Whisky Awards – Who really wins?

You don’t have to search or scroll too far through whisky’s marketing landscape these days before you encounter a reference to an award.  Gold medals, Double Golds, Trophy winner, Best-in-category…the list goes on.  To anyone marketing a whisky – whether it’s the distillery itself or a retailer looking to promote a particular product on their shelf – being able to say that the brand won an award should be a huge accolade and an indicator of quality.  But when it comes to the confusing world of whisky awards, there’s an increasing degree of scepticism creeping on to the podium.

Let’s make it clear from the outset that this piece is not intended to belittle or undermine any distillery or brand that recently won a whisky award, nor to cast shade on any specific awards program or award-giving entity.  But given that distilleries and brands are using awards as a selling point in their marketing arsenal and playbook, it’s important that consumers have at least some awareness as to what the badges, tokens, and ribbons might actually denote.   So let’s look first at some of the issues and criticisms that are causing concern…

 

It’s a crowded space…surely they can’t all be equal?

One of the foundations for the current confusion in consumerville right now is the sheer number of awards programs.  World Whiskies Awards, San Francisco World Spirits Competition, Scotch Whisky Masters, Icons of Whisky, International Whisky Competition, International Wines & Spirits Competition, Scottish Whisky Awards, The Luxury Masters, the Online Whisky Awards….and we’ve barely scratched the surface.  With so many diverse awards, names, and entities in an increasingly crowded space, it’s no surprise that people are starting to question if some awards programs carry more weight and credibility than others. 

 

Just how many awards can one crowd hand out?

Even amongst the awards programs that tend to get a bit more oxygen and air time, there is a growing questioning (bordering on concern) around the number of awards assigned within a given program.  In a category of, say, 20 entrants, how many Bronze, Silver, and Gold medals can you hand out before people start to question if everyone got a prize simply for turning up?  The simple logic of statistics, probability, and the bell curve or normal distribution suggests something seems askew in these circumstances.

 

What about the judging?

Not surprisingly, many in the whisky enthusiasts’ community are beginning to question the judging criteria.  Each time a new bundle of awards gets announced and the press releases do the rounds, there are murmurings and questions:  Who were the judges? How many judges were there?  Were the whiskies assessed blind?  How did the scoring system work?  How many entrants didn’t win something?  Was it merely a popularity contest?  What does “Double Gold” even mean? What’s the difference between a Gold Medal and a Trophy?  Who sponsored the awards?  Were sponsors allowed to have their product considered for an award?  Which brands entered?  Do we know which brands chose not to enter?     

Some awards don’t even necessarily require experienced/qualified judges, or for the spirit to actually be consumed – indeed, there is a rising number of whisky awards that are nothing more than popularity votes cast by the general public, which can be heavily gamed.  It only takes one brand with a large number of followers or subscribers to its email-newsletter to send out a “Vote for us” campaign, and they’ll effectively win the award – purely due to the size of their database, rather than the quality of their product.

And what about the financing?

Muddying the waters further is the acknowledgment that many awards programs are “pay to play”, and that some awards programs are clearly a commercial money-making exercise for the entity behind the program.  Having already paid to enter one’s product for judging, some awards programs subsequently charge their winners an extra fee if you wish to receive the artwork or imagery associated with your prize! 

No one denies that it costs money to organise and facilitate an awards program, and that the money has to come from somewhere.  In reality, this means either sponsors, or as entry fees for the distilleries/brands that enter.   However, very few programs seem to operate or conduct themselves as a “not for profit” venture, and the increasingly in-your-face commercialisation of some awards programs is starting to wear thin in some corners.  Not to mention steering some producers away from bothering to enter.

 

The mechanics and costs of a brand or distillery entering an awards program

For any brand, distillery, or producer wanting to enter a whisky awards program, there are two fundamental requirements.  Firstly – and not surprisingly – you have to sacrifice stock (i.e. send in bottles) for the judges to taste.  Most awards programs require entrants to submit multiple bottles of each whisky being entered.  (As an example, the World Whiskies Awards require entrants to submit 3 x 500ml bottles).  That’s obviously not a problem if you’re William Grant & Sons and you’re entering your Glenfiddich 12yo!  However, it might be an issue if it’s a single cask bottling and there’s only a very small number of bottles to begin with.  And it’s even more of an issue if you’re a small, craft producer or start-up that’s highly dependent on cash flow and selling every bottle you produce.  

Secondly, there is the entry fee to submit your product for judging.   Costs vary from the modest, to prices that often well exceed the value of the whisky being submitted!  Again, as an example, the World Whiskies Awards costs entrants £239 (US$299 / CAN$350 / A$460) to submit a single entry for judging.  (The cost per entry comes down marginally if multiple entries are submitted).  Similarly, a single entry in the San Francisco World Spirits Competition will set you back a significant US$550.  Of course, this is merely the entrance fee.  There are additional peripheral costs around this, such as packaging and shipping your bottle(s) to the awards organisers – often requiring international freight and insurance costs.  If you’re sending your whisky to an overseas competition, you’ll also likely have to pay duty and excise fees when the goods arrive at the other end. These high costs mean that smaller producers – particularly at the craft end of the industry – simply can’t afford to enter many of the major awards programs.

Of course, these are really just marketing costs, and cynics will point out that no one is forcing the producers to enter the awards.  But the fact of the matter is that some companies and producers have bigger marketing budgets than others, and this allows them to enter more awards programs and thus gain higher visibility, as well as to “stack the deck” with multiple entries in a particular awards program, or even multiple entries within the same categories.   As a result of this, it is not uncommon to see seemingly garden variety whiskies win major awards, leaving many in the enthusiasts’ community to question the results. 

