ULTIMATE SPIRITS CHALLENGE^® Announces 2016 Results

Spirits Also Assessed in USC’s Innovative Cocktail Evaluation

Ultimate Spirits Challenge^®, the world’s platinum standard for spirits competitions, proudly announces the winners and full results for the just-completed 2016 Challenge. Ultimate Spirits Challenge (USC), now in its seventh year, celebrates 40 Chairman’s Trophy winners, USC’s highest award of excellence, along with 157 Finalists. Ultimate Spirits Challenge was held at the specially designed Ultimate Beverage Challenge Evaluation Center in Hawthorne, NY.

Says UBC founder and USC judging chairman F. Paul Pacult, “One of the many advantages of having our own year-round facility is that instead of having to judge hundreds of spirits entries over a couple of days like other competitions do, we can, by design, break each category down into smaller flights. This means that USC judging panels can focus on each flight with greater in-depth attention and analytical precision, resulting in truer, more accurate assessments. This hyper-focus allows USC to provide useful, extensive and authoritative data to companies for use in building their spirits brands.”

WHISKY – CANADA

J.P. Wiser’s Red Letter 2015 Edition  

WHISKEY – IRELAND

Blended: Midleton Very Rare 2015

Irish Pot Still: Redbreast 21 Years Old

Single Grain: Teeling Single Grain

Single Malt: Egan’s 10 Years Old 

WHISKY – SCOTLAND

Blended Malt: Johnnie Walker Green Label 15 Years Old

Blended: Buchanan’s Deluxe 12 Years Old

Single Malt: Highland Park Ice Edition 17 Years Old  

WHISKEY – USA

American: Clyde May’s Special Reserve

Bourbon: Blade and Bow Limited Release 22 Years Old Kentucky Straight

Rye: Jim Beam Pre-Prohibition Style

Single Malt: Westland  

WHISKEY – WORLD

Kavalan ex-Bourbon Oak Single Malt 

WHISKEY – WORLD – FLAVORED

Knob Creek Smoked Maple 

For complete results visit www.ultimate-beverage.com/usc2016results

All products are rated on the 100-point scale by the spirits industry’s most renowned judges including award-winning authors, buyers, journalists, educators and bar owners. The judges for USC 2016 included: Founder/Judging Chairman F. Paul Pacult, Jeff Bell, Jacques Bezuidenhout, Tad Carducci, Gregg Glaser, Don Lee, Francis Schott, Joaquin Simo, Andy Seymour, Paul Tanguay and David Wondrich.

All spirits rated 80 points and higher receive an individual results page (accessed by clicking on “more” next to the product name) which provides all downloadable marketing materials for the product – including icons, shelf-talkers (where applicable) and a bottle image for easy consumer identification. Spirits rated 85 points and higher also receive a tasting note. If a spirit is recommended for the category’s assigned classic cocktail, it is also indicated on this page.

USC results are promoted globally via email and web publication to both trade buyers and consumers. In addition, high scoring products are featured in the Ultimate Beverage Challenge Guide published each year in the October issue of Beverage Media reaching more than 70,000 on- and off-premise spirits buyers. 

ULTIMATE SPIRITS CHALLENGE…Challenging Since 2010.

ABOUT ULTIMATE BEVERAGE CHALLENGE

Ultimate Beverage Challenge (UBC) provides expert evaluation of wines and spirits for producers, importers and marketers through its two innovative annual competitions: Ultimate Spirits Challenge and Ultimate Wine Challenge. UBC partners are F. Paul Pacult, Sue Woodley and David Talbot. Photos and more information can be found at http://www.ultimate-beverage.com/.