These are the best goat's milk cheeses produced in Malaga province

The goat's milk cheeses from El Arquillo, Montes de Málaga, Crestellina, Santa María del Cerro, Pastor del Valle and Cabraline have been recognised by the provincial authority's 'Sabor a Málaga' promotional brand as the best in the Costa del Sol province at the seventh annual awards for the best goat cheeses around this part of Andalucía.

Eleven cheese dairies participated in this year's competition and the winners were announced last Friday during a ceremony held at the facilities of Ciomijas, a comprehensive training and educational centre in Mijas for the leisure industries.

The judging panel was chaired by the director of Sabor a Málaga, Leonor García-Agua, and made up of experts from different parts of Spain. One of those judging was Esther María Alfaro Ruiz, technical specialist in cheese production, sensory analysis and cheese pairings (for instance, which cheese to pair with a certain wine) and judge for the national cheese competition at Madrid's gourmet fair and the Andalusian cheese fair. Other judges were Sara Fregeneda López, manager of Quesería La Antigua and Gestión Agro Ganadera and president of the international school for the dairy industry in Zamora, food marketing expert Ignacio González Gómez Sandoval and Francisco Javier García Caro, who is both a sommelier and a fromelier - a cheese expert who recommends which cheeses complement the other dishes of food and wine being served in gourmet restaurants.

The panel had to deliberate over 61 samples of goat's cheese submitted to the competition by 11 dairies from the municipalities of Alhaurín el Grande, Antequera, Campillos, Casabermeja, Casares, Coín, Colmenar, Vélez-Málaga, Villanueva de la Concepción and Yunquera. The cheesemakers submitted eight fresh cheeses, 13 semi-cured cheeses, nine fully-cured cheeses made with unpasteurised milk, 15 cured cheeses made with pasteurised milk, eight soft cheeses and eight cheeses with added flavours or innovative coatings.

Following the public tasting, the judging panel decided to award the best fresh goat's cheese to the one from El Arquillo (Campillos). Agammasur from Colmenar won two awards, one for best semi-cured cheese for their semicurado Montes de Málaga and the second for best cured cheese made with unpasteurised milk with their special reserve cheese coated with paprika.

The award for best cured cheese made with pasteurised milk went to Crestellina from Casares for their organic, grass-fed Payoya goat cheese while the award for the most innovative cheese went to Santa María del Cerro for their 'Romántico' cheese.

In the best soft cheese category, the award went to Pastor del Valle for their 'Capra El Pastor del Valle' and a runner-up prize was awarded to Cabraline for their blue goat's cheese.

The prize fund was more than 25,000 euros with 4,600 euros for each of the six categories, as well as 1,380 euros to be shared between the runners-up. The money awarded is intended to go towards the purchase of products for promotional activities. In addition, the winning cheeses will display a mention of the award on their product labelling and will be included in the national and international promotion and marketing network of the Sabor a Málaga brand.

In last year's competition, the winning cheesemakers were Agammasur, once again with two awards, Cabraline with one award and a runner-up prize, Caprina del Guadalhorce, El Porticatero and Flor Bermeja.