Wild Venison wins Great Taste Golden Fork award for Northern Ireland

Wild Sika Venison Loin from Baronscourt Estate is awarded top accolade for taste in Northern Ireland for 2022, at last night’s Golden Forks ceremony

Following a record-breaking 14,205 food and drink entries from 110 countries across the world, Great Taste, the world’s largest food and drink accreditation scheme based entirely on taste, has reached its grand finale for 2022.

Announced last night at the Great Taste Golden Forks ceremony held at Southwark Cathedral, the Great Taste Golden Fork trophy for Northern Ireland has been awarded to Baronscourt Estate from Tyrone for its Wild Sika Venison Loin, described as having “flavours of game and natural sweetness which balance beautifully and sing out” and “a rich red colour”. The Wild Sika Venison Loin comes from wild sika deer that roam Northern Ireland’s Baronscourt Estate.

Impressing the Great Taste judges with its “bold aroma which was followed by bold flavour”, the Wild Sika Venison Loin made an impression at every stage of the blind-tasted judging process across the 90 days.

Rising to the top among hundreds of other entries from Northern Ireland, this “rich and tender” loin was celebrated as the best tasting product in its region at the highly anticipated ceremony – the culmination of Great Taste – the largest and most trusted food and drink accreditation scheme on the planet – dubbed the ‘Oscars’ of the food & drink world and attended by food industry experts and influencers.

John Farrand, managing director at the Guild of Fine Food comments: “Unveiling the Great Taste Golden Fork winners is a huge honour. After months of rigorous blind-tasting and judging, it is fantastic to reveal the award-winning products and celebrate the producers’ hard work and innovation. It’s been an exceptional year for creativity and inspirational food and drink entries. Huge congratulations from all of us at GFF to all the award winners, it really isn’t easy to do what you do – I have the utmost admiration for you all. And thank you to everyone who was involved in Great Taste 2022.”

For more information on Baronscourt Estate, see here: www.barons-court.com

The Great Taste Golden Fork from Northern Ireland was sponsored by Invest NI. Also nominated this year were the Great Taste 3-star Corndale Chorizo Picante from Corndale Charcuterie based in Londonderry and The Single Rose, Ballylisk of Armagh Farmhouse Brie from Ballylisk Dairies based in Armagh.

What is Great Taste?

Recognised as a stamp of excellence and actively sought out by food lovers and retailers alike, Great Taste, organised by the Guild of Fine Food, values taste above all else. All products in the line-up for judging are blind tasted: every product is removed from its packaging so it cannot be identified, before entering a robust, layered judging process. This year, the judging took place over 90 days across two judging locations (Dorset and London).

Great Taste’s prestigious judging panel is made up of over 500 food & drink professionals, including critics, chefs, recipe creators, buyers, retailers, journalists, broadcasters, and experts in the field. This experienced panel, each with trusted palates, have together tasted and re-judged the 3-star winning products to crown the Golden Forks trophy winners as well as the Great Taste 2022 Supreme Champion.

This year, food and drink products from 110 different countries were entered into the Great Taste accreditation scheme. Only 5,556 products – that’s 39.1% of the total products entered this year – received either a Great Taste 1-, 2- or 3-star award, and of the 2,344 winning companies, 27% are based outside of the UK.

The full list of this year’s winners can be found at www.greattasteawards.co.uk and a wide range of the award-winning products are available to buy in delis, farm shops and independent retail outlets.

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Editor’s notes

Visit – https://gff.co.uk/

Established in 1994, Great Taste is organised by the Guild of Fine Food and is the world’s largest, longest standing and most respected food accreditation scheme for artisan and speciality food and drink producers.

The Guild of Fine Food is a community of business owners sharing the same passion for good food & drink: formed for mutual support and protection to maintain standards through training and raising awareness of good food and drink. The Guild of Fine Food exists to support, protect, represent, and raise awareness of all good independent food and drink businesses, at a local, national, international, and governmental level: Building a supportive and informative community of producers, retailers and food lovers who protect standards and champion well-made food & drink.

The full list of this year’s winners and where to buy them can be found at www.greattasteawards.co.uk and a wide range of the award-winning products are available to buy in delis, farm shops and independent retail outlets across the country.

As well as Great Taste, the Guild of Fine Food is known for publishing the industry-leading magazine, Fine Food Digest, running the annual Fine Food Show North in Harrogate and the global phenomenon, that is the World Cheese Awards. Plus, further events including award ceremonies and Great Taste markets, training sessions and member initiatives throughout the year.

High-res images are available upon request from the Sharp Relations team.