds work.”

People’s Choice Award and 2026 Competition Winners

Two and a half hours fly by, and in no time at all the ten-minute warning sounds to submit our final scores. I hurriedly enter my votes and take my seat as the judges emerge from the crypt. If I thought I had a tricky time choosing, I can’t imagine the pressure they were under.

First up is the People’s Choice Award – and it seems my selections were way off the consensus view, with most of my top picks not winning their category! But I agree that the overall winner is a worthy choice: South West Cheese for their smoked hay-infused mead-washed take on Quicke’s Cheddar. Rob Collier, owner of South West Cheese, is thrilled: “My first competition and one I was slightly nervous about, but it was a truly inspiring event with so many amazing cheesemakers and mongers displaying their affinage skills and celebrating this incredible industry. Picking up the People’s Choice Award really did top off an incredible day. This job never gets boring!”

Next up is the Rising Star Award, awarded to competitors showing exceptional promise with a genuine curiosity and insight in affinage. It is a great reflection on the Academy’s commitment to invest in those the future success of the cheese industry depends on, with the prize being a week-long training course at the legendary Mons Fromager Affineur Caves. This year, the award goes to Claire Burt, founder of Burt’s Cheese, who had dexterously transferred her skills making Burt’s Blue to a blue of a different style. By smoking her Cropwell Bishop Stilton using apple and maple wood, she had imparted additional layers of wonderful savoury complexity – almost addictively moreish.

Following swiftly on, the category winners are revealed. This year, two giants among cheesemongers dominate the top prizes, with Courtyard Dairy and No 2 Pound Street claiming all five categories between them. And then the moment we have all been waiting for – the climax of months of crafting, tweaking, refining and caring.

“And the Affineur of the Year for 2026 is…. Courtyard Dairy for their Quicke’s Cheddar!” The crowd erupts into applause, as James Spence and Simon Ferro come forward to claim the trophy. Although the final decision must have been challenging, there is no doubt that Courtyard Dairy achieved what they set out to do – to forge a Cheddar-Alpine hybrid with a ‘balance of French finesse and British backbone.’ By washing their cheese regularly in a brine and bacteria solution, and carefully maturing it inside a wooden Port box, they succeeded in imparting both the hallmark brothy and sharp notes of classic Cheddar alongside the more umami, herbaceous and meaty flavours of the Alpine greats. On tasting it, I have the impression that the very essence of the Swiss Alps stole into the heart of the cheese as it matured.

What strikes me most from the event is how all the entrants constantly refer to affinage as a journey of discovery; of curiosity-led learning through experimenting, refining and trying things just to see how they turn out. Humans have been making cheese for thousands of years, but clearly the process retains many mysteries. Which makes perfect sense; cheese is, after all, a living ecosystem exquisitely sensitive to even the tiniest variations in its environment. This may be frustrating for those who aim for consistency, but to artisan producers this variability enables them to craft a product indelibly stamped by place and time.

Academy of Cheese: Championing Cheese Education and Innovation

Fittingly, Tracey takes the opportunity to announce that very soon the full pathway for the Academy’s Master of Cheese qualification will be available, opening a route for anyone to become ‘a definitive cheese expert.’ I now have a new dream…

I may not be maturing a cheese myself any time soon, but it feels wonderful to have found a community that will support my passion to learn as much as I can about this incomparable food. Perhaps it is this that, above all, makes cheese such a rewarding industry to be in. As Laurent Mons puts it: “You never stop learning.”