I’ve won a travel-writing prize.

I’m delighted to say that I picked up the award for Best Article about a Dutch Icon at the annual Taste the Dutch Lifestyle Travel Writer Awards last month.

The awards were organised to honour UK journalists who have written outstanding articles about Holland in 2012.

The winning piece was Holland on a Plate, published in The Daily Express in July 2012.

Here’s an extract:

Farmer’s wife Corrie Balthus greets me with a white-plastic apron and a cheese mould.

She’s been up since six, making cheese in her rustic kitchen at Zeilzicht farm as she has every Friday for over 30 years.

“You need all five senses to make high-quality cheese,” she says, cutting into a eight-year-aged Gouda with a knife more like a sabre.

“You look at the colour and form, listen for the sweetness, crumble and smell it in your hand, and then taste it.”

More about the awards from the press section of Holland.com.

Liked this? Read about another win – the Golden Pen award from the Croatian National tourist Board.

And post your comments below.