Who won Best in Show, Whiskey, at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition? One judge tells the story of the 2019 winner.
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We assess the spirit by the glass, considering each one for a bronze, silver or gold designation. This is what makes San Francisco unique and is why you might see a lot of medals from this competition: As judges, we must analyze the spirit for its category. If it meets basic expectations of that category and is good, more often than not a judge will bestow a Bronze. If it’s very good, I’m likely to award it a Silver. And if it’s great or excellent, I will give it a gold.
In the Special Barrel Finish bourbon category, we all had the same thought—barrel finishes have gone too far. We were tasting things finished in more than one barrel and they were so far away from bourbon that they took a wrong turn. After tasting a sherry finished one, Mahoney noted, “it tastes more like Macallan to me than bourbon.
Now, funny story on the vodka- while my panel analyzed several flights of that spirit, I didn’t taste any of them. My literal plane flight was delayed and I missed the vodka tasting altogether. A coincidence? I’ll never tell. Super Tasting We are also only human and must condition our palates to take on the brunt of these spirits. While we spit—consuming all these spirits would be deadly!—we must keep our palates tuned and, for me, soda water is the perfect palate cleanser.
Because we’re all such good friends, it doesn’t feel like work. But it is indeed a job, and we are paid to select the best.It begins with vodka, gin, aquavit, tequila, baijiu and more. After selecting the best of those categories, we pick Best in Show for clear spirit. This was really a three way race and baijiu, a Chinese spirit from grain, had a real shot.
The Single Barrel, Glass No. 40, though, just knocked over the Best Straight Bourbon, Old Ezra Brooks 7 years old along with the Best Small Batch, Barrell Bourbon Batch No. 18.After the vote for Best Bourbon, I applauded. Also without enough votes was the Best Irish Single Malt—Jack Ryan Toomevara 10 Year Old Single Malt Irish Whiskey—but damn, it delivered some nuance.
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