Grand Champion and Reserve Champion cheesemakers were selected on Thursday, July 23 at the 2026 Ohio State Fair Cheese Contest held at Miceli Dairy Products in Cleveland.
The American Dairy Association Mideast, which coordinated the event, is pleased to announce that Pearl Valley Cheese of Fresno received the Grand Champion award for its Swiss cheese. As is tradition in the Ohio State Fair Cheese Contest, the Grand Champion Cheese is selected from entries in the Swiss class. Following that selection, judges choose the Reserve Champion Cheese from among the first-place winners in all contest classes, recognizing the competition’s overall outstanding cheese. This year’s Reserve Champion award was presented to Urban Stead Cheese of Cincinnati for its Nati Gouda.
Winners of the contest by classification are as follows:…