Welcome
to Scotland’s very best whiskies, as well an event that is eagerly awaited by connoisseurs and whis- ky enthusiasts alike. The reason for this success is the continued rig- our of the judging process; each whisky being blind tasted by our panel of seven well-respected fi gures in the world of whisky, to fi nd winners in each of fi ve categories: under £35, £35-£80, over £80, blend of the year and independent bottling of the year. This then leads to our overall winners. All of our judges were in agreement that this year the standard of the whisky on show was excellent, with more ex- pressions than usual achieving top marks. The best whisky deserves to be matched with quality writing and analysis, so we’ve again asked the Scotch Whisky Association to discuss the last twelve months in whisky. We also offer a fascinating guide to investing in whisky by our whisky columnist, Kerry Schumacher and whisky legend, Charles MacLean, writes about whisky bars around the world. With forty-fi ve of Scotland’s top whiskies
N
ow in its twelfth year, the Scottish Field Whisky Challenge has fi rmly established it- self within the industry as a credible guide
our summer whisky challenge, last year’s gold medal winners plus the three winners from our June Readers’ Panel were also entered into this year’s line up, leaving us with forty-fi ve whiskies spread over the fi ve categories.
HOW THE JUDGING WORKS At the Scottish Field offi ces we decanted the for- ty-fi ve 70cl bottles into four-hundred 10cl sample bottles with only a number for identifi cation. On the day of the tasting, these bottles were shipped up to the Scotch Whisky Experience to await the arrival of the judges.
SCORING The fi rst stage of the tasting is the knockout round, with all of the whiskies being subjected to a ruthless tasting from all of the judges, with only the top twen- ty-one across the fi ve categories making it through to the afternoon tasting, when we asked the seven judges to conduct a second, more in depth, tasting of the remaining whiskies. Each whisky was given a mark from 1 (should never have been bottled) to 10 (whisky heaven) and write brief tasting notes.
Welcome
going head to head in a battle to be crowned Scottish Field Magazine’s ‘Whisky of the Year 2012’, the pressure was really on our judges. This year we said a temporary goodbye to Charles MacLean, who is in Taiwan, and Regis Lemaitre, who had other work commitments – we look forward to their return for next year’s challenge. This year we welcomed a brand new judge, Mark Angus, (Gordon & MacPhail), who replaces Ewen Mackintosh, as well as Whisky Challenge stalwart, and last year’s Judge of the Year, Julie Trevisan Hunter.
NOMINATIONS We asked our six merchant judges – Mark Angus, Mark Connelly, Darren Leitch, Mike Lord, Robin Russell and Duncan Ralph – to nominate fi ve whiskies; one from each of the three price cat- egories, plus one blended whisky and one inde- pendent bottling. All of the medal winners from
THE RESULTS
Once all the judges’ scores were counted and veri- fi ed, winners could be worked out from each cat- egory, awarding Gold, Silver and Bronze badges to each of the categories, and a Gold badge for the independent bottling and blended whisky categories. The results were then analysed fur- ther to decide who was crowned Whisky of the Year 2012.
This year’s awards will be presented at a winners’ lunch at the Sheraton Grand Hotel Edinburgh on Friday 16 November. So many thanks to our expert judges, Readers’ Panel and Scottish Field readers for what was another fantastic challenge.
Slainte Scottish Field Whisky Challenge Team Scottish Field Whisky Challenge 5 sf12 Whisky
Supp_Welcome.indd 5 25/10/2012 16:46:50
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