Scotch Whiskies That Beat the Competition in 2018

Scotch Whiskies That Beat the Competition in 2018

Scotch is one of the best categories of Whisky out there but this year saw them being challenged from a wealth of international drams.

Here is a roundup of awards Scotch has received in 2018:

Taste Awards

At the World Whiskies Awards, Scotch won only one taste category and that was by Johnnie Walker Gold Label in the Best Blend selection.

This shouldn’t be that surprising considering Johnnie Walker are well renowned for their expertise in blending.


They were mostly beaten out by American and Japanese brands. This is not uncommon, as these are two of the biggest and best Whisky creating countries.

Japan is especially well known for the quality of their malt.

Design Awards

Scotch did much better at the design awards, with Glenfiddich and Highland Park taking home top accolades. In fact, out of five categories, Scotch brands won four.

Glenfiddich won World’s Best Whisky Design for their Winter Storm release, a bottle that also won Beat Presentation.

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Other winning brands include Highland Park for the re-launch of their 12 Year Old Viking Honour expression in the Best Re-launch category, Bunnahabhain 1980 Canasta Cask Finish for Best Limited Edition and Douglas Laing’s The Gauldrons taking home gold for Best Label Design.


San Francisco Spirits Awards

Scotch cleaned up a lot better at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition this year.

The Scotch Malt Whisky Society did especially well, and won Best in Show with their We Arrived! Expression as well as the Director’s Award for Excellance.

They had a lot of competition, especially from international brands including Kavalan King Car, Taiwan’s only distillery.

They also won in the Best Blended Malt Scotch category with their Exotic Cargo bottling.

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Other notable winners were the not-so-well-known Glencadam for their 25 Year Old in the Best Distillers' Single Malt Scotch 20 Years And Older category. They also won a silver medal for their 18 Year Old.

Johnnie Walker did not win at theses awards, but were beaten by other blends such as Dewar’s, with The Signature and Cutty Sark Prohibition.


Peated malts also did well at the awards, with Talisker 10 Year Old, Highland Park The Dark 17 Year Old and Ardbeg Corryvreckan each winning in their categories.



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