The Best Gins According To The 2021 International Wines & Spirits Competition

Nine different gins were awarded Gold Outstanding medals at the 2021 International Wines & Spirits Competition judging (IWSC). The winning gins came from six different countries, including some unexpected winners from Argentina, Japan and Italy. An additional 38 brands won a Gold medal.

The IWSC is an annual wine and spirits competition. Founded in 1969, by Anton Massel, it has grown to become the largest such competition in the world. Spirits are evaluated on a 100-point scale and awards are given out for Gold Outstanding (98-100 points), Gold (95-97 points), Silver (90-94 points) and Bronze (85-89 points).

The competition employs over 250 judges, drawn from all over the world, who evaluate thousands of wines and spirits across 1,500 different categories.

Significantly, as in past years, none of the “global” gin brands won either a Gold Outstanding or Gold medals. Instead, the gin category was dominated by craft distillers, many coming from countries that have not been traditional gin producers.

Six of the winners were contemporary styled dry gins bottled at alcoholic strengths ranging from 40% ABV to Navy style 57.5% ABV. The term “contemporary gin” isn’t strictly defined, but is often applied to gins that feature non-traditional botanicals, typically local ones, in addition to the usual gin flavoring agents.

Of the remaining three gins, one gin was a London dry, one was a flavored gin and one was an aged, wood finished/rested gin.

Destilería de Montana, Andes Gin – Mountain Dry, 45% ABV

Andes Gin in an Argentinian gin produced in Mendoza in the heart of one of Argentina’s prime wine producing regions. The gin utilizes a combination of traditional botanicals as well as unique local ones.

Although we don’t typically think of Argentina as a gin producer, it has, in fact, been produced here for several centuries. Argentina has the highest per capita consumption of gin, and in particular gin and tonics, then any other country in South America.

Biggar Gin Company, Biggar Strength Gin, 57% ABV

Biggar is technically a “navy strength” gin that is produced in Scotland. Over the last five years, Scotland has had a gin renaissance, and now boasts more than 200 different gin brands.

The gin utilizes traditional botanicals supplemented by locally grown rowan berry, rosehip, nettles and hawthorn.

The result is a mellow, fruit forward gin with notes of citrus and dried apple and some herbaceous aromas. It’s smooth, creamy and sweet with a distinctive juniper character, along with notes of freshly cut lavender and a bit of pepperiness.

Runa, Craft Gin Arandanos, 42% ABV

Runa is another Argentinian gin. It shares its name with a Scandinavian gin, so be sure you get the bottled labeled Arandanos.

This is an intensely flavored contemporary gin that also uses local botanicals to create more pronounced flavors.

Alma Distillers, Premium Artisan Gin, 40% ABV, is another Argentinian gin expression. Alma uses a fairly conventional mix of 16 botanicals, with the exception that some of the juniper berries are sourced from Patagonia in the southern reaches of Argentina. The result is a gin with a silky-smooth texture on the palate and a lingering sweet note.

The Ethical Spirits Company, Last Episode O-Elegant, 47% ABV

Elegant is a Japanese gin that has been a consistent award winner in spirit competitions around the world. Like many Japanese gins it utilizes local, non-traditional botanicals. In Elegant’s case, this also includes using the lees of Masumi Sake as a flavoring agent.

Karu Distillery, Lightning Gin, 57.5% ABV

Lightning Gin is another perennial medalist having scored wins at many spirit competitions, most recently a Gold at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition in 2021 and a Double Gold at the same competition in 2019. Karu is an Australian distiller situated at the base of the Blue Mountains in the small town of Grose Vale in New South Wales.

This is a navy strength gin that boasts a very pronounced juniper aroma. It includes citrus flavorings drawn from lemon myrtle, bitter ruby grapefruit and sweet mandarin oranges, as well as rose geranium. Most of the botanicals are locally sourced.

Lucky Bee Gin Company, Hench Gin, 57% ABV

Hench is a traditional navy strength gin produced in Timperley, a small village on the outskirts of Manchester in the United Kingdom. It’s based on 13 traditional botanicals, many of which are sourced locally. The result is a clean, fresh gin with distinct notes of lemon and orange and a lingering sweet almond taste on the finish.

Skylark Distillery, Lantic Gin Winter Botanicals, 41.5% ABV

Lantic Gin is produced in Cornwall, England. In addition to the traditional botanicals it utilizes a range of local, handpicked, seasonal botanicals to craft a summer botanicals and a winter botanicals gin.

The winter botanical gin includes: rowan berries, blackberries, Kea plums, crabapples, pears, rosehips, heather and mint. After distillation, the gin is “rested” in oak barrels for a brief period before being bottled.

Jo Ressel, Vento Carsico Gin, 40% ABV

Italy has become a hot bed of craft gin production over the last decade, and now boasts over 300 locally produced gins that offer a broad array of flavors and aromas.

Vento Carsico is classified as a flavored gin. That seems a misnomer as all gins are flavored – otherwise they would be vodkas.

Vento Carsico is named for the wind (vento) that blows incessantly across the limestone karst (carsico) plateau region of Friuli Venezia Julia, Italy’s northeastern region.

The gin is flavored with locally grown mugo pine, which gives it a balsamic flavor. It’s further flavored with wild sage, savory, hyssop and lemon zest. The result is a spirit that is instantly recognizable as a gin but that offers a different aroma and taste profile.

There were an additional 38 gins that won Gold medals. With roughly 6,000 different gin expressions in the world, more than 1,700 of which are produced in the United Kingdom, gin has become the single largest spirit category of brands in the world.

The contemporary gin scene offers a vast range of aroma and flavor profiles, and continues to evolve to encompass both new variations of traditional botanicals as well as new and exciting expressions that incorporate unusual botanicals.

The emergence of seasonal gins, which incorporate local botanicals that are only available during certain months of the year, has also spurred the development of regional and national styles of gin. One thing is certain, the gin and tonic will never be the same!

Several of these gins are not yet available in the US, or are very hard to find. Some of the British online vendors, like The Whisky Exchange, might have some of the gins available.

For a complete listing of the 38 gin Gold medalists, as well as all of the other gin medalists, see the results page on the IWSC website.

Cheers