HOW THE CHALLENGE WORKS


Now in its fourteenth year, the Scottish Field Whisky Challenge has firmly established itself within the industry, with the results eagerly awaited by all of those interested in discovering Scotland’s best whiskies. There are three stages to the Scottish Field Whisky


Challenge: the Summer Challenge, (June issue), the Readers’ Challenge (November issue) and the Grand Final (December issue). In the Summer Challenge, producers are invited to submit new expressions from the previous twelve months. The whiskies are separated into three categories: under £40, £40-80 and over £80. The Gold medal winners in each category are then taken through the Grand Final. In the Readers’ Challenge, producers can send in any


whisky they like, which are blind-tasted by a panel of our readers, the top three going through to the Grand Final. In the Grand Final, each of our merchant judges


selects a whisky from each of five categories: under £40, £40-80, over £80, blended and independent bottling. These, and the six winners from the previous Challenges, compete against each other, with medals being awarded in each category, with one of the gold medal winners ultimately being crowned overall ‘Scottish Field Whisky of the Year’.


THE JUDGING PROCESS What makes our Whisky Challenge stand out is the rigour of the judging process, with each whisky being blind-tasted by a panel of well-respected figures in the world of whisky. The whiskies are decanted into 10cl sample bottles at Scottish Field HQ, with only a number for identification. On the day of the tasting the bottles are shipped to the venue to await the judges. The first stage of the tasting is a knockout round, in which around half of the whiskies are chosen for a second, more in-depth tasting. Here, each whisky is


given a mark from 1 (should never have been bottled) to 5 (whisky heaven), with brief tasting notes. The average score for each whisky is then calculated to award medals in each of the five categories and to work out the Whisky of the Year.


SCOTTISH FIELD WHISKY CHALLENGE 2014 I would like to personally invite you to take part in this year’s challenge and champion your whisky in the hope of it being crowned this year’s Scottish Field Whisky of the Year. Within this pack you will find information about how you can become involved - indeed whilst the majority of the whiskies are nominated by retailers, there are two paths down which you can put your whisky forward. The challenge culminates in a invitation-only


awards ceremony including distillery and visitor centre managers from all the competing whiskies, who will also collect the awards on behalf of their winning whiskies - an exciting finale to this prestigious event.


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