This year, the longest-running dedicated spirits competition in the world, the International Spirits Challenge, turns 30. Over the past three decades, the competition has grown beyond any expectations that were laid out in 1995 and now receives thousands of entries from over 70 countries across more than 20 categories.
The secret behind the ISC’s strength and longevity lies within its panels of expert judges and there’s no better example of that than in whisky, the competition's largest category both in terms of annual entries and depth of panel.
To mark the competition's tricenary, Drinks International caught up with some of the competition’s longest-serving whisky judges to reflect on how it has evolved over the past three decades. Gordon Motion (pictured) is Highland Park’s master whisky maker, and he’s been judging whisky at the ISC since 2007.
“One of the appealing things for me about the ISC is its panel,” he says. “It’s always been master whisky makers, master blenders, we’ve got people from the Scotch Whisky Research Institute, we have consultants… it’s all people who work within the industry. That, to me, is the strength of the ISC judging.”
Suntory chief blender Shinji Fukuyo, who has been judging with the competition for a decade, also points to the panel as the competition’s strength.
“This competition, in particular, has judges from across the world but they’re all close to production,” he says. “That means we get a production point of view, we can say if a note is because of fermentation or casks and we can discuss these technical angles in great depth. Every time I come here, I’m able to learn a lot from the different perspectives in the room.”
WORLD VIEW
William Grant & Sons malt master and master blender David Stewart has been with the competition almost since its inception and has seen the competition grow and evolve over its three decades.
“Initially we were much fewer samples, but over the years there have been more and more from the US, Canada, Japan and all over the world. More and more distilleries have opened up in Scotland too so it’s grown and grown and now we’re at 1,000 samples. The competition has evolved but I’ve always enjoyed it – I’m generally only looking at Scotch whisky but this gives me a chance to see whiskies from all over the world and focus in on how whisky is doing in Japan or what’s happening in bourbon or a different whisky region that I’ve never tried before.”
It's in these newer whisky regions that the ISC, and indeed the world of whisky, has changed the most over the past 30 years. In 1995, there were only a handful of countries with much of a whisky industry to speak of – today that figure is in the dozens.
Angela D’Orazio has been judging with the ISC since 2010. For almost 20 years she was the master blender at Sweden’s Mackmyra Whisky and in her role there helped open doors for non-traditional whisky regions. In her time with the ISC, she has seen the importance the competition has played in championing worldwide whisky.
“[The competition] is super valuable,” she says. “As a new producer or a worldwide producer, you need to get feedback to learn and develop and competitions are great for that. Choose a competition that you think has the highest-quality panel, like this one has – blenders not bloggers or self-declared experts, that’s where you can learn a lot.”
Master blender emeritus at Irish Distillers, Billy Leighton has been with the competition since 2003 and agrees with D’Orazio that the feedback from a competition like the ISC is key to the development of the industry as a whole.
“If I'm speaking to any new producers in Ireland, I always say that you want to get your whiskey into competitions,” he says. “You don't necessarily expect to win a gold medal straight off, but you’ll get feedback and an insight into where you maybe want to tweak a few things and that’s so valuable.
“So many producers in Ireland are still in their infancy and by not entering a competition like this, they’re losing the benefit of the judgement of a strong, professional and knowledgeable panel.”
