If you make, eat, sleep and dream cheese, then now is your time to prove to the world just what you can do. With so many fantastic commercial and artisan cheesemakers making a name for themselves in Scotland, it would be wonderful to have a Scot bring back a world level award.

The 29th annual World Cheese Awards opened for entry last week, with organisers, the Guild of Fine Food, expecting more cheese-makers than ever to enter as the competition heads to San Sebastián this year, during the city’s tenure as European Capital of Culture.

Dedicated only to cheese, with no other dairy products able to enter, the World Cheese Awards will be the showpiece event at the inaugural International Cheese Festival. The festival is held between November 16-18, 2016, this global celebration of cheese will be open to consumers and tourists, as well as food professionals, buyers, and retailers.

Cheeses from more than 30 different countries are expected to line up in front of 250 judges from every corner of the globe, including international buyers, retailers, writers and cheesemakers, providing a golden opportunity for small artisan producers to spotlight their cheese on a world stage. With all tasting, nosing and conferring taking place within a single day, thousands of entries will be judged in order to identify any cheeses worthy of a bronze, silver or gold award, before the World Champion Cheese is crowned later in the afternoon.

John Farrand, managing director of the Guild of Fine Food, organisers of the World Cheese Awards, explains: “Our experts were presented with the mammoth task of judging 2727 individual cheeses in 2015, but with so much excitement about the awards heading to Europe’s unofficial culinary capital this year, we’re expecting record numbers. I can’t think of a better time to be taking the world’s largest cheese-only awards scheme to San Sebastián. We’re all delighted to be giving cheese such a prominent place in the celebrations, which is only fitting given the exceptional artisan cheese-making of the Basque Country that brought us here in the first place.”

The World Cheese Awards judging will commence on Wednesday, November 16. All entries will be judged and whittled down to the top 60 in just one day. Then the best 16 cheeses will be voted for by a final judging panel later in the afternoon, when the 2016 World Champion Cheese will be crowned.

The World Cheese Awards is open for entry until Tuesday, October 11, unless the entry cap is reached before this date – early entry is recommended. Producers can enter online at www.gff.co.uk/wca.