The results of the eleventh Scottish Field Whisky Challenge were announced at a glittering awards ceremony on Thursday 3 November at No.12 Picardy Place, where the cream of the Scotch whisky industry battled it out to claim an award in what is recognised as one of the fairest, well-respected and prestigious annual whisky awards.

Forty of Scotland’s top whiskies – thirty nominated by six merchant judges (Mark Connelly, Ewen Mackintosh, Darren Leitch, Robin Russell, Mike Lord and Duncan Ralph), plus the winners from last year and a few chosen by Scottish Field – went head-to-head in this year’s challenge, eight in each of the five categories: under £35, £35-80, over £80, blends and independent bottlings.

The nominees were then blind tasted by ten judges – the six merchant judges, plus Regis Lemaitre, Tatsuya Minagawa, Julie Trevisan Hunter and Charles MacLean – with only four whiskies from each of the five categories making it to the second round (although this year twenty-three whiskies actually made this stage due to tied scores).

The second tasting was more in depth, with the judges being asked to score each whisky from 1 (should never have been bottled) to 10 (whisky heaven) and write up brief tasting notes. The scores were then counted and verified, with average scores being used to work out bronze, silver and gold awards in each category. The results of the gold award winners were then analysed to work out the Scottish Field ‘Whisky of the Year 2011’.

Attached is a link for you to view the electronic version of the 2011 whisky supplement, if you have any questions please do not hesitate to get in touch.