Gold Outstanding: rums that make you smile
This is our final blog celebrating 2025’s medal winning rums. We published Bronze, Silver and Gold Medal blogs earlier this week. Like this blog, they highlight trends that have emerged and place the award winners in a global context with insights gathered from our judges.
Gold Outstanding: rums that make you smile
Gold Outstanding represents the true pinnacle of the IWSC, awarded to a handful of rums receiving 98 points or higher. This year six rums received 98 points, representing only 2% medals awarded to rums in 2025.
Our Rum judging is led by Spirits Judging Committee Member Ian Burrell, one of the world’s foremost ambassadors for the rum category. He underlined how exceptional an IWSC Gold Outstanding medal really is. “It’s not easy in this competition to actually win any medal, so when we do award a Gold Outstanding, they are for some of the best spirits and best rums on the planet, we don’t give them out frivolously.”
Fellow Spirit Judging Committing member Dawn Davies MW explained further: “Gold outstanding should be the thing that you just get excited about that when you taste it for the first time. You're like, oh my goodness, this is amazing. Then it must have the length, the balance, the intensity and the complexity, all those things must be ticked. And that can come from a young spirit all the way up to an old spirit, and anything in between. It doesn't really matter, as long as it just makes you smile.”
Standouts and Surprises
This year’s Gold Outstanding rums came not just from the Caribbean, this year Jamaica, Martinique and Barbados, but also from Taiwan and Australia. Apart from the Jamaican rums, all the others were sugar cane juice/Agricoles which were praised across all our rum panels.
It is the nature of sugar cane juice rums that they have the possibility to be a true, raw expression of their origin, which might be why they have embraced products with authenticity, traceability and defined origin, alongside movements such as farm-to-table, and an increased realisation of the importance the adoption of sustainable working practices in the food chain.
This year’s results are clear, sugar cane/Argicole rum’s are having a moment. They are now not just from the French Carribbean, but all over the world, and as such offer consumers the chance to explore a variety of flavour characteristics.
When asked which categories stood out for them, there were many judges who homed in the quality of the sugar cane juice/Agricole rums. Antony Moss MW summed it up well commenting that the “Unaged Agricole overall did exceptionally well. There were several products that showed detailed expression of the cane juice base, with integrated fruity yeast esters, and were absolutely delicious.”
And the future?
Ian Burrell is excited about the increasingly global nature of the rum category, underlined with this year’s Gold Outstandings from Taiwan and Australia. We received rum entries from 48 different countries in 2025 and Ian would like to see more. “I want to see more rums coming out of Asia, out of the African continent and out of Europe. A lot of European companies are importing molasses and making rum here in Europe as well. So, I'd like to see more rums coming out of regions that are not internationally known as rum producers.”
There are two trends that have been developing over the last few years, and we saw them begin to solidify in this year’s competition. The first is the increasing quality of spiced and flavoured rums and the second a more defined identity for premium and ultra-premium expressions.
This second trend chimes with this year’s Gold Outstanding medal winners. We have seen a move away from age and an established origin being the only signpost to exceptional quality. Instead, brands are elevating the importance of the integrity of their production processes, transparency of ingredients and embracing geographical diversity. All neatly summed up by Myles Cunliffe who described his 2025 judging experience as “innovative, exciting, looking forward to the future”
A list of the Gold Outstanding Medal winners follows. To explore all the IWSC’s results please visit our website.
Gold Outstanding: rums that make you smile
Gold Outstanding represents the true pinnacle of the IWSC, awarded to a handful of rums receiving 98 points or higher. This year six rums received 98 points, representing only 2% medals awarded to rums in 2025.
Our Rum judging is led by Spirits Judging Committee Member Ian Burrell, one of the world’s foremost ambassadors for the rum category. He underlined how exceptional an IWSC Gold Outstanding medal really is. “It’s not easy in this competition to actually win any medal, so when we do award a Gold Outstanding, they are for some of the best spirits and best rums on the planet, we don’t give them out frivolously.”
Fellow Spirit Judging Committing member Dawn Davies MW explained further: “Gold outstanding should be the thing that you just get excited about that when you taste it for the first time. You're like, oh my goodness, this is amazing. Then it must have the length, the balance, the intensity and the complexity, all those things must be ticked. And that can come from a young spirit all the way up to an old spirit, and anything in between. It doesn't really matter, as long as it just makes you smile.”
Standouts and Surprises
This year’s Gold Outstanding rums came not just from the Caribbean, this year Jamaica, Martinique and Barbados, but also from Taiwan and Australia. Apart from the Jamaican rums, all the others were sugar cane juice/Agricoles which were praised across all our rum panels.
It is the nature of sugar cane juice rums that they have the possibility to be a true, raw expression of their origin, which might be why they have embraced products with authenticity, traceability and defined origin, alongside movements such as farm-to-table, and an increased realisation of the importance the adoption of sustainable working practices in the food chain.
This year’s results are clear, sugar cane/Argicole rum’s are having a moment. They are now not just from the French Carribbean, but all over the world, and as such offer consumers the chance to explore a variety of flavour characteristics.
When asked which categories stood out for them, there were many judges who homed in the quality of the sugar cane juice/Agricole rums. Antony Moss MW summed it up well commenting that the “Unaged Agricole overall did exceptionally well. There were several products that showed detailed expression of the cane juice base, with integrated fruity yeast esters, and were absolutely delicious.”
And the future?
Ian Burrell is excited about the increasingly global nature of the rum category, underlined with this year’s Gold Outstandings from Taiwan and Australia. We received rum entries from 48 different countries in 2025 and Ian would like to see more. “I want to see more rums coming out of Asia, out of the African continent and out of Europe. A lot of European companies are importing molasses and making rum here in Europe as well. So, I'd like to see more rums coming out of regions that are not internationally known as rum producers.”
There are two trends that have been developing over the last few years, and we saw them begin to solidify in this year’s competition. The first is the increasing quality of spiced and flavoured rums and the second a more defined identity for premium and ultra-premium expressions.
This second trend chimes with this year’s Gold Outstanding medal winners. We have seen a move away from age and an established origin being the only signpost to exceptional quality. Instead, brands are elevating the importance of the integrity of their production processes, transparency of ingredients and embracing geographical diversity. All neatly summed up by Myles Cunliffe who described his 2025 judging experience as “innovative, exciting, looking forward to the future”
A list of the Gold Outstanding Medal winners follows. To explore all the IWSC’s results please visit our website.
| Score | Producer | Entry Name | Country of Origin |
| 98 | Worthy Park Estate | 109 Rum | Jamaica |
| 98 | Clement Rhum | 15 YO Private Cask Whisky Brokers Associates Exclusive | Martinique |
| 98 | Foursquare Rum Distillery | Equidem 14 YO Rum | Barbados |
| 98 | Mt. Uncle Distillery | Fnq Palladium Rum | Australia |
| 98 | National Rums of Jamaica Limited | Monymusk Special Reserve 10 YO Rum | Jamaica |
| 98 | Hong Shing Winery Co. | Nine To One Red Sugar Cane Rum | Taiwan |
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