The San Francisco World Spirits Competition (SFWSC) has steadily grown since its founding in 2001 into one of the best-known competitions in the drinks world and has now made its choice for best whisky this year. <\/p>\n
Its panels, made up of trade buyers, writers, bar operators and distillers, taste blind across thousands of spirits each year. Though category winners were announced in May, the annual Top Shelf Gala hosted by The Tasting Alliance is where the standout results of the competition are formally revealed. In this year\u2019s edition a Scotch whisky was declared best overall winner.<\/p>\n
Rosebank 31 Years Old won the Best in Show award from the San Francisco World Spirits Competition.<\/p>\n
Rosebank Distillery<\/p>\n
The whisky that will claim many headlines will be the Rosebank 31 Year Old<\/a>, which swept its categories to take Best Single Malt Scotch (20 Years & Older), Best Single Malt Scotch overall, Best Scotch overall and ultimately Best in Show Whisk(e)y of the whole competition. <\/p>\n Distilled before the distillery\u2019s 1993 closure (the distillery has since been reopened by Ian Macleod Distillers in 2024) and matured for more than three decades in a combination of refill ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks, it represents some of the final parcels of \u201cold\u201d Rosebank stock. A triple distilled whisky whose spirit was also put through a worm tub condenser, the whisky remains bright and floral even after extended aging. The whisky earned a score of 99 from the judging panel. <\/p>\n Here are the other Scotch whisky winners from the competition: <\/p>\n Isle of Skye 25 Year Old Blended Scotch<\/a><\/p>\n Won: Best Blended Scotch \u2013 16 Years & Older; Best Overall Blended Scotch<\/p>\n The Isle of Skye whiskies are also owned by Ian Macleod Distillers, and though the name and label of the bottle refer to the iconic Isle of Skye, other malt and grain components of this whisky are also sourced from the mainland though the whisky itself does boast maritime aromas. A fourth generation family company, it first created this brand in 1933. <\/p>\n D\u2019YAVOL Vortex Blended Scotch<\/a><\/p>\n Won: Best Blended Scotch \u2013 No Age Statement<\/p>\n The Vortex is built around a high-malt content blend drawn from multiple regions, Highland, Speyside, Lowland and Islay, combining unpeated malt, peated components and grain whisky. A sherry influence also plays a noticeable role, adding sweetness and weight. <\/p>\n Highland Park 12 Year Old Single Malt Scotch<\/a><\/p>\n Won: Best Single Malt Scotch \u2013 Up to 12 Years<\/p>\n It\u2019s a classic for a reason. Highland Park\u2019s 12 Year Old remains one of the most recognisable age-stated malts in its bracket. The Orkney distillery\u2019s combination of heather-peat smoke, honeyed sweetness and a slightly coastal character is shaped by maturation in a mix of first-fill European and American sherry-seasoned oak, along with refill casks to create balance. The lightly peated style and sherry influence give the whisky breadth without heaviness, and its win highlights how core-range releases can still distinguish themselves in blind judging.<\/p>\n Royal Brackla Palo Cortado 18 Year Old Highland Single Malt Scotch<\/a><\/p>\n Won: Best Single Malt Scotch \u2013 13 to 19 Years<\/p>\n Royal Brackla\u2019s 18-year-old Palo Cortado expression is part of the distillery\u2019s ongoing use of fortified-wine casks to shape flavour. Palo Cortado sherry, while sweet and syrupy, avoids the heavier and unctuous tones more typical of Oloroso and especially Pedro Ximenez sherries which are fairly common in Scotch whisky. Here, the casks are used as part of secondary maturation to play against Brackla\u2019s naturally fruity, weighty spirit. <\/p>\n Loch Lomond Remarkable Alchemy Single Malt Scotch<\/a><\/p>\n Won: Best Single Malt Scotch \u2013 No Age Statement<\/p>\n The Willy Wonka factory of the Scotch whisky world because of the mind-boggling diversity of stills onsite, Loch Lomond\u2019s Remarkable Alchemy from its travel retail range is built around its unusual hybrid Straight Neck stills which allow the distillery to produce a lighter spirit than pot stills typically yield. <\/p>\n The whisky is matured in American oak, including ex-bourbon, refill and re-charred casks, before being finished in Colombian oak (Quercus Humboldtii), a truly unusual wood choice. <\/p>\n Compass Box Crimson Casks Blended Malt Scotch Whisky<\/a><\/p>\n Won: Best Blended Malt Scotch<\/p>\n A new core release from the London-based blender, Crimson Casks has become the company\u2019s showcase \u2018spicy\u2019 whisky, kind of taking over the role from previous releases Spice Tree and The Story of the Spaniard. The blend itself is predominantly first-fill American-oak oloroso sherry butts, though other influences make themselves known and the full blending recipe can be reviewed here<\/a>, as Compass Box admirably publish all information about their blends. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The San Francisco World Spirits Competition (SFWSC) has steadily grown since its founding in 2001 into one of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":53122,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[33560,33561,33559,101,103,102,33564,33562,104,106,105,33563],"class_list":{"0":"post-53121","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco","8":"tag-compass-box","9":"tag-isle-of-skye","10":"tag-rosebank","11":"tag-san-francisco","12":"tag-san-francisco-headlines","13":"tag-san-francisco-news","14":"tag-san-francisco-world-spirits-competition","15":"tag-scotch-whisky","16":"tag-sf","17":"tag-sf-headlines","18":"tag-sf-news","19":"tag-whiskey"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}