A Victorian whiskey has been crowned the best in Australia at a prestigious international awards ceremony.
The Gospel’s Straight Rye Whiskey won gold at the 2024 International Wine & Spirits Competition (IWSC) and was crowned Australia’s highest-scoring whiskey across all categories for a second consecutive year.
Not only that, it’s also been crowned the second highest scoring whiskey in the world.
Among the international selection, the $95 bottle tied for second with the Thomas H. Handy Straight Rye Whiskey – a ‘rare’ spirit that retails for a staggering $1200.
The whiskey was described as ‘divine’ with a ‘long, sweet and satisfying’ taste along with a ‘hint of mint complementing indulgent chocolate tones’.
‘Perfumed and wonderfully peppery on the nose, full of pleasing, punchy rye spice aromas with deep liquorice tumbling through,’ the judges’ statement read.
‘Dry and remarkably layered, with well-defined flavours of cognac, green tea, and menthol adding complexity on the palate.’
The Gospel’s Co-Founder Andrew Fitzgerald was proud to take home the prize.
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‘The Gospel Whiskey has one mission – to take the distinct taste of Mallee grown rye to the world and continued success like this on the world stage really helps to endorse that mission,’ he said.
‘We’ve spent years defining The Gospel’s unique style of whiskey to craft something distinctly Australian and expressive to the site we source the grain from. We’re not aiming to taste like other whiskeys or fit in with the crowd – it’s unique to us, and I think the judges at the IWSC appreciated its difference.’
In addition to the Gold medal, The Gospel’s Legacy Rye and The Gospel’s High Wheat Rye each won a silver medal.
The IWSC is one of the world’s biggest and longest-running spirits competitions, with more than 250 specialist judges from all over the world coming together to score and review more than 4100 entries from 98 countries.