Diageo has apologised after being caught voting multiple times for its own brands in consumer awards for Scotch.

Dozens of votes from e-mails using "Diageo.com" addresses were received by Kevin Erskine, who organised the Drammies.

Winners of the awards, now in their second year, are supposed to be picked by consumers.

Erskine, owner of US-based website thescotchblog.com, told Drinks International: "I started getting e-mails from Diageo addresses and almost every person was voting for the same things."

Diageo was forced to apologise. "What we have here is an over-exuberant brand manager in the US who sent an ill-advised round robin note to a number of his colleagues urging them to vote for our brands in the Drammies."