Silver Award win for Martin & Brown at International Wine & Spirits Competition
RELEASE DATE – Wednesday 30 June 2021
RESULTS OUT FOR THE BIGGEST SPIRITS JUDGING IN IWSC HISTORY
Martin & Brown Eastern Spice Blend takes SILVER IWSC award with 90 points
We’re very proud to announce our silver award today and congratulations to winners in all categories of this prestigious competition.
IWSC 2021 HIGHLIGHTS
80 experts judge over 4,000 samples at the biggest spirits judging in IWSC history.
Worldwide whiskey was the category that achieved the highest scores, with 70 entries receiving 95 points or more.
David T Smith, Ian Burrell, Marie Chong-Thong, Joel Harrison and Colin Hampden-White made up the IWSC 2021 judging committee.
Spirits entered from 86 countries.
The most amazing eight days of tasting has just taken place at a location in the heart of Soho. The unassuming building in the middle of Chinatown, London welcomed a dedicated group of spirit experts from the likes of Master Distiller of Beefeater, Desmond Payne OBE, Head of Buying for Master of Malt, Guy Hodcroft, and Rosie Milson, Head of New Product Development for Atom Brands, through to vodka expert, Veronika Karlova, and Olivier Ward, who created the Gin Foundry.
Between this dedicated group of over 80 experts, over 4,000 spirits were assessed over the eight days. This massive undertaking saw over 1,000 gins sipped and savoured, over 300 rums reviewed, and more than 300 liqueurs evaluated, as well as brandies, whiskies, Baijiu and Shochu, amongst others.
Around 60% of entries received medals, from bronze to the highest accolade of gold outstanding. 74 of these highly coveted medals were handed out to 1.8% of entries with a further 240 gold medals also awarded.
The category to have the highest scores was whiskey from around the world with over 70 entries scored at 95 points or higher. Five amazing spirits scored a massive 99 points each, the highest scores given this year.
This amazing judging could not have happened without the support of the Spirits Judging Committee, who oversaw the panels each day, stepping in with thoughts, guidance, advice, and confirmation when requested by the judges. David T Smith oversaw vodka, gin, ready to drink cocktails, Ian Burrell led the rum panels to amazing results, Marie Chong-Thong guided Asian Spirits, whilst Joel Harrison supervised brandies, fruit spirits and worldwide whisky, along with Colin Hampden-White.
The mechanics of this massive undertaking saw over 2,000 glasses of spirits poured each day – nearly 18,000 in total and the mammoth undertaking was overseen by the capable hands of Operations Manager, David Woodward.
In total, spirits from 86 countries were tasted and assessed, including such delights as whisky from Israel, Shochu from England, gin from Brazil and vodka from Kyrgyzstan. This massive operation continues with the Scotch whisky judging in Edinburgh with some famous names assessing the uisge na beatha (water of life), including Bill Lumsden of Glenmorangie, Gregg Glass of Whyte & Mackay, Jim Beveridge OBE, Master Blender of Johnnie Walker and Richard Paterson OBE of Whyte & Mackay.
This has been the most successful spirits tasting ever and it has been a privilege to be able to handle and assess the talent of so many distillers from around the world.