New Zealand's Top Sausages Announced

Westmere Butchery in Auckland has taken out New Zealand’s top sausage award for the second year in a row. They were announced as the Supreme Award winner for the 2019 Devro Great New Zealand Sausage Competition at an awards dinner in Auckland this evening. The judges couldn’t get enough of their Chicken, Leek and Bacon entry which beat out over 500 other entries from over 90 producers around New Zealand, to claim the top spot.

David Rossiter, owner of Westmere Butchery, has had over 45 years in the industry and it is fair to say his store has become a butchery institution in Auckland. He said of his victory: “It’s just fantastic to win again for a second year. I can only thank my manager Glenn, he’s picked the winning sausage two years in a row. It’s brilliant that we’re making a great sausage that people enjoy. I’ve got the best team in the world and I’m so pleased they’re getting the recognition they deserve. I hate to say that I’m gobsmacked, but I’m bloody gobsmacked.”

Glenn Mckendry, store manager of Westmere Butchery, was the visionary team member that recognised the potential of the winning chicken, leek and bacon sausage: “We just happened to have a chicken, leek and bacon pie, I just had a feeling that would turn into a great sausage – low and behold we’ve won again."

Footage of the judging process as well as images of the competition can be downloaded from here. Full breakdown of medal winners by category and region is also available.

The journey to Supreme status for the winning sausages has been a long and rigorous process. More than 90 producers from around New Zealand put their best snarlers forward culminating in over 500 sausages being poked, sniffed and tasted across 13 categories. Five days of category judging last month by a squad of butchers, foodies, chefs and industry heavyweights, whittled entries down to the top scoring sausages.

From here, gold, silver and bronze medals were awarded in each category with the 15 gold medallists then being re-judged against one another, with Westmere Butchery’s sausage coming out on top.

“The top sausage is an extraordinarily delicious, full-bodied savoury sausage that had all the judges fighting for more, but all were in total agreement that this was the winning banger”, says foodwriter and judge Annabelle White.

“Even after all the judging we asked for more to be cooked. Think perfectly flavoured - it’s all about the meat, perfectly textured with great use of seasoning that has an unforgettable luscious after taste. It’s made me banger obsessed and congrats to the creators”, says White.

The announcement of New Zealand’s top tasting banger comes just in time as Kiwi’s across the country look forward to next week’s long holiday weekend which also happens to be The Great New Zealand #SausageFest – a weekend to celebrate the sausage. Traditionally Labour weekend is a great time to clean up the barbeque in readiness for summer and now Kiwi’s can get their hands on some award-winning snarlers to set their Labour weekend barbeques sizzling.

Other winning categories were the People’s Choice Award which, after a public blind-taste test of the six top scoring sausages, revealed Avon’s Butchery in Glen Innes, Auckland, to be the people’s favourite with their Beef, Garden Herb and Garlic entry.

The Devro New Zealand Wildcard winner was awarded to Peter Timbs Meats in Christchurch for producing the highest scoring sausage in a Devro casing, with their Wild Venison and Black Plum entry.

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