Lamb entries have defied Australian drought conditions to be named the winner of the 2018 Dick Stone perpetual trophy at the Sydney Royal Taste of Excellence Awards.
The trophy was won by Victoria’s Woodward Foods Australia for its export grade Lamb (USA).
The awards night was held at the Sydney Showground on the 21st of September.
The Dick Stone perpetual trophy is decided amongst the championship winners to emerge from the Branded Meat section of the coveted Sydney Royal Spring Fine Food Show held in September.
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This is the first year the trophy has been expanded to include beef, lamb and pork classes presented to the expert judges.
Chair of the Sydney Royal Spring Fine Food committee and Royal Agricultural Society of NSW councillor, Lachlan Bowtell, said this year’s competition was a testament to resilience.
“Even through the ravages of drought Australian lamb producers have delivered yet again,” said Bowtell.
“The high quality and flavours of the lamb presented to the judges this year made their role even more difficult.
“The Sydney Royal Fine Food Awards aim to reward excellence and this year was a true testament to the commitment and passion of not only lamb, but beef and pork producers, at times under dire circumstances,” he said.
Chair of judges in the Branded Meat competition George Ujvary said the overall quality of beef exhibits this year was very high and it was interesting to see the gap between the marbling quality of grass fed and grain fed beef exhibits closing yet again this year,” said Ujvary.
“The marbling of Wagyu exhibits this year was exceptional and flavour across all categories was very good.
“In the lamb competition, the standard of some exhibits was exceptionally high this year despite the conditions seen across the country which presented a number of challenges to producers,” he said.
“The top exhibits were sweet in flavour, extremely tender and exceptional in mouthfeel and appearance.
“Whilst the pork competition is still in relative infancy, the standard of competition was high and we all look forward to seeing this competition develop in the coming years,” said Ujvary.
During the competition 11 gold medals were awarded across seven classes in Branded Meat.