The Malt Advocate Whisky Awards exist to recognize excellence in the world of whisky. Now in its sixteenth year, these awards are the oldest and longest-running annual whisky awards program.
The awards are always announced in the first issue of Malt Advocate each year. Subscribers will get this issue around March 1st. But, for the first time ever, I’ll be announcing the awards here first, beginning February 1st. They will then automatically be fed to my Twitter (@JohnHansell) and Facebook accounts.
The advantage of publishing the awards on this blog is two-fold:
- The awards can be announced quicker on social media than in print media and will reach a larger audience.
- Announcing the awards in a blog platform allows for further discussion and interaction between whisky enthusiasts, press, and trade.
Unlike other publications who seem to have endless awards, we only have 11. Each day, I’ll post up the award winner, along with the write-up which will eventually appear in Malt Advocate.
The dates the category winners will be announced are:
February 1st: Best Buy Whisk(e)y of the Year
February 2nd: Artisan Whiskey of the Year
February 3rd: American Whiskey of the Year
February 4th: Canadian Whisky of the Year
February 5th: Irish Whiskey of the Year
February 6th: Scotch Whisky Blend of the Year
February 7th: Scotch Whisky Single Malt of the Year
February 8th: Pioneer of the Year
February 9th: Industry Leader of the Year
February 10th: Distillery of the Year
February 11th: Lifetime Achievement Award.
On February 11th, I will also be announcing our “Top Ten New Whiskies for 2009.” (Not officially an award, but more of a recognition.)
The only requirement for eligibility is that products must be sold in the U.S. in the 2009 calendar year. Posting the awards here first is something I am very excited about, and I look forward to your reactions.
John:
This is a great idea and I will look forward to your announcements (particularly in the American Whiskey category as I am a bourbon enthusiast). Even though I am a subscriber to Malt Advocate (Fantastic magazine) I think this format will lead to interesting discussion.
Thanks for giving us a “sneak preview”
Great News! Wouldn’t be a good idea to make some other categories to recognize? I’m a big fan of the single malt scotch, and it would be nice to see more awards to certain categories like “Best Speyside Malt” or “Islay Malt”.
That’s great, John. I’ll be looking forward to reading the choices. Sure hope the work isn’t too burdensome!
It is, but it’s worth it.
Thanks for soldiering on, good sir. You’ll deserve a beer after work!
Great idea John. I look forward to the discussion afterward. Delivering the news via this blog certainly encourages a robust debate.
What, no blogger of the year?
john, i respect your opinion and reviews a lot – i’m really looking forward to the award list. the best thing about putting it online like you said is time. if it was sold in 2009, there may be a whisk(e)y or two on your list that i may still find on the shelf.
John, awards and magazine awards issues usually leave me cold, but I like your categories–unlike Guillermo (and with respect), I think less is more. The only thing missing, maybe, is “world” whiskies (as opposed to unworld whiskies?). Actually, I’d prefer to see the categories tailored to recognize the deserving, rather than trying to spot a gold medal for each pigeonhole. Nevertheless, I look forward to it.
As far as “categories being tailored to recognize the deserving” etc.– that’s a tough one MrTH and I feel where you’re coming from. It is lame that a not so hot whiskey can get recognition just because it happens to be in a category of things that are even more underwhelming than it. But as long as your analyzing things, you might as well admit that the whole idea of awards is pretty lame period. I mean the best scotch whisky last year? Who does John think he’s kidding, right? Shouldn’t there be separate awards for peated vs sherried, etc. the whole thing is bogus… one could go on forever in this direction.
But perhaps some comfort can be found in the understanding that the sense of injustice in whisky awards or music awards is a microcosm as well as a product of the paradoxical impossibility of sincerely adressing both a broad public and a particular individual at the same time… or perhaps not.
John, is too smart not to understand this. He knows that ultimately, the value of his awards depends not simply on how much prestige they confer, but on how people engage with them. One of the main values of whisky awards is in the critical impulse that they provoke.
All that said, my personal critical impulse is pretty close to yours– it’s crazy that there should be an equal number of awards available for canadian whisky and malt scotch. Though I see tons of potential in all of the categories, at present, scotch whisky has more stylistic diversity than all of the rest put together. And these different styles appeal to different people, each group of whom might be very interested John’s opinion about the best product in that category.
Red, it’s possible that we might expand the Scotch whisky category, because of the number of whiskies being released. We add categories very methodically and with great consideration, though. We don’t like the whole “give everybody an award” concept that is very pervasive in other publications and award contests.
Mr TH, I’m glad you brought that up. We actually DO have a World Whisky Award category but we are not using it right now. It’s for all the whiskies produced outside the above categories. Problem is, our requirement is that the whisky must be sold in the US. There are very few distilleries imported to the US from the other countries right now. (Penderyn and Amrut are the main ones.)
But, next year we will see many others imported (Nikka, Mackmyra, Sullivans Cove, etc.,) so we will implement that category for 2010 releases.
It’s reassuring to hear that if there isn’t a suitable candidate in the category, then there simply is no winner.
Red, I agree generally that awards are “pretty lame”, but my reaction is, I think, quite opposite to yours. Frankly, I don’t pay much attention to awards at all because I don’t really think they’re relevant to anything I care about. (One reason I let my sub to That Other Magazine lapse is because it seemed like every other issue was an awards issue of some kind…just seems like cheap filler to me.) What I meant was to survey the field for whoever you think is worthy of recognition, for whatever reason, and give them an award for whatever it is they’ve done to deserve it, rather than trying to create more pigeonholes for more awards (Best Peated Coastal North Highlander From A Warehouse Not Directly On The Foreshore With Six To Nine Months Of Finishing In A Hungarian Wine Cask, etc).
MrTH, the more real and relevant award concept you’re talking about would be a significant improvement. Of course that’s not going to happen this year. So, just to be glib: aren’t you kind of falling in line with me– aren’t you taking the problems with the awards as an opportunity simply to focus attention on how things really are in the state of whisky and possibly on how they might be improved. Just to be glib
I’ll be very interested in the “Best Irish” verdict…
Looking forward to it. Less award makes each one that more special. Always interested in the “Top Ten New Whiskies” list.
It’s cool that it’s “malt scotch” whisky, John. Kinda of like saying that compass box is officially in the running against single malts.
Another thought though, along the lines of examining the categories? how about a best single cask whisky– no category specified: so it could be bourbon, scotch, japanese, whatever… just a recognition of something that worked best without being modified in any way after coming out of the barrel.
I’m glad you caught that Red. It actually should say “Single Malt…”. I fixed it. A blend of malts (aka vatted malts) go under the blend category. Good eye!
looking forward…!
February is like Whisk(e)y Chanukah! A different gift every day. (OK I know it isn’t exactly the same, but work with me people).
Nice categories overall John – looking forward to the results. Hope NYC ended up well for you.
[...] read about the schedule of the awards, and our reasoning for publishing the awards via this blog, here. Each day, from February 1st-11th, I will post up the award at 0700 Eastern [...]