Three gold stars for Dark Island

The Orkney Brewery’s speciality Dark Island Reserve ale has picked up three gold stars – the highest award possible – at this year’s Great Taste Awards.

Regarded as the industry Oscars, The Guild of Fine Food’s annual Great Taste Awards are the UK’s largest independent evaluation of fine food and drink. Each product entered into the competition is subjected to rigorous tasting by a panel of over 400 expert judges.

Of the 10,000 entries received for this year’s event, only 153 have been awarded the top three-star classification and will now go on to be judged for a place in the Great Taste Top 50 foods, announced next month.

“We’re really thrilled with this result for Dark Island Reserve, which follows its three-star award in 2011,” said the Orkney Brewery’s Norman Sinclair.

“Achieving three-star status at the Great Taste Awards is no mean feat as the judging process is exceptionally rigorous and the competition very strong, but we were confident the quality of our product would shine through once again. We now look forward to the next stage in the judging process.”