Spirit Masters About Us

About The Global Spirits Masters

Launched in 2008, The Global Spirits Masters has continued to seek and reward excellence from across the world, encouraging recognition among consumers and trade for quality in spirits.

Judging for The Global Spirits Masters is divided into 18 separate competitions to ensure each spirit category is given the utmost attention by specialised judges. Entry Forms with relevant categories can be found here.

For the past decade, the Masters has sought to retain its individuality as the only blind spirits tasting competition to use carefully selected and completely independent judges, including experienced bartenders, spirits journalists, and spirits educators.

Entrants can rest assured that their product has been measured constructively and without bias by our panels of trained professionals.

The results of each competition is published within The Spirits Business magazine, which with its global circulation of 13,000 copies, guarantees that entrants’ medal wins are visible to a truly international and industry-focused audience. In addition, the results are also posted on www.thespiritsbusiness.com, which attracts over 400,000 visitors from almost 150 countries on a monthly basis.

The Judging Process

• The judging process is conducted under strict conditions to ensure complete impartiality and the delivery of fair scores.

• The Global Spirits Masters is the only blind tasting competition to pride itself on using completely independent judges, free of any tie to particular brands. Judges are chosen according to their expertise in each category.

• Products are assessed blind in numbered ISO glasses, which are poured with care at a distance from the judging area.

• Each entry is marked on appearance, aroma, palate and overall balance.

• Entries are tasted alongside other examples in their category but are considered individually and on their own merit.

• At the end of each competition, the Masters winners are tasted once more side-by-side to determine the Grand Spirits Master of that category. The Grand Spirits Masters, Taste Masters and the overall Grand Master are revealed at an annual awards ceremony in London in December.