A Triple Win for Murray’s at the 2025 World Cheese Awards

2025 World Cheese Awards: Murray’s Stockinghall Breaks Through with Three Major Wins

Murray’s just scored a triple crown moment in the cheese world. At this year’s World Cheese Awards, their Cave Aged Original Stockinghall Cheddar landed in 5th place out of 5,244 entries. Stockinghall didn’t stop there: it also snagged Best American Cheese and Best Cheddar overall, putting a New York–born wheel squarely on the global stage.

What Makes Stockinghall Different

Stockinghall is the product of a deep, long-term collaboration between Murray’s and Old Chatham Creamery, first developed through a year of experimentation at Cornell University’s Dairy Science facility. Once the recipe was refined, Old Chatham began making the wheels exclusively for Murray’s, following a precise routine from day one.

Fresh wheels arrive in Queens at just over a week old, ready for the slow, careful work of aging. Murray’s cave team wraps each one in cloth, rubs it with lard, and settles it into the Natural Rind Cave for at least a year of flipping, brushing, and monitoring. Murray’s also uses a distinctive technique of stacking curds directly inside the molds, giving the cheese its signature crumbly-fudgy texture.

The flavor—think smoky, meaty notes, sour cream tang, and a surprising hint of pineapple that makes this cheddar unmistakably its own.

A Win Years in the Making

Murray’s entered the U.S. affinage scene early. When they built their first caves in 2004, aging cheese stateside at this level was still rare. Today, their four Queens caves—Bloomy Rind, Natural Rind, Washed Rind, and Alpine—operate with laboratory-level precision. Temperature, humidity, and microbes are all tightly controlled to bring out exactly what each cheese needs.

Their cave-aged lines fall into a few categories:

• Cave Aged Original: from concept to cave, entirely Murray’s creation.
• Cave Aged Reserve: collaborations where young wheels become something new.
• Cave Aged Limited: experimental batches available only briefly.
• Cave Aged: cheeses matured as their original makers intended.

Stockinghall belongs to the Original line—meaning Murray’s shaped it from the very first idea to the final rind.

Bring Home a Piece of the Win

For holiday boards, dinner parties, and any gathering where you want to casually drop, “Oh, that? It’s one of the world’s top cheddars,” Stockinghall is available in Murray’s NYC shops and online.

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