The Whisky Awards is an additional feature that provides brands marketing materials to promote their products. As only 25% of entrants receive gold medals, the results of these awards are extremely meaningful. Additionally, all judges' notes are made available to each entrant as important data to develop the brand and determine the best marketing strategy.

Hundreds of entries are received from brands around the world and one entry is chosen as Best In Show. Each judging panel picks their two favorite whiskies of which they were responsible for evaluating. These whiskies are then evaluated by all judges to pick an overall favorite. This year the prestigious award goes to Kilchoman for their STR Cask Matured Single Malt Whisky. Several of the judges had comments about Kilchoman similar to Jenna Elie, known as Whisky A Go Girl, who said "I knew from the nose I was gonna enjoy this. It smells and tastes like a perfect peat bomb. Mouthfeel is creamy, not too sweet; beautiful, flavors ride from nose to finish, YES!" 

For this spring limited edition whisky, the maturation cask went through a process of shave, toast, and re-char in order to remove harsh tannins to create a subtle red wine influence. Our judges noted a well-balanced smoky peat underlying fruit, spices, and a caramel-cocoa sweetness.

During this year's judging, Whiskies of the World saw a marked increase in the scoring of American Single Malt whiskies. Many judges were commenting about their outright surprise on the quality of the American Single Malts rivaling their Scottish counterparts.  With the increasing number of small distilleries opening in the U.S. the competition is heating up, these distillers are thinking outside the barrel to make their presence known. Using bold rye, sweet corn, and wheat malt grains and producing new salivating worthy expressions to rival that of well-known distilleries and claiming 28% of the Gold awards given.

Our judges this year were phenomenal talent from the whisky and spirits industry. Douglas Smith, Whiskies of the World Event Director explains, "The judges are extremely talented with sensitive palates and work hard to evaluate each product. The evaluation of whiskies is taken very seriously by our judges, not only to taste and make notes, but also discuss and consider many angles. We are proud that our awards reflect the experience and integrity of our excellent judging panel."

Whiskies of the World is known for its industry-standard tasting events in Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, Houston, San Francisco, and San Jose. Each event allows individual whisky enthusiasts and local trade professionals to learn about whisky via sensory input, deepen their knowledge through series of masterclasses taught by distillers and ambassadors, and learn how to pair foods and cigars with whisky.

Source: PRNewswire

Image Source: PRNewswire