The Tasting Alliance’s Top Shelf Gala 2024 was held on October 5th and 6th in San Francisco, California. The Gala, held annually as part of the Top Shelf weekend, celebrates the ‘Best in Class’ and ‘Best in Show’ winners from The Tasting Alliance Competitions. These competitions include the San Francisco World Spirits Competition. A black-tie event complete with a three-course meal, signature cocktails, and networking opportunities, the Top Shelf Gala 2024 named the best single malt whiskeys from around the world.
The global single malt category is growing, and these ‘Best in Class’ winners beat out the competition for recognition. Let’s take a look at some of the global single malt ‘Best in Class’ winners from the Top Shelf Gala 2024.
The Top Shelf 2024 ‘Best In Class’ Winners
When viewing the ‘Best In Class’ winners from the Top Shelf 2024 Awards Gala, no specific expressions are listed but rather, the individual brand or distillery. As such, I will be giving an overview of each brand and its core range single malt expressions.
You will also notice that I am omitting scotch, Canadian, and Japanese whiskies. Single malt scotch whisky is broken down into several age categories, so this will be an article of its own. As for the Canadian and Japanese whiskies, the award category does not mention ‘single malts’, so I chose to leave them out of this one.
Best American Single Malt Whiskey
WINNER: Stranahan’s
Stranahan’s Colorado Whiskey is an American single malt brand produced at Stranahan’s Distillery in Denver, Colorado. The brand came about following a chance meeting between volunteer firefighter, Jess Graber, and whisky connoisseur, George Stranahan, in 1998. Discovering a mutual love of whiskey, the two decided to establish Stranahan’s Colorado Whiskey. Since then, Strahanan’s has been an essential pioneer in the American single malt category.
Stranahan’s whiskey is crafted using 100% malted barley and Rocky Mountain snow melt, making the whisky distinctly Coloradan. A multi-award-winning brand, Stranahan’s core range includes Stranahan’s Original (“the first rocky mountain single malt), Blue Peak (Solera finished), Sherry Cask (PX barrel finished), and the Mountain Angel 10 Year Old.
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Best Australian Single Malt Whiskey
WINNER: Starward
Starward Distillery was founded in 2007 by David Vitae. Vitale noticed that in Melbourne, where he lived at the time, there was extremely changeable weather, and that presented him with a unique opportunity.
The more a temperature fluctuates and the more drastic the change, the more a whisky expands and contracts, interacting with the wood at a faster rate. Starward also matures much of its whisky in red wine barrels from the Barossa Valley, which is located just over the territory border in South Australia.
Vitale said, in an interview with Forbes: “Essentially I wanted it to be as consistent as Johnnie Walker, as easy to drink as Maker’s Mark, as distinctive in flavor as Laphroaig 10, as iconic as Wild Turkey and as well-crafted as Balvenie Doublewood.”
Whilst Starward does not exclusively produce single malt Australian whisky, there are three single malts in the brand’s core range. Solera – aged in Apera (Australian sherry) barrels, Nova – aged in red wine barrels, and 100 proof – aged in American oak red wine barrels.
Read more about Starward Whisky here.
Best Independent Merchant Single Malt
WINNER: The Scotch Malt Whisky Society
The Scotch Malt Whisky Society (SMWS), founded in 1983 by Pip Hills, began as a small whisky club for those who appreciated a single cask scotch whisky. At a time when blended scotch whisky ruled the market – and in the middle of the infamous Whisky Loch – Hills was staggered upon tasting whisky drawn straight from a cask and decided to take a leap.
Today, the Scotch Malt Whisky Society has over 40,000 members worldwide and is best known for its incredible single cask bottlings of single malt scotch whisky. Allowing flavor to take center stage, the independent bottler uses a unique coding system to keep track of its bottlings. For example one of SMWS’ bottlings is 29.292 ‘Peat in parts per thousand’.
Here, the number ‘29’ refers to Laphroaig Distillery, and the number ‘292’ refers to the number of casks from Laphroaig bottled by SMWS to date. So, 2.292 is the 292nd single cask Laphroaig bottling produced by SMWS. This way, the tasting notes are front and center on the whisky’s label, allowing consumers to see past the whisky’s origins and focus on the profile.
Of course, you can find out quite easily which number corresponds to which distillery if you are curious.
With bottlings from almost every distillery in Scotland, and even branching out to other countries such as the USA and Japan, SMWS is revered as one of the best independent bottlers in the industry. The brand has an incredibly wide range of bottles to choose from, whatever your flavor preference.
You can become a member of the Scotch Malt Whisky Society here.
Best Other Single Malt Whiskey
WINNER: Pōkeno Whisky
Jetting off to the other side of the globe now, we have Pōkeno Whisky, which is produced in New Zealand, or Aotearoa in Māori. Located in the town of Pōkeno on New Zealand’s north island, Pōkeno Distillery is defined by a “unique sense of place” according to the brand’s website. The whisky is distilled from locally grown barley and spring water from the mountains just south of Auckland. Pōkeno Distillery is also home to New Zealand’s only working cooperage. Cooper Mike carefully crafts the casks used to mature the New Zealand single malt whisky.
Founded by Matt Johns and Celine, Pōkeno Whisky Company aims to “help put New Zealand on the map as a whisky producing nation; and to use all of our experience to create some of the world’s great single malts.”
Best Single Malt Irish Whiskey
WINNER: Knappogue Castle
Knappogue Castle Whiskey is named for, you guessed it, Knappogue Castle in County Clare. The ruin was purchased by a Texan, Mark Edwin Andrews, and his wife in 1966. The two embarked on an ambitious restoration project, during which time Andrews began collecting casks of Irish single malt whiskey. He then began independently bottling the whiskey and released it under the name ‘Knappogue Castle 1951’.
The brand continued to grow under the stewardship of Andrews’ son, Mark Edwin Andrews III and began to bottle vintage and age-statement single malt Irish whiskey. Soon enough, the US family ties meant that Knappogue Castle had an established fanbase across the Atlantic.
In 2021, Knappogue Castle Whiskey was purchased by Irish Distillers, and bottles whiskey that is primarily produced in County Cork. Most likely, the whiskey is produced by other Irish Distillers plants such as the Midleton Distillery. However, some sources suggest that Knappogue also sources from other plants such as Bushmills and the Cooley Distillery.
Knappogue Castle’s core range consists of a 12 Year Old, a 14 Year Old, and a 16 Year Old single malt Irish whiskey.