We won 4 Double Gold Awards at SFWSC 2024
San Francisco World spirit competition
This is the big whiskey award event for the year!
The San Francisco World Spirits Competition is considered the preeminent whiskey competition in the industry, with a high level of trust and transparency in their judging process.
We are excited to share the results for our Doc Swinson’s 2024 San Francisco World Spirits Competition entries, and give you a deep dive into the spirit awards world.
Since 2019 Doc’s whiskey has won 27 medals in total at the SFWSC, 8 of these were double golds.
French Toasted won “best in show” in 2023.
Overview of the San Francisco World Spirit Competition
Founded by the Tasting Alliance in 2000, the San Francisco World Spirits Competition is the oldest and largest competition of its kind [1].
Every year the SFWSC assesses hundreds, even thousands, of spirit entries- from big name brands to craft distilleries all over the world.
Spirit Awards & Consumer Knowledge
If you want to try a bottle of whiskey you don’t know anything about, how do you know it’s worthwhile?
Spirit Awards hold a really interesting place in the industry to help you determine that.
Taste is subjective, but spirit awards groups employ many judges to blind taste test, getting as close to a true neutral rating as possible. With this you can narrow in on what is actually worth your whiskey dollars.
However not all spirit awards are made equal.
There are 50+ spirit award competitions out there you can find with a quick google search. Such a large number leaves many competitions with a lack of strong competition. Additionally, many use ranking systems that are poorly defined making it hard to judge the quality of a high ranking entry. Experience lends itself to better results, the older competitions are more dialed on what and who is doing the judging.
It’s important as consumers to know which spirit competitions are the most reputable out there. Our top four competitions that we look at for quality: San Francisco World Spirit Competition, New York InternationalSpirit Competition, ASCOT and Beverage Testing Institute.
One of the Most Trusted Spirit Awards
San Francisco World Spirit Competitions is one of the most trusted spirit awards in the nation, with their parent company “The Tasting Alliance” having over 40 years of experience in blind tastings.
Entries are placed in a blind tasting involving panels of expert judges including mixologists, spirits buyers, and media from across the United States. [2]. Because products are tasted blind, no-one can be paid to endorse or unfairly judge a product.
“The SFWSC medal is a testament to [a brand’s] hard work and universally recognized indicator of exceptional quality and craftsmanship”
- The Tasting Alliance
How do you choose a category to enter your products?
For this competition you submit your products into the category or subcategory that fits it best. The goal is to compete with similar products to be judged on the merit of your spirit.
At Doc Swinson’s we are a bit more niche with our finished bourbons, so there’s not always a sub-category we fit in. Because of this we tend to place our products into categories that are the most competitive (those with the most entries).
We are going up against brands like Bardstown Bourbon Company, Blanton’s, Elijah Craig, Four Roses, Garrison Brothers, Uncle Nearest, Wild Turkey and more!
To win the “best in show” in a category that is highly competitive, with hundreds of entries from big and small brands, is a huge honor!
Right now we are up for “best in show” with 4 products.
How to Get “Best in Show” in a Category?
To explain this we will go over the general ranking system.
General tasting happens first. Not all entries are given awards (those not judged of sufficient quality are not given an award) but most receive a bronze, silver, or gold award from the tasting panel. [3]
If every judge gives you a gold in their blind tasting, you then receive a double gold. Double gold is a big honor in itself.
All the double gold winners then become finalists against all the other double golds in their respective category. From this finalist tasting round the “best in show” whiskey is chosen.
Our Performance at the 2024 Competition:
This year, we submitted 7 products and received 4 double golds, 1 gold, and 2 silvers. We exceeded our own expectations in this competition!
Categories & Awards Won-
The 4 Doc Swinson’s products that received double golds this year were:
(barrel finished whiskey)
(straight rye whiskey)
(barrel finished bourbon)
Won "best in show” in 2023!
(barrel finished bourbon)
French Toasted won Best in Show last year, making it a finalist for that award again this year. This is a pretty rare thing and we are very proud of it!
+Medaled on all 7 products entered
L’Esprit - Gold
Pineau de Charentes - Silver
Garyanna - Silver
We will know in October if we’ve won “best in show” for any of the products entered in the 2024 competition. We will keep you up to date on the announcement!
How we choose our products we enter:
Selecting which whiskey’s go into each competition is often just as tough as making the blends, oftentimes we try to limit the number of submissions to 3-7 products per competition. Selecting which whiskeys to choose for a competition revolves around a few factors.
We often like to see if we are being consistent with CORE products such as triple cask or blenders cut, these we submit typically yearly to gauge the perception of them in their category
We usually pick our limited expressions by ones we are most fond of at the company, this is done by enjoying a few bottles among each other.
Batch size made; this is important as our batches are often only a few barrels. In the event we produce larger batches we often choose these larger batches so that by the time the awards come out and people look for them we prefer you to be able to find them in market, nothing is worse than being teased about a batch you see won a top award and it’s unobtainable!
Master blender, Jesse Parker, often likes to push the boundaries of what he is creating within the exploratory cask field, his goals are to make the best whiskey with the inputs he has available to him.
“When blending I often consider how someone may interpret the whiskey, I pay attention to what memory or physical sensations I feel while tasting, this helps reveal what others might experience, and I think that appeals to people!
It’s that personal resonance that gets you. Each release often takes me weeks and sometimes months of sampling to create, sometimes over 100 blends before I hit the profile I want.”
- Jesse Parker
Significance of the Awards
Winning these prestigious awards at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition is a major validation for Doc Swinson’s, as it shows our unique and sometimes "weird" flavor profiles are resonating with expert judges.
Whiskey we are really excited about making is getting noticed.
Winning against big names is no small feat. It’s something to write home about and share with all of you who make the work worth it by enjoying the moments that we bottle up for you.
The awards provide important confidence so you can trust the quality that’s in the bottle.
We are excited about the strong performance of Doc Swinson’s in the 2024 San Francisco World Spirit Competition!
This is the competition of the year. All the big guys submit to it. The fact that we got four double golds out of seven entries, we're very proud of.
