According to judges at the 2005 United States Championship Cheese Contest — sponsored by the Wisconsin Cheesemakers Association (WCMA) — the best cheese in America is a classic emmentaler made by Randy Krahenbuhl of Indiana’s Fair Oaks Dairy Products. Krahenbuhl’s Swiss-style entry was named the U.S. champion out of more than a thousand products entered in largest cheese competition ever held in the United States.

First runner-up was an aged raclette made by John Hoyt of Leelanau Cheese, Suttons Bay, Mich., and second runner-up was Cocoa Cardona, a semi-soft goat’s milk cheese rubbed with cocoa made by Sid Cook of Carr Valley Cheese, La Valle, Wis.

Contest judges — a team of 14 experts recruited from around the country — evaluated the 1,008 cheeses in 42 classes, determining gold, silver and bronze medalists in each class. All gold-medal winners were then re-evaluated in a final judging round to determine the United States Champion and two runners-up. Of the 42 gold medal-winning cheeses that made it to the final round, 16 were from Wisconsin. The next closest states were New York and California, with five gold medal cheeses each in the final round.