We had a wonderful evening celebrating the best of Irish cheese at the 2021 CÁIS Irish Cheese Awards in the Grain Store at Killruddery. 

The awards celebrate the Irish Farmhouse Cheese sector and are organising by CÁIS the Association of Irish Farmhouse Cheesemakers of which Tom is chairperson and Norma is secretary. It is a hugely important date in our calendar, as we come together as a community to celebrate our achievements. This year the judges had the particularly difficult task of putting the eclectic variety of 220 cheeses entered to the taste test to identify their chosen worthy award-winners. This year we were honoured that the minister for Agriculture Mr Charlie McConalogue joined us at the awards ceremony as our guest speaker.

While the Irish Cheese Awards recognise individual excellence, every farmhouse cheesemaker can take an equal share of the credit for the outstanding contribution that the sector continues to make to Irish food culture, our rural communities and the dairy industry. Congratulations to Hegarty who were chosen as the Supreme Champion. Special congratulations also to Eugene Carr and Michael Horgan for their achivement awards in recognition of their outstanding contribution to the Irish Farmhouse Cheese Sector.