Heavy Medal: Spirits Competitions and the Spirits Consumer

You get a medal!

And you get a medal!

If you didn’t see the Oprah show where she gave away a car to everyone in the audience, then you’ve certainly seen memes about it. That’s what many of these spirits competitions feel like. Everyone (or almost everyone) gets a medal…and a really good medal at that.

I’m not criticizing the spirits producers. They are simply following the rules, paying their fees and submitting their product for the competition. There are plenty of whiskeys I enjoy that won some nice awards (and plenty I enjoy that didn’t win a thing). There are a few of the distillers who won awards (Alan Bishop at Spirits of French Lick, the Likarish brothers at Ironroot Republic and Royce Neeley at Neeley Family Distillery) who I know at least somewhat personally and respect their work at their craft. I certainly think they deserve the recognition they receive.

I’m not criticizing the judges. If you scan the panels and look at their credentials, they seem to be very well-qualified tasters. who follow the guidelines for the competition.

My issue is with the competitions themselves. They award too many medals - at least it seems that way when you do a little math. The fact that there are so many spirits floating around with gold medals (or double gold or platinum) can dilute the meaning of the award to not only the spirit producer, but to the consumer as well. The award categories and inconsistencies across competitions can also be a point of confusion to spirits drinkers. I’ll look at the results from three spirits competitions from 2021 to make my point.

San Francisco World Spirits Competition (SFWSC)

The medals awarded here and how SFWSC describes them are:

Platinum: receiving Double Gold three consecutive years
Double Gold: awarded Gold by all members of the panel; among the finest products in the world
Gold: exceptional spirits near the pinnacle of achievement
Silver: outstanding spirits that show refinement, finesse and complexity
Bronze: well-crafted spirits that are…excellent examples of their categories

SFWSC has a reported 3500+ entries (no exact number given). The breakdown of medals awarded is as follows:

Double Gold: 710 (20% of all entries)
Gold: 747 (21% of all entries)
Silver: 1,203 (35% of all entries)
Bronze: 364 (10% of all entries)
No medal: 476 (14% of all entries)

86% of all entries received some medal and are deemed to be at least “excellent examples of their categories”. 42% of all entries (combined Gold and Double Gold) are “exceptional spirits near the pinnacle of achievement”. These seem like statistically improbable results. More dentists don’t recommend Trident gum than there are entries that didn’t medal at SFWSC (Remember: “four out of five dentists surveyed…”).

Denver International Spirits Competition (DISC)

Denver also uses medal levels of Double Gold, Gold, Silver and Bronze. Double Gold is defined as the “highest score in a category”. The traits found in Gold, Silver and Bronze winning spirits are not defined on the DISC website.

According to a DISC social media post, there were 450 total entries in 2021, with the following breakdown of medal winners:

Double Gold: 11(2% of all entries)
Gold: 143 (32% of all entries)
Silver: 141 (31% of all entries)
Bronze: 31 (7% of all entries)
No medal: 124 (28% of all entries)

By the numbers, DISC is more discriminating than SFWSC. Without definitions of the award levels, however, everyone is left to make assumptions about what it means to actually win a medal of any kind.

ASCOT Awards

This is the first year for the American Spirits Council of Tasters (ASCOT) awards. Award levels for ASCOT are as follows:

Double Platinum: outstanding; earns top marks from all judges
Platinum: an excellent product; meets very high standards; highly recommended
Gold: a well-crafted product deserving recognition
Honorable mention: meets the standards of the industry

ASCOT did not disclose total number of entries where I could find it on their website or social media posts. The break down by award category is:

Double Platinum 110 (29% of all awards)

Platinum: 104 (27% of all awards)
Gold 168 (44% of all awards)

While “honorable mention” was designated as an awards category, there were none listed in the awards results. Nearly 1 in 3 spirits earning “top marks from all judges” as Double Platinum seems, again, like a statistical stretch.

Further, by-passing Bronze and Silver and jumping to Double Platinum / Platinum / Gold as award categories feels like Nigel Tufnel in “This is Spinal Tap” having an amp that “goes to 11”. From a consumer’s standpoint seeing a spirit with a Gold medal is deceiving when you consider that is the bottom rung of awards from ASCOT. When browsing a shelf for a whiskey to buy, you won’t know that is the case.

You Be the Judge

If you won an award from these or any other competition: Congratulations! My intent here is not to take anything away from your accomplishment and it is something you should be proud of in your marketing. However, consumers may need to better understand the context of these awards and what their true significance is to them. SFWSC once told us that a single barrel of Henry McKenna 10 Year was the best spirit in the world. That is ridiculous on the face of it, but shortly after that, McKenna demand skyrocketed and it became an allocated product. The ASCOT awarded a Platinum medal to Stagg Jr. and only Gold to George T. Stagg. That is a significant anomaly of the competition, but I will make that trade with you all day ASCOT.

Any of us could scroll through these awards and find lower rated spirits we love and higher rated ones that we loathe. And that is the point. Brush aside the confusion of these competitions. Wade through the brand hype. The best judge of what you should like is not fee-driven awards competitions. It’s not the opinions of the Bourbon famous. It’s not even me! The best judge of what you should like is, of course, you. And if what you like sits on the bottom shelf gathering dust rather than on the top shelf gathering medals, you should feel just fine about that and so should everybody else.