World’s Best London Dry Gins - the 2014 Medals Edition

The experts have spoken! This year, judges at four international spirits tournaments have nominated their preferred juniper-infusions with the London Dry category garnering particular attention.

You may think that experts, being experts, would all agree on the best batches. But keep in mind that different competitions have different criteria and thus yield different results. Two of the contests below are gin-specific where as two list gin as a category within a larger range of spirits. Whatever the competition type, we will all remain extremely jealous of the judges that got to taste all of that delectable gin! 

The 4 contests:

1. World Gin Awards - run by The Drinks Report, an “online magazine for the wine, beer and spirits trade.”

2. Gin Masters - part of the Spirits Business “The Spirits Masters” blind tasting competitions

3. International Spirits Challenge - an event from Drinks International, a trade publication for the alcoholic beverage industry

4. International Wine and Spirit Competition - organized by the IWSC Group.

World Gin Awards

Gilpin’s Extra Dry Gin claims the “World’s Best Gin” prize. Gilpin’s calls itself “The Spirit of England” and is unique in that it’s spirit goes through five rounds of distillation. Its eight botanicals are added after the fourth distillation with limestone and willow-peat naturally-filtered water from the English Lake District. 

Gin Masters

Gin Masters is pretty loose with its awards, offering a wide array of “Master”, “Gold” and “Silver” prizes. The Craft Distillers in the London Dry category that were granted Master status are the City of London Distillery’s City of London Dry Gin and DJ Limbrey Distilling Co.’s D1 London Dry Gin.

International Spirits Challenge

Berry Bros. & Rudd took home the gold for its No.3 Gin. London’s oldest wine and spirit merchant provided its proprietary recipe - concocted to result in the ultimate dry martini - whereas a family-owned distiller in Holland provided the copper pot stills.

International Wine and Spirits Competition

German Group Steinhauser GmBH scored the IWSC’s London Dry Gin Trophy for its See-Gin Bodensee Dry Gin. The Group, which also produces wines, brandies and whiskies might not have been expecting so much attention as its website remains solely in German. IWSC calls its juniper spirit a “warming and mellow gin”.