For smaller distillers or those bottling single casks with a highly limited and finite number of bottles, there is another consideration:  Holding back stock to capitalise on heightened appeal and sales, should your entry be a successful winner.  Winning a high-profile award makes your limited product more desirable, and many producers have suddenly upped the retail price on their whisky after it receives such an accolade to cash in on this.  (One or two well-known Australian distilleries have developed somewhat of a notorious reputation for this practice).  With the economics of supply and demand playing out, whisky enthusiasts (and also whisky flippers) will scramble to secure themselves a bottle in the days following an award announcement, and prices can rise accordingly.  If the distillery or producer can afford to hold back stock, there is certainly an opportunity to increase margins before things hit the secondary market.   But you have to have the business model and cash flow to fund such forward planning while you hold back stock in the fervent hope that your prized single cask release will come home with a medal around its neck. 

There are well-documented examples as to why this now forms part of the planning when it comes to entering a whisky awards program.  The best known is perhaps Sullivans Cove, who surprised everyone – including themselves – when they won the World’s Best Whisky award in 2014.  Every whisky enthusiast and retailer on the planet subsequently beat a path to their door to acquire a bottle…except that, by the time the award was announced – many months after the distillery sent off their bottle for judging – they’d already sold off nearly all their stock!

Some awards programs now actually factor this into the system.  The very highly regarded and respected Australian Distilled Spirit Awards requires entrants to hold back a minimum 100 bottles of finished, bottled stock for all entries submitted for judging!

 

 Okay, so what does a badge, medal, or trophy mean?

Confusingly, a gold medal does not mean you came first.  In fact, many entries can be awarded a gold medal!  Whisky awards programs generally work on a scoring basis, where the judges assess each whisky and give it a score.  Different programs may have different scoring systems and criteria, but the whiskies will be ranked by their total score, and the medals denote which band the whisky scored in. 

As an example, let’s say an awards program scores each whisky out of a total of 20.  It is likely there will be marks for different criteria, e.g. a total of 5 marks for the nose; 10 marks for the palate, and a further 5 marks for overall balance, complexity, and quality.   A typical medal arrangement might be:

Gold medal – scores of 18.5 or higher, thus denoting an exceptional whisky

Silver medal – scores between 17 and 18.4, denoting an extremely good whisky

Bronze medal – scores between 15.5 and 16.9, denoting a very good whisky

As such, if all the whiskies entered in a category were sufficiently good enough and of worthy quality, it is indeed possible for every entry to win an award.  (Again, statistically, this should be unlikely, unless the standard of all whiskies being entered is unusually high).

Some awards programs, such as the San Francisco World Spirits Competition, also have a category of Double Gold.  This denotes an elevated level of quality and consistency in its appeal:  It means that the whisky received a Gold Medal score from all of the judges.       

The Trophy award then usually denotes the ultimate winner in a given category.  In other words, it will either be the highest-scoring whisky from the Gold Medal winners, or the judges will confer separately to decide which of the Gold Medallists was the best of the lot.

 

Category confusion

Another trend observed over the last decade or so has been the explosion and growth in the number of different categories an awards program will recognise.  Many years ago, it was sufficient for an awards program to simply name the “Best Whisky”.  Then we got “Best Blend” and “Best Single Malt”.  Then “Best Blended Malt”.  Then we started to get greater geographical breakdowns, e.g. best whisky from Speyside, Islay, Lowlands, etc.  And then age entered the equation, e.g. Best Whisky under 12 years old; Best Whisky older than 12, etc.  And then further delineations like “Best Single Cask Bottling”, or “Best Cask Strength Whisky”.  Even sub-categories of maturation entered the scene, e.g “Best Sherry Cask”.  Further breakdowns continue to appear, e.g. Peated / Non-peated; Finished / Non-finished.  Noting the growing proliferation of increasingly specific sub-categories, it can’t be too long until some distillery boasts of winning “Best single malt whisky matured between six and eight years, using only Optic barley, distilled during the morning shift, and filled into a second-fill, ex-bourbon cask sourced from Makers Mark”.

This, again, is where the cynics have valid concerns:  An increased number of categories available in the program means opening more avenues and opportunities for producers to enter stock; it encourages more brands to participate (or be able to participate); and it ultimately brings more revenue in for the organisers.  For the programs that are run as a commercial, money-making venture, the explosion of new categories and awards may be viewed as a financial grab, rather than something that benefits the consumer.  What it also does is litter the landscape each year with dozens, if not hundreds, of different whiskies and brands all boasting an award from the same awards ceremony.  And that leads to the many questions and doubts amongst consumers and has us questioning whether the awards are reliable?

 

So where have we ended up?

Ultimately, whisky awards are just another form of review.  And, whether it’s film critics, music critics, or whisky critics, you’ve probably learned that there are some critics and reviewers that resonate with you, and there are others you don’t invest in because you know they don’t align with your values and tastes.   You learn to judge the judges.  To some extent, we as consumers have to take the same attitude with whisky awards.  The more interesting question is whether Glen Bagpipe 12yo winning an award is likely to sway you to head down to your local retailer and buy a bottle of it?  Do this enough times with enough awards and enough whiskies, and you’ll quickly learn which awards programs speak to you and which ones don’t.  At the end of the day, the best accolade a whisky can win is when you decide to go back and buy a second bottle of it, and you tell your friends to go out and buy it too.  That’s when you win the Gold Medal.

Cheers,
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PS: Want to know what a distiller thinks of whisky awards?  Ian Schmidt, co-founder and distiller at Australia’s award-winning Tin Shed Distilling Co, wrote an excellent blog piece from his perspective, which you can read here.

PPS: You might also like our article, Scoring whisky – does it really add up?