Whisky Focus - Diageo Is Grand Scotch Whisky Master

Diageo’s Scotch Whiskies win prestigious title again

The coveted prize of Grand Scotch Whisky Master has been awarded to Diageo for the success of their Single Malt Scotch and Blended Scotch Whiskies.

The announcement came on 7 December at the Spirits Masters Awards in London.

This is the third year that Diageo have won this award, decided by independent judges from outside the industry. The Spirits Masters competition is sponsored and organised by The Spirits Business magazine.

Awards for individual whiskies, announced earlier in the year, were also handed out.

Masters: Johnnie Walker, Talisker, Lagavulin

Master accolades (the top awards) in the blended Scotch whisky category were won by Johnnie Walker Double Gold and Johnnie Walker Black Label.

In single malts, Masters went to the celebrated West Coast malts Lagavulin 16 year old, Lagavulin Distillers Edition, Talisker 10 year old and Talisker 57° North - confirming the long winning record of these distinguished island malts, and coming only days after their triumph in the Malt Maniacs 2010 Whisky Awards.

Caol Ila 12 year old also won a Master, following its Trophy at the IWSC earlier in the year.

Golds

Gold Medals were awarded to Buchanan's De Luxe 12 year old, The Singleton of Glen Ord, Clynelish 14 year old, Oban 14 year old, Dalwhinnie Distillers Edition, Talisker Distillers Edition, Caol Ila Distillers Edition and Clynelish Distillers Edition.

In the Lowlands category, Glenkinchie 12 year old won Gold.

In all, Diageo’s Scotch Whiskies scored 7 Masters, 9 Golds and 4 Silvers

The competition

Part of The Spirits Masters Awards 2010, The Whisky Masters competition is an annual blind tasting Scotch whisky awards competition organised by The Spirits Business. The judging panel were all independent of the whisky industry and this year included:

Sukhinder Singh (owner of The Whisky Exchange), Matt Chambers (writer at the Whisky for Everyone blog), Richard Woodard (freelance drinks writer), Dominic Roskrow (whisky writer and author) , Marcin Miller (Quercus Communications owner & former Whisky Magazine editor), Neil Ridley (writer at the caskstrength.net blog) and Patience Gould (editor of The Spirits Business).
 

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