World Whiskies Awards 2009

This year’s competition saw more than 150 whiskies put through their paces during three rounds of tastings to win the coveted titles of “Best in the World”
Once again this year’s competition has been incredibly hard fought with some of the winners being separated by very slim margins.
Impressively for the second year running in both the Grain and Whisky Liqueur categories, the winners retained their top spots showing great consistancy.
There have been intensive rounds of tastings by Whisky Magazine’s independent editorial panel drawn from the best journalists and retailers across the world, and also by industry representatives made up of master blenders, distillers and brand ambassadors. To get to the final results three rounds of blind tastings were held.
Round one was conducted by the editorial panel at their homes. The judges were simply sent sample bottles marked with the ABV and category.
We split the whiskies up by regions and styles. The entries were then divided up among the judges, who then tasted and marked the spirits out of 10.
The highest scoring whiskies in this round gave us the subcategory winners, for instance the Best Speyside Single Malt Whisky 12 Years and Under, which then went forward to the second round of tastings, held in London with some of the best noses in the industry judging them.
The winners of this second round gave us our category winners, for instance Best Highland Single Malt whisky, which were then sent back to the editorial panel to do battle for the overall titles.
The competition featured some outstanding whiskies and the judges had a hard time separating the very good from the good.
In some categories, particularly if only one whisky entered, it was still put through the tasting wringer to make sure it deserved an the award.
A little different from last year is that we awarded a Best Scotch Single Malt for the whisky that scored the most points during the final round of tasting.
Our congratulations go to the winners and we hope that you will have fun exploring some of the whiskies that performed exceptionally this year.
WORLD’S BEST WHISKY LIQUEUR
WILD TURKEY AMERICAN HONEY
WORLD’S BEST GRAIN WHISKY
COMPASS BOX HEDONISM
WORLD’S BEST NEW RELEASE
HIGHLAND PARK 40 YEARS OLD
WORLD’S BEST BLENDED MALT WHISKY
TAKETSURU 21 YEARS OLD
WORLD’S BEST BLENDED WHISKY
HANKY BANNISTER 40 YEARS OLD
WORLD’S BEST AMERICAN WHISKEY
THOMAS H.HANDY RYE
WORLD’S BEST SINGLE MALT WHISKY
HIGHLAND PARK 21 YEARS OLD