Achill Mountain Lamb takes home Great Taste 3-star award

CALVEYS of Achill Island have been named among the top food and drink producers globally, picking up a highly prized 3-star Great Taste award for their Achill Mountain Salt Marsh Lamb Rump in a Rosemary, Garlic and Sea Salt Marinade.

Some 14,340 products were put through the competition’s rigorous blind judging process, with the Achill offering dubbed a 'delicious and joyful experience' at the world’s most coveted food and drink awards.

A total of 3,899 products were awarded a Great Taste 1-star - ‘food and drink that delivers fantastic flavour’, 1,508 were awarded a Great Taste 2-star - ‘above and beyond delicious’, and only 273 were awarded a Great Taste 3-star - ‘extraordinarily tasty food and drink’.

Described as 'properly lamby' and 'a joy', this marinaded salt marsh lamb rump was a big hit with the Great Taste judges.

Made with rosemary, sea salt, garlic, olive oil and the exquisite rump of Achill mountain salt marsh lamb, it was one of 5,680 products to receive an award from Great Taste in 2025 (which is only 39.6% of the total products entered).

Grainne Calvey from Calveys Achill Mountain Lamb commented: “We are thrilled to have won a Great Taste award for our salt marsh lamb rump.

“The marinade was inspired by the wild garlic growing where they graze. I foraged the wild garlic myself. It grows all around us here on Achill.

“We have longed for this moment and are so proud to be adding the prestigious black and gold Great Taste 3-star badge of honour to our product range.”

Master butcher Grainne continued: “Our father, Martin Calvey, started our journey back in 1962, so to be where we are today is truly a dream come true. We do it all here from rearing, slaughtering and butchering. We are one of the few family farms on the island of Ireland with their own abattoir.

“Being recognised with a Great Taste 3-star means so much to independent producers like us, as it makes all the hard work and determination worth it! Great Taste is the most recognised accolade for taste and quality in the food and drink industry, so it’s a huge milestone in our story.”

Recognised as a stamp of excellence and actively sought out by food lovers and retailers alike, the Great Taste accreditation scheme, organised by the Guild of Fine Food, values taste above all else. Each product in the line-up for judging is blind-tasted and all packaging is removed, so it cannot be identified, before entering a robust, layered judging process.

This year, judging took place over 110 days, with a panel of more than 500 judges putting entries to the test. The line-up saw food and drink products submitted from an extraordinary 110 different countries across the world.

The Achill Salt Marsh Lamb Rump Marinated in Rosemary, Garlic and Sea Salt is available from Achill Lamb Farmstore, Keel, Achill. RRP: €10 per rump.

For more information about Calvey’s Achill Mountain Salt Marsh Lamb, visit calveysachillmountainlamb.ie.