Over thirty years of experience in sensory analysis — from the judging table at international competitions to private tastings in Tenerife and across Spain, where you learn to use all five senses.
The Super Jury is around sixteen tasters out of the two hundred–plus who judge the competition.
A tasting begins by looking. So look at the path she has taken: the qualifications, the competitions, and the more than thirty years behind them.
Ruth Lozano is an agricultural engineer with master’s degrees in Food Safety and Quality and in Viticulture and Enology. She began in sensory analysis in 1993 as secretary of the tasting committee of a wine denomination of origin in Tenerife.
That background in wine explains how she works: with method, precise vocabulary and repeatable criteria. Since then she has tasted thousands of wines and cheeses from around the world, has been a World Cheese Awards Super Judge four times, and teaches sensory analysis to producers, restaurateurs, university students and the general public.
Professional profile on LinkedIn30+ competitions as judge and organiser
On the jury of the contest that gathers cheeses from all seven islands each year, from fresh goat’s cheeses to aged mixed-milk wheels.
A fourth designation as Super Judge — sixteen tasters chosen from some two hundred and fifty to decide the best cheese in the world.
One of Spain’s benchmark cheese contests, with hundreds of samples tasted blind by international judging panels.
Speaking on “Women in training within the sector”, part of the Planeta Queso programme.
Invited speaker at the Chilean cheese congress, on tasting methodology and applied sensory analysis.
Lecturer responsible for the Canarian Cheeses module at the Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
1993
Consejo Regulador DOP Ycoden Daute Isora
Seven years at a wine denomination of origin in Tenerife. This is where the method comes from: panels, score sheets, vocabulary and repeatable criteria.
2000
Gobierno de Canarias
Agrifood promotion, quality schemes and technical training, with a particular focus on cheese. Begins judging at national and international competitions. Since 2022 she has coordinated ICASEL training in Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
2021
Her own programmes in sensory analysis, tasting methodology, attributes and defects, pairing and product valorisation, for professionals and producers.
2024
Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
Head of the Canarian Cheeses module on the Diploma in Canarian Gastronomic Studies. Sensory analysis of cheeses and of sea salts.
2024
World Cheese Awards
Viseu, Portugal. The Super Jury brings together around sixteen tasters from the competition’s two hundred–plus judges.
Smell runs ahead: a cheese is smelled before it is tasted, and an event is decided before anyone sits down. I organise cheese and wine events — weddings, companies, launches, pairing dinners — from the selection to the set-up.
A cheese and wine table for the reception
A table eaten standing up and over the course of an evening, which is a very different brief from a seated tasting: the cheeses are chosen for how they hold up out of the fridge and how they break without a knife, and the wines for still being wine at eleven at night. It is set up before anyone arrives and left standing, with or without me in front of it.
From team building to a dinner with clients
Blind tasting works remarkably well with a group: it forces people to describe, to reach agreement and to defend what they perceive, which is why it is remembered better than a lunch. It adapts to the number of people, the space and the time available — from a short tasting in the office to a client event with paired wines and time at the table afterwards.
For dairies, wineries and denominations of origin
Putting a new cheese or wine in front of buyers and press is a tasting with an objective, and it is prepared as one: what goes on the table, in what order, and what is said about each sample. I have spent the previous thirty years on the other side of that table, judging — so I know what gets looked at.
Built with the kitchen, not beside it
A menu with cheese and wine built into it, designed with the chef and with whoever runs the cellar, rather than dropped on top of their carte. I bring the progression — which cheese comes at which point in the menu and with which glass — and present it at table, course by course, if that is wanted.
The cheese selection
Chosen to contrast with one another. The three Canarian PDO cheeses are almost always in.
The wine selection
The enological half is mine too — I started out tasting wine, not cheese.
The tasting order
What comes before what, so that no cheese flattens the one after it.
The set-up
Sourcing, cutting, boards and presentation. It arrives standing and at temperature.
The script
What is said about each pairing, and who says it. I present it, or I leave it written.
The coordination
With the venue, the kitchen and the timings. One person to deal with, not three suppliers.
Every event is quoted on its own — the number of people, the venue, and what you want on the table.
Private cheese tastings, pairings and professional training, in Tenerife and elsewhere in the Canary Islands. Sessions booked as they stand, per person, and matched to the group and the venue.
Blind tasting. With the cheese out of sight, all that is left is describing what you perceive.
A board built for pairing — the fruit is chosen for what it does in the mouth after the cheese.
Wine and cheese, blind. With neither glass nor plate in sight, a pairing is judged only by what it does in the mouth.
The notes, the aroma jars, and the green apple for clearing the palate.
The same cheese is cut differently depending on what you want to look at — the paste, the rind, or the edge between them.
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At your home, or wherever you choose
A properly guided tasting: blindfolds to sharpen the senses, a score sheet in hand and apple to clear the palate between cheeses. You taste blind, take notes, and only then find out what each one was. You leave understanding why you like what you like.
Cheese and wine, from both sides
Before cheese, Ruth spent seven years running the tasting committee of a wine denomination of origin, and holds a master’s in Viticulture and Enology. Pairing here is not an add-on: it is analysing both products with the same method, and understanding why one match works and another fights.
For producers, hospitality and technical teams
Sensory-analysis programmes designed and delivered since 2021, and since 2024 on the ULPGC’s Diploma in Canarian Gastronomic Studies. Tasting methodology, attributes and defects, standardised vocabulary, panel tasting and product valorisation. Calibrated to the team’s level and to the product they work with.
Touch is the phase you cannot take on trust: some things you only know once you have handled them yourself. This is what people who have been to a tasting say about it — their words, unedited.
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