America is finally the big cheese.

France fell to the US in this year’s prestigious World Cheese Awards, losing top prize to a fromage from the Pacific Northwest.

Out of 3,804 cheeses from 42 countries which were judged at the ceremony in Bergamo, Italy, the Rogue River Blue from Oregon was chosen as the best in the world Oct. 18.

To add insult to French injury, a British cheddar came in second.

France’s best-performing cheese, an Epoisses (a soft cow’s milk cheese from Burgundy), ranked a humiliatingly low eighth place — tying with a Swiss Gruyere.

The French press was shocked at their nation’s stinky performance.

“Sacrilege: only one of the 15 top-rated cheeses is French,” wrote Ouest-France, one of the country’s largest-circulation newspapers. They expressed outrage that “the world’s best cheese is not French.”

The first-place winners did not shy away from expressing their joy.

“I am humbled and filled with gratitude,” Rogue Creamery President David Gremmels said in a news release, calling the award “the greatest distinction a cheese can receive.”

“What extraordinary validation of our commitment to quality, of the place that inspires our cheese — Southern Oregon’s Rogue Valley — and of the excellence of the growing American artisan cheese industry,” he said.

The winning cheese, which won Best Blue Cheese and Reserve Champion at the 2003 World Cheese Awards, is cave-aged and “wrapped in Syrah grape leaves that are soaked in pear spirits.”

New York shoppers looking for a sample can find it locally at Murray’s Cheese, Whole Foods and Kroger’s.

It’s the first time an American cheese has ever won first prize in the competition, according to Tom van Voorhees, the retail manager at the Rural Creamery Cheese shop in Central Point, Oregon.

When told of the French outrage, 53-year-old van Voorhees laughed.

“Oh good — that’s awesome! It’s like the movie ‘Bottle Shock,’” he said of the 2008 film in which American wine producers win a blind tasting contest in France.