Arcus Norway Aalborg Jule Akvavit 2015 has ended the four-year dominance of liqueurs to take the top honour at the 21st annual awards.
To be considered for this award, a liquid has to have won a trophy, which is the highest award possible in an individual tasting category and was only achieved by 27 of the 1,300-plus spirits entered. It’s then sent to the seven category chairmen to blind taste, or for some re-taste, the trophy samples. After they have given their top five samples a score from one to five, those scores are combined and the trophy winner with the highest score is named Supreme Champion.
This year, a record 1,358 products from 50 countries entered the ISC. For the full results click here. The highlights are below:
Distiller of the Year: William Grant & Sons
WG & Sons can add the Distiller of the Year title to its Scotch Whisky Producer and Liqueur Producer of the Year awards, along with a plethora of medals. The Distiller of the Year award is scored on a weighted points system based on the performance of all brands entered by a company. Scotch is its mainstay but William Grant’s performance in tequila, brandy, liqueurs and rum all contributed to its Distiller of the Year win.
Supermarket Own-Branded Spirits Range of the Year: Lidl
For the second year running, Lidl has been awarded the Supermarket Own-Branded Spirit Range of the Year for having the best performing own-label brands across the category. The German discount supermarket picked up medals in the liqueurs, vodka, American whiskey, brandy and cognac categories. It also medalled in the gin and scotch categories.
