Landmark Creamery’s "Anabasque" placed third in the highly contested Surface-Ripened Sheep’s Milk Cheeses category at the 2025 US Championship Cheese Contest.
Last month, the US Championship Cheese Contest saw a large volume of winners from Wisconsin, with many categories being swept by Wisconsin dairy processors. Wisconsin dominated cheese curd entries and processors Cedar Grove, Lynn Dairy, and LaGrander’s took first, second, and third places in the category. An area of particular interest is Wisconsin’s domination of the Sheep’s Milk Cheese categories.
Soft and Semi-Soft Sheep’s Milk Cheeses Category
Hard Sheep’s Milk Cheeses Category
Surface Ripened Sheep’s Milk Cheeses Category
Flavored Sheep’s Milk Cheeses Category
Karen Nielsen of the Sheep Dairy Association of Wisconsin weighs in on the results from last month’s placings in a recent press release, “It is amazing to me that our cheeses do so well when you consider that there are 83-89 cheeses entered in each of these categories,” she said, “also great is to have all of our members’ cheeses placing in the top finishers in each category.”
Due to the competitive nature of each category, even placing in the top 6 out of nearly 100 entries is extremely difficult. Anna Landmark clinched 3rd place in the highly sought after Surface Ripened Sheep’s Milk category, an impressive feat for Landmark Creamery, which has only been in the business for twelve years and is already making waves on a national level. Her Anabasque cheese is processed with milk from the prized Assaf sheep breed.
The flavored Sheep’s Milk Cheese category was completely dominated by Wisconsin’s only farmstead sheep milk creamery. Hidden Springs Creamery, owned by Amy and Travis Forgues won first, second and third place, with their Driftless Habanero Honey, Driftless Cranberry and Cinnamon, and Driftless Garlic and Herb. They won 5th, 6th, and 7th place as well in this category with 86 national entries. Hidden Springs Creamery also placed 2nd with their Wischego entry in the Hard Sheep’s Milk Cheeses category between Cedar Grove Cheese’s Donatello entries. Amy credits the exceptional quality of their cheese to their pasture-grazed Lacaune sheep.
Hook’s Cheese won 1st place in the Soft & Semi-Soft Sheep’s Milk Cheeses competition with their entry of Little Boy Blue, a cheese processed with sheep’s milk produced by Hidden Springs Creamery. Hook’s Cheese describes this unique blue cheese as being rich, with notes of grapes and honey and is a favorite among many of the employees at the company as well as their customers.
See the full release here.
