The Full Bar - all my pages

Saturday, February 26, 2011

Malt Advocate Whisky Awards start to flow tomorrow up now!

Yes, you've seen this post before...I post-dated it so you could see that I'm posting links to the awards as the days roll on. Don't want you to miss anything!


Malt Advocate's Whisky Awards program is the longest-running in the industry; this is our 17th year. Like last year, we're going to roll out the awards one at a time on John Hansell's "What Does John Know" blog, and it starts tomorrow. Here's the schedule.

Best Buy Whisk(e)y of the Year -- TIE: Evan Williams, and Very Old Barton Bottled in Bond 6 Year Old
Artisan Whisky of the Year -- Kilchoman Summer 2010 release
American Whiskey of the Year -- Buffalo Trace Antique Collection
Canadian Whisky of the Year -- Forty Creek Confederation Oak
Irish Whiskey of the Year -- Redbreast 12 Year Old
Scotch Whisky Blend of the Year -- Compass Box Flaming Heart
Scotch Whisky Single Malt of the Year -- Glenfarclas 40 Year Old
World Whisky of the Year  -- Amrut Fusion
Pioneer of the Year -- David Perkins and High West
Industry Leader of the Year -- Glencairn Crystal

I helped write the awards this year, and I'm excited to see what people think. We've got some potentially controversial choices; should be fun to see the discussion!

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

No category specifically for Rye? Bah. :(

Lew Bryson said...

Noted for next year. It's always an evolution.

sam k said...

Though it's a quickly evolving category, and my personal favorite, there probably aren't enough ryes to begin making a separate category for them at this point.

Heck, there are probably only a handful widely available throughout the U.S. and a slightly larger number of specialty and craft distilled brands available only regionally or locally.

Can't wait to see the category gain more momentum, though! I was there when it looked like extinction was the only option.

Loren said...

Good lead shout out to Evan Williams for best buy. It indeed is a great bourbon for the $.

Keep 'em rolling.

Lew Bryson said...

Yeah, Sam, but we have categories for Irish and Canadian...I'm guessing that with the way rye's exploding, it's got to be approaching that kind of threshold.

Charles Jacquin said...

I vote for best ROCK and rye category. I'd be a shoo-in for that.

Anonymous said...

and how many will be available in the PLCB state stores?

Fr bob

Anonymous said...

agree with heaven hill. Great product, reasonable prices, although very little glory.

Anonymous said...

where's the rest? you're slacking again....:)

Bill said...

Hi, Lew,

Many of the "Top Ten New Whiskies" have capsule descriptions that refer to "last year's version." If they had a last year's version, how can they be new?

Lew Bryson said...

New versions, Bill. These are whiskeys -- like the Buffalo Trace Antique collection, the Evan Williams Single Barrel Vintage -- that are quite different from one year to the next.