Spirits & Wine Award Winners, Top Scoring Products, Beverage Industry Trends and Best Wine and Spirits Lists

Sotol is an interesting spirit that has just recently come into the international market. Culturally the same as mezcal, with similar production methods, the major difference is the source plant, dasylirion wheeleri, also called the desert spoon plant. The plant is a close cousin of the agave or maguey, but produces a spirit with distinct flavors, generally more herbal, vegetal, and acidic than many other agave spirits.

We are accepting entries for 2019’s Ultimate Spirits Challenge until February 27th!

There are many reasons to enter and aspects of our competition that make all the difference. Among them is our incredible line up of world class judges, who are the undisputed leaders in the worldwide spirits industry. We also have our own dedicated top of the line facility that was specifically designed for beverage competitions. Another popular and unique benefit is the cocktail component of USC, which offers your spirit another chance to impress.

Genever is a style of gin that typically has extra weight and richness on the palate, due to the high percentage of malt wine as a base. This style can also have sugar which adds a bit of sweetness, but juniper is still the main flavoring characteristic. Our spirits judges picked these top 3 scoring genevers during the 2018 Ultimate Spirits Competition.

Pisco is an unaged grape brandy made in Chile and Peru. 8 different varieties of grapes are used and include some aromatic varieties like moscatel and torontel, which make fruitier end products. Ultimate Spirit Challenge 2018’s Chairman’s Trophy winner with 95 Points in the Pisco category was Caravedo Puro Torontel Pisco from Peru made from the aromatic torontel grape.