For this first edition, the jury was chaired by world-renowned Sommelier Mr. Andreas Larsson from Sweden. Spirit lecturers Dr Winifred Bowman (CWM) from Cape Town and Neil Tabraham from the UK teamed with Higgo Jacobs, 2018 chairman of the South African Sommeliers' Association to assess and judge spirits at the end last year.
Results were audited by Cape Town based Sommeliers' Academy and every distiller will receive the marks and comments from the jury so they can benchmark themselves according to internationally recognized palates.
Medals were awarded to the best Spirits presented to our international jury. Based on their score, only a small percentage of the entries actually receive the coveted medals which they can proudly display on their commercial products.
Gold Medals
- Blackstrap Craft Distillery for Ginsala Gin
- Cape Town Gin & Spirits Company for Cape Town Rooibos Red Gin
- Cape Town Gin & Spirits Company for Cape Town The Pink Lady Gin
- Copeland for Copeland Pisco
- Deep South Distillery for Deep South Cape Dry Gin
- Distillery031 for Aqua Zulu Cachaça
- Distillery031 for d’Urban Dry Gin
- Silver Creek Distillery for Prohibition Craft Gin
- Triggerfish Brewing for Floating Dutchman Cape Rum
- Triggerfish Brewing for Floating Dutchman White Rum
Silver Medals
- Autograph Gin for Autograph Gin
- Copeland for Copeland Rum
- Distillery031 for d’Urban Scarlet Gin
- Fynbos Distillery for Oaked Witblits
- Fynbos Distillery for Apple Mampoer
- Mhoba Rum for Mhoba Franky’s Pineapple Infused Rum
- Musgrave Gin for Musgrave 11
- Silver Creek Craft Distillery for Apple Pie Southern Moonshine
Andreas Larsson was impressed by the winning spirits, showing a great improvement amongst the gin distillers. ‘Much more elegance is found in South African gins than two years ago.’ ‘Some more exotic products were actually very exciting, and it was nice to see some successful apple spirits or liqueurs in line up” declared Neil Trabraham.
Jean Vincent Ridon, organiser of the Spirits Trophy is aiming at providing a local platform where internationally recognized palates are assessing the quality of South African production. 'Bringing these experienced judges is a much more effective process than flying samples to the other side of the planet'
All spirits were tasted blind, and international benchmark spirits were secretly included to benchmark the judges.
For more information email info@spiritstrophy.com