You’ve probably seen many of our native gins sharing the news of their success at the San Francisco World Spirits Awards. As per the last 2 years, I’ve done a round-up for you, covering all the winners!
This year Australian gins won 5 Double Golds (up from 2 in 2017), 7 Golds (up from 4 in 2017), 21 Silver (up from 11 in 2017) and 15 Bronze (up 8 from 2017). A total of 48 medals (up from 26 in 2017).
The state with the most medals was Victoria (15), New South Wales (13), who just pipped South Australia (12 ), followed by Tasmania (5), Queensland (2) and ACT (1).
I don’t have the final number of gins entered but given the ongoing explosion of gin, I would imagine it has significantly increased from the 268 entries in 2017.
Awards are often disregarded as ‘marketing puff’ that many consumers ignore, so I spoke to a couple of distillers to discuss the impact of winning a medal at San Francisco.
Tim Stones, Manly Spirits (Double Gold) “I’m not massively pro-awards as there are so many about. However, I do see then benefit of using them to benchmark our products against other son the market. Winning a Double Gold is a hugely validating experience and completely vindicated my choice of career change.”
Sales Manager, Rob Sutherland, also reported a bigger uptake of their gininto venues.
Sean Baxter, Never Never Distilling Co. (Gold Medal) “The San Francisco World Spirits Competition is the top global comp, the one we all care about. With 43 judges and an extremely high standard, it’s our chance to see how we stack up with the world’s best gins. A gold medal for us means recognition that our gin is up there with the best in the world.”
In addition, Sean told me they were flooded with emails from potential new stockists after the announcement.
Whatever your view on awards it obviously means a lot to the people making the gin and gives them a leg up in a highly competitive market.
Here are the 2018 results in full:
DOUBLE GOLD MEDAL 2018 (Outstanding; earning top marks from all judges.)
Manly Spirits Co Australian Dry Gin (NSW)
Archie Rose Distillers Strength (NSW)
Dobson’s New England Dry Gin (NSW)
Poltergeist Gin (Unfiltered) (TAS)
Single Shot Gin, The Melbourne Gin Company (VIC)
GOLD MEDAL 2018 (an excellent product, meeting very high standards)
Triple Juniper Gin, Never Never Distilling Co. (SA)
Brookie’s gin (NSW)
Brookie’s Byron Slow Gin, Cape Byron (NSW)
Roots and Leaves Gin, Distillery Botanica (NSW)
Something Wild Green Ant Gin, Adelaide Hills Distillery
Billy Goats Gin, Saleyards Distillery (QLD)
Prohibition gin (SA)
SILVER MEDAL 2016 (A finely crafted spirit, well above average.)
Coastal Citrus Gin, Manly Spirits (NSW)
Horisumi Summer Gin, Archie Rose(NSW)
Signature Dry Gin, Archie Rose(NSW)
Sweet Pea Gin, Dobson’s(NSW)
Whisky Barrel Aged Gin, Manly Spirits(NSW)
Barrel Aged Gin, Twenty Third Street (SA)
Signature Gin, Twenty Third Street (SA)
Bathtub Cut Gin, Prohibition (SA)
Yuzu Gin, Settlers Spirits (SA)
Gin, A True Spirit, Poltergeist (TAS)
Arboretum Gin, Animus (VIC)
Bartender Series Spiced Negroni Gin, Four Pillars (VIC)
Distiller Series Dry Island Gin, Four Pillars x Hernö (VIC)
Gin, BeGin (VIC)
Macedon Dry Gin, Animus (VIC)
Navy Strength Gin, Four Pillars (VIC)
Pink Gin, BeGin (VIC)
78° Gin, Adelaide Hills Distillery (SA)
Dry Gin, Hippocampus (VIC)
Lady Susanne Gin, TerraAustralis Distillery (VIC)
Signature Gin, Underground Spirits (ACT)
Bronze (A well-crafted spirit that deserves recognition.)
What is the San Francisco World Spirits Competition?
Launched in 2000, the San Francisco World Spirits Competition is considered the most respected and influential spirits competition in the world, with a rigorous judging process involving highly controlled blind-tastings with an expert panel who only receive information on spirit type, ABV and age (where applicable) to remove bias.
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