For all the whiskey lovers, the scotch whiskey masters released the results of the best liquids for 2024 this summer. The annual blind tasting competition comprised seasoned judges from the UK and whiskey enthusiasts who flocked from different parts of the world to attend this annual event.
The palates judging the competition of the scotch whiskey Masters offered a long list of deserving and merit-worthy spirits. A fact of interest, a total of 30 expressions attained the highest honour of “Master” across all styles of spirits including blended, single grain, blended malt and single malt.
The winner of the competition is Royal Brackla, the 212-year-old distillery that managed to take two separate master medals home for highland single malts which are typically aged between 19 and 30 years. The two malts included a 25-year-old finished bottle exclusively in PX and a 21-year-old finished bottle in a combination of Oloroso Palo Cortado and Pedro Ximenez barrels.
The former (25-year-old) embodies rich notes of dark fruits, dried figs, leather and raisins and the latter (21-year-old) presents delightful hints of cocoa, cinnamon and maple syrup. Both bottled at the same ABV, the bottles manage to offer a satin-like finish to the palate.
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Although you will have a hard time finding a bottle of Royal Brackla for your home bar since it’s exported in limited quantity, you can easily find these bottles in US shelves for around $600 each.
Some other big winners from the 2024 Scotch competition include GlenAllachie which took home a master for its peat-smoked Meikle Toir Sherry expression. The Bacardi-owned scotch company hauled Masters for Aultmore’s Oloroso sherry cask 12 years old and a 13-year-old from Speyside Maltmaker.
The tasting competition started with no-age blended whiskies and they managed to set the bar high for the rest of the day. Sir Edward Finest received a gold medal because of its delightfully balanced notes. Interestingly, the most expensive and blended section managed to get two masters and two golds by the judges. The top brands were Johnnie Walker High Rye and Johnnie Walker Blue Label where the rye whisky was marked for having delightful aromas.