Becky Paskin’s Post

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Whisky & Drinks Journalist, Presenter, Consultant. Founder of OurWhisky and the OurWhisky Foundation

What’s it like to taste 180 whiskies for a spirit competition? 🥃🥃🥃 Sure, it’s a marathon of sipping (and spitting) often high abv spirits, but between the water guzzling and cracker munching, I cherish the opportunity to judge the Scotch and World Whisky categories for the IWSC each year. It’s a fascinating snapshot of how the category is doing, not just within Scotch but whiskies across the world. So what did I learn this year? See my biggest takeaways below. Also kudos to the whole team behind the competition who organise thousands of samples, and look after us judges so well 🙏🏼💛 - Lower abvs for the win. Aside from numbing my face, I found high proofs tended to mask off-flavours and lack of complexity. I get that connoisseurs love a smack round the chops, but I found so much more nuance and subtlety at 40-46%. - There’s some fantastic new make spirit coming out of England, which makes me giddy (more than I am already) for the future of English whisky. We gave our only Gold Outstanding of the day to an English new make… - Don’t sleep on blended whisky - it offers incredible value and there are some damn tasty options out there. - We need to quit saying Japan produces the best whisky in the world. There are some delicious whiskies but taste is subjective, and I wasn’t wholly impressed with the samples I tried. - I’d like to see more diversity among judges - we represent the palates of the world after all, so differing experiences is important. Thanks to @jodies_edit for capturing me with my Rep ring 🐍📸 #whisky #whiskey #iwsc #spiritscompetition #whiskytasting

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Richard Foster

Founder of Exploring English Whisky & the English Whisky Festival / Writer & Whisky Tasting Host

5mo

Great to hear your passion for English New Make, there are some fascinating & highly experimental examples out there right now and people should give them a try as a great indicator of distillery character and innovation 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 😂🎉

Lucinda Z.

Business Development Advisor in Marketing |Strategist| Beverage Consulting | Competition Judge|Mixologist and Cocktail Personality

5mo

This is an insightful piece..

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