Yorkshire Wolds farmer and entrepreneur wins Yorkshire Food Hero award

Tom Mellor, who co-founded Wold Top Brewery with his late wife, Gill and Spirit of Yorkshire Distillery with friend, David Thompson, was named the Yorkshire Food Hero 2022 at the 18th deliciouslyorkshire Taste Awards.

Sponsored by Mason's Gin, the inaugural Judy Bell Yorkshire Food Hero award was presented to Mr Mellor by Mrs Bell's daughters at an awards ceremony that was held at the Pavilions in Harrogate.

Nominated by their peers and decided on by the panel of Taste Award judges, the Food Hero award has been renamed in honour of the late Judy Bell, the original Yorkshire Food Hero, and seeks to shine a light on someone who has championed the Yorkshire food and drink industry far and wide.

The judges said: “This year's recipient is a stalwart of the industry in the county, founding and running not one, but two multi-award-winning businesses and producing products enjoyed throughout the country and indeed around the world.

“Inspiring, innovative, and forward-thinking, Tom Mellor and his team have diversified and expanded, keeping up with trends and indeed setting new ones for many years from their base in East Yorkshire.

“Tom is a popular winner, building successful businesses alongside being a great ambassador of Yorkshire food and drink. A true Yorkshire Food Hero and a very worthy winner of this year's award."

“It's a real honour to be presented with this award. Judy did an amazing job of championing Yorkshire food and drink and was always a great support to me, Gill and our family as we grew our businesses,” said Mr Mellor.

Earlier in the year, Spirit of Yorkshire Distillery won the Producer of the Year category at the 2022 Food and Drink Heroes Awards which celebrate UK food and drink entrepreneurs.

Wold Top was founded in 2003 and is located on the Mellor family farm at Hunmanby Grange near Filey.

The team use home-grown barley and water from the farm's borehole to produce a range of award-winning cask, keg and bottled beers that are available throughout Yorkshire and nationwide.

Spirit of Yorkshire is a field-to-bottle distillery that was launched in 2016, with its first single malt whisky, Filey Bay, bottled in 2019. It now sells Yorkshire's first whisky throughout the UK and exports to 12 countries, including USA, China and Germany.