The Tokyo Whisky & Spirits Competition held for the first time in 2019, has become a truly impressive spirit contest for several reasons: the sheer number of entries, the scale of the organization (more than 200 tasters, with tastings in multiple sessions over several weeks to ensure that the ratings are fair and reliable), and the complete impartiality guaranteed by the complete blindness of the jurors, to whom the entries are never revealed until the end. The seriousness of this competition is particularly evident by the repeatability of the results from year to year.

This made us quite confident that we would have scored high this year too, exactly like in the previous editions… and as a matter of fact, we did!

We seem to have understood what the Japanese especially like in our whiskies: the highest scoring ones in our selection are the ones with bold and rich sherry finishes. This is particularly encouraging for us, since we have been perfecting our maturation style for years, with an endless search for the best casks from Spain. At least half of our success is due to settling only for the best when it comes to wood management.
Our medals for this edition were:

Superior Gold:
Glenlossie 16yo 2008-24 Sherry Finish PX W&M546 (51,3%)
a sweet, bold and very fruity PX sherry finish
Silver:
Benrinnes 15yo 2009-24 Sherry Finish PX W&M552 (56,6%)
again, a very fruity and juicy PX sherry finish
Bronze:
Glen Grant 21yo 2003-24 Traditional Oak W&M567 (56,8%)
this, on the other hand, is what we call Traditional Oak, that is a refill bourbon cask, with a subtler influence on maturation. Very elegant, designed for connoisseurs, but less “flashy” and immediate than a PX finish

You can find the complete results here:
https://tokyowhiskyspiritscompetition.jp/

As usual, we need to share our success with our local distributor ePower, who always picks the right bottles to submit for the contest!
Thanks again to the jurors of the TWSC, and see you next year!