A South African Whisky Scores World's Best Grain Whisky At World Whisky Awards – Bain’s Cape Mountain Whisky
The international nature of whisky was driven home this weekend when a South African whisky, Bain’s Cape Mountain Whisky, was awarded the World’s Best Grain Whisky at the 2018 World Whisky Awards. Andy Watts, the founder and Master Distiller of Bain’s, was also awarded the title of Global Icon of Whisky Master Distiller/Master Blender.
The World Whisky Awards are sponsored by the UK’s leading whisky periodical, Whisky Magazine. The highly coveted annual awards attract contestants from throughout the whisky world. This year’s results were announced at a gala dinner held at the Waldorf Hilton Hotel in London on March 22, 2018.
Watts had won the World’s Best Grain Whisky award in 2013, and has gone on to win numerous gold medals at many major whisky competitions.
The whisky has a bourbon-like character to it as you would expect from a mash bill that is 100% corn. It has a creamy quality, featuring vanilla and coconut notes, along with hints of tropical fruit, cooked banana, cocoa and some citrus notes. There are some light wood spice notes of cinnamon along with a pepperiness that emerges on the finish. At an average price of $35, it’s also an exceptional bargain for a world-class whisky.
You can also watch a Ralfy.com tasting video at https://youtu.be/xcW9qqnhvA8
A South African Whisky Scores World’s Best At World Whisky Awards South Africa’s warmer climate accelerates the interaction of the spirit with the cask wood, extracting more compounds from the wood and speeding up its development. The accelerated aging result is an exceptionally smooth whisky, especially given the young age at which it is bottled. |