IWSC 2023 Spirits Awards: Whiskies

Given it’s the biggest spirits category in the world it is unsurprising that our whisk(e)y judging spans across several days of our two weeks of spirits judging.

With Scotch being the biggest of the sub-categories taking 2 days of judging, we also spend a lot of time judging the hundreds of in the Irish whiskey, American whiskey and Worldwide Whiskey categories.

Scotch

Overseen by Richard Paterson OBE, after a few years of disruption caused by Covid, we were delighted to see the return of many of our regular whisky judges this year. Taking home almost 25% of the total Gold Outstanding medal tally, 24 Gold Outstanding medals were awarded to Scotch whiskies:

• 10 YO Single Malt Scotch Whisky, Loch Lomond Whiskies
• 21 YO Parliament Single Malt Scotch Whisky, The GlenDronach Distillery
• 21 YO Sherry Cask Single Malt Scotch Whisky, Deanston
• 21 YO Single Malt Scotch Whisky, Tomintoul Distillery
• 25 YO Single Malt Scotch Whisky, Balblair Distillery
• 55.74 - Crazy Flamenco Bravura Single Malt Scotch Whisky, The Scotch Malt Whisky Society
• Blended Scotch Whisky, Sassenach Spirits
• Craigellachie 13 YO Single Malt Scotch Whisky, John Dewar & Sons
• Elgin Edition 10 YO Single Malt Scotch Whisky, Glen Moray Distillery
• Glenfairn Highland Single Malt Scotch Whisky, Whyte & Mackay
• Glenfiddich 15 YO Solera Single Malt Scotch Whisky, William Grant & Sons Distillers
• Inchmurrin 12 YO Single Malt Scotch Whisky, Loch Lomond Whiskies
• Moine 2004 Tokaji Cask Finish Single Malt Scotch Whisky, Bunnahabhain
• Old Pulteney 25 YO Single Malt Scotch Whisky, Pulteney Distillery
• Palo Cortado 12 YO Single Malt Scotch Whisky, The Glenmorangie Company
• Reserva Andalucía Oloroso Sherry Cask Finish Single Malt Scotch Whisky, Glencadam Distillery
• Royal Salute 30 YO Key To The Kingdom Blended Scotch Whisky, Chivas Brothers
• Royal Salute 62 Gun Salute Blended Scotch Whisky, Chivas Brothers
• Talisker 30 YO Single Malt Scotch Whisky
• The Accord 12 YO Single Malt Scotch Whisky, The Glenmorangie Company
• The Balvenie 19 Year Old Week Of Peat Single Malt Scotch Whisky, William Grant & Sons Distillers
• The Balvenie 21 YO Portwood Single Malt Scotch Whisky, William Grant & Sons Distillers
• The Bowmore Distillery 31 YO Mizunara PX Sherry Cask Finish Single Malt Scotch Whisky, East Asia Whisky Company
• Triple Wood 2022 Release Single Malt Scotch Whisky, Glenturret

Further medals awarded in the Scotch category include 104 Gold, 321 Silver and 94 Bronze medals.

Irish whiskey

In the Irish whiskey category, the two Gold Outstanding medals were both taken home by Irish Distillers’ Redbreast:

• Redbreast 21 YO Single Pot Still Irish Whiskey
• Redbreast 27 YO Single Pot Still Irish Whiskey

Medals were awarded to 26 different distillers across the island of Ireland, which between then accrued 10 Gold medals, 51 Silvers and 41 bronze medals.

Dawn Davies MW led the panels for the Irish, American and Worldwide Whiskey judging days. She highlighted the “stalwarts from Ireland and USA” in her deliberations shared during judging.

USA Whiskey

A stalwart category as described by Spirits Judging Committee member, Dawn Davies MW who led our Worldwide Whiskey judging, 4 entries from the US received the coveted Gold Outstanding medal at this years judging, as well as 25 Golds, 76 Silvers and 49 Bronze medals.

Gold Outstanding medal winners:

• 12 YO Straight Bourbon Whiskey, Barton 1792 Distillery
• Heritage Collection 12 YO Rye Whiskey, Heaven Hill Distillery
• Origin Series Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey, Bardstown Bourbon Company
• Tempranillo Cask American Single Malt Whiskey, Westward Whiskey

Worldwide Whisky

“During this year’s judging  we saw new producers and new countries coming on line that we haven't seen before which is great – there was a great German whiskey in there for instance and we tried some interesting whiskies from Denmark.” These are the words of Dawn Davies MW who oversaw our 2023 worldwide whiskey judging.

The IWSC received whiskey entries for the Worldwide Whiskey category from 32 countries this year, including Canada, Finland, Belgium, Sweden, Israel, South Africa, Denmark, China, Iceland, New Zealand, Myanmar, Nepal, Switzerland and Argentina.

In total 16 Gold medals were awarded as well as 129 Silvers, and 172 Bronze medals.

You can read Dawn’s full feedback on the worldwide whiskey judging days here.

Discover all our 2023 spirits results on the IWSC website.