The Scotch Malt Whisky Society

The Australian Malt Whisky Tasting Championship 2012

Winners Announced

On Friday 15th June, whisky enthusiasts from all over Australia flew in to compete in the biennial Australian Malt Whisky Tasting Championship. A major event on the Australian whisky calendar ever since 1989, this year a record 64 competitors and a large number of spectators gathered in the Dinosaur Gallery at The Australian Museum in Sydney to put their tastebuds to the test and find out who would be the newly-crowned Australian Malt Whisky Tasting Champion.

With everyone seated, competitors had 30 minutes to assess the eight whiskies poured before them in a blind-tasting format. Each competitor was provided with a list of nine possible whiskies – the eight on the table, plus one red herring. The task was to correctly identify which whisky was which.

This year’s line up of whiskies featured a large number of Speyside malts that were similar in style, and it took some pretty experienced and knowledgeable palates to discern them apart. And so to the winners:

Alan Forrest, a third time competitor from Adelaide, took out the title with a clear winning margin. Alan’s reward, apart from significant bragging rights, is two places on The Scotch Malt Whisky Society’s upcoming “Ultimate Whisky Tour to Tasmania”, including airfares & accommodation. 1st prize is valued at over $3,500.

The defending Champion from 2010, Jack Turek from Sydney, showed that his previous victory was no fluke by again featuring on the podium, this time taking out 2nd place. Jack’s prize was a selection of rare Scotch Malt Whisky Society whiskies, valued at over $1,000.

First time competitor, Simon Clarke from Sydney, made an impressive debut, taking out 3rd place. Jack and Simon were tied on equal points after the main round, and it took a hard-fought taste-off to split them for the minor placings. Simon’s prize is a series of tickets to attend upcoming whisky tasting events held by The Scotch Malt Whisky Society, valued at over $350.

At the conclusion of the competition, all participants and spectators retreated to the other end of the Dinosaur Gallery for an impressive afterparty, which was generously sponsored by William Grant & Sons, through their flagship single malts Glenfiddich & Balvenie. In addition to serving a great line up of malts from both of these distilleries, they also served up a number of delicious whisky cocktails and whisky chocolates, again using Glenfiddich malt as the key ingredient. The party kicked on into the night…

Notes

The Scotch Malt Whisky Society began in the late 1970’s when a group of discerning friends in Edinburgh bought a single cask of malt whisky and shared it amongst themselves. The group of friends grew and grew, with subsequent cask purchases, and in 1983, the group syndicated as a Society.

Today, the Society has over 25,000 members around the world with branches in 14 countries. It bottles over 300 single casks a year for its members from a range of more than 129 distilleries.

Members can choose from the world’s widest selection of single cask, single malt whiskies with only the very best selected and approved by the Society’s respected Tasting Panel.

The Society has been active in Australia since 2002, holding extremely popular and well-attended frequent whisky tasting nights in each of the capital cities around Australia all through the year for both its members and the general public.

The Australian Malt Whisky Tasting Championship is a blind tasting competition that has been run in Australia since 1989. It was held annually in Adelaide from 1989 until 2002, then was in recess for six years until the Scotch Malt Whisky Society resurrected the competition in 2008. It is open to national and international competitors, and is now a biennial event held in Sydney.

Photographs from the event will be available very shortly.