You can help to judge

The Spirit of Speyside Whisky Awards

The Spirit of Speyside Whisky Awards is a unique competition because it’s considered to be the only whisky award to be judged by consumers. And very special consumers, too – because only Festival visitors can take part in the final judging!

The Awards began in 2005, and since then, they’ve become a popular annual fixture on the Festival calendar. The aim of the Awards is to promote Speyside whiskies around the world, and the competition is open to all Speyside single malts.

There are three entry categories and each distillery may enter all of them. There is no entry fee.

Criteria:

Single malts only
Proprietary bottlings only
All entrants must be ’generally’ and ’commercially’ available

2010 Finalists:

The first round of the competition is a blind tasting which this year took place at the Scottish Parliament Building at Holyrood on Thursday 28th January 2010, by kind invitation of Richard Lochhead MSP. 53 Speyside malts were nosed and tasted by our panel of expert judges.

The judges selected two finalists for each of the three categories:

Up to 12 years old:

Aberlour 10yo
Balvenie Doublewood 12yo

13-20 years old:

Aberlour 16yo
Mannochmore 18yo

Over 20 years old:

Benromach Vintage 1968
The Glenlivet 25 yo

2009 Winners :

Up to 12 Years:	Glenfiddich 12 Years Old
13-20 Years:	The Glenlivet Nadurra 16 Years Old
21 Years and Over:	Linkwood 26 Years Old Port Wood Finish

The Judging Process

This takes place in two stages. A panel of judges drawn from the industry, whisky writers and specialist retail outlets attend in a blind tasting of over 50 Speyside Malt Whiskies. This event is held at Holyrood in Edinburgh at the start of the year.

At this preliminary stage, two whiskies from each category are selected for the final – and that’s where you come in!

Visitors to the Festival take part in the final judging process just before the Opening Dinner and Dance.

The results are announced during the Opening Event by the keynote speaker. So – if you’ve got a nose for a good malt, this will be a unique opportunity to put it to the test!

Awards