One of the highlights of the craft gin explosion in Australia is the Australian Gin Awards judging chaired by well known Gin and Whisky personality and Tasmanian expert distiller Bill Lark.

Never Never Distillers based in Thebarton Victoria won the Best in Show trophy with their Classic Dry Southern Strength Gin. Sponsored by SabreX with a $10,000 marketing prize.

The judges described the winning gin as being “Immediately delicious on the palate rising to a rich high point”.

More than 150 craft gins in six classes were judged in October. The results were announced by Lark at a dinner for 150 gin enthusiasts at the Paddington Town Hall on Thursday 21 November.

The dinner heralds the opening of the Sydney Gin Palooza which will host 1800+ gin lovers over the following three days.

The Best in Class winners are:

Classic Dry: Never Never Distilling. Southern Strength Gin

Contemporary: Archie Rose. Distiller’s strength Gin

Matured: The West Winds Gin. Barrel Expedition 11

Old Tom: Kangaroo Island Spirits. KIS Old Tom

Australian Navy:  Mt Uncle Distillery. Botanic Australia Navy Strength

Flavoured:  Darby-Norris Distillery. Blueberry Gin

The Judges are Bill Lark (Chairman), Mikey Enright, Scott Fitzsimons, Lindsay Silcox, Lyn Lark, Genise Hollingworth, Philip Moore and Glenn McPhee.

The Gin Bottle Design awards chaired by Linda Sultmann of Signwave Australia and sponsored by CCL with a $5000 product prize are determined by another set of judges during the same week and the bottle declared the best Gin Bottle is Wildspirit Bloody Merry Gin produced and designed by Dad and Dave’s Brewing, Brookvale NSW.