Hamilton pair pick up cheese award

Local cheesemakers Mercer Cheese and Meyer Gouda Cheese claimed the top prizes at the 2017 NZ Champions of Cheese Awards. Photo/Supplied

Two local cheesemakers of Dutch origin have stepped outside their traditions with two new cheeses, taking top prizes at the 2017 NZ Champions of Cheese Awards.

The Smoked Goat Gouda by Meyer Gouda Cheese was judged as the Countdown Champion of Champions (commercial), and Fifty Fifty by Mercer Cheese was awarded as the Puhoi Valley Champion of Champions (artisan) at the gala dinner in Auckland last week.

Both Meyer Gouda Cheese and Mercer Cheese are from the Waikato and have won previous top honours with traditional Dutch-style cheeses.

This year it was their innovation with new cheeses that has set them apart from more then 370 entries.

Master judge and Australian cheese guru Russell Smith described the Smoked Goat Gouda by Meyer Gouda Cheese as "absolutely gorgeous".

"It has a smooth creamy texture that delights the palate with sweet and mild piquant flavours," he says.

He described Fifty Fifty by Mercer Cheese as a "a beautifully aged gouda, with complex sweet and savoury flavours coming from the combination of cow and goat milk".

Mercer Cheese makes it only on occasional years when the last of the summer milks are right for this type of Gouda to be produced, and then aged.

The NZ Champions of Cheese Awards are held annually by the NZ Specialist Cheese Association. This was their 14th year which had 21 category winners.