Click bait

“I don’t swallow” would have been an accurate but sensational title for today’s blog post.

I was a judge yesterday at the Australian Gin Awards and put 49 gins through their paces. Swallowing 49 gins could be dangerous, so you’re given a spittoon.

We kicked off at 10am and even after doing a lot of spitting I was still a bit spacey by lunchtime.

I previously judged the Flavoured Gin category for two years in a row at the Awards, so it was a blessed relief to judge Classic Dry this year.

Flavoured Gin is not my favourite. Many of them taste (to me) like ethanol with lolly flavours added.

Classic Dry is a different ball game. You sip and say things like “elegant nose”, “juniper forward” and “lingering finish” a lot.

My judging partner was Mikey Enright who owns Barrelhouse Group and makes gin for a living, which was a bit intimidating. But he’s such a lovely bloke. He didn’t make me feel the slightest bit inadequate and enthusiastically embraced all my feedback on the gins.

The judging took place above a restaurant in The Rocks and included a very nice Middle Eastern-style lunch, which was our payment for the day along with being allowed to take home a few open bottles of gin.

We also managed to pace ourselves so we knocked over the judging in one day instead of two. I was the fastest judge because I immediately decided “good” or “not good” and then wrote a few pithy reasons why.

The characteristics that a Classic Dry should possesses are pretty clearly defined and revolve around juniper.

There was a lot more contemplation from the judges in the Contemporary category, which has a broader remit. One of the judges works at Archie Rose and recently distilled fish bones to create a contemporary gin.

Mikey and I also judged the Old Tom and Gin Liqueur categories. We also retasted all the Gold medal scoring Classic Dry gins to decide the category winner. Then we all backed up and judged which top scoring gin across the eight categories was the winner of Best in Show.

So 49 isn’t an entirely accurate total.

I have no idea which gin won as it was a blind tasting and the winner won’t be revealed until September 23.

I joked to everyone that blind judging yielded shock results at the recent Sydney Royal Wine Show – a $9.99 quaffer from ALDI won Best Riesling. Bet the judges were startled when that was revealed!

I was pretty knackered by the end of yesterday, but it’s was pretty cool to be asked to judge the 2026 Australian Gin Awards again.

PS I may have swallowed a bit to check if the gins had lingering finishes.

Song of the day: Elton John “I’m still standing”