Germany's largest distillery St Kilian was awarded Distillery of the Year 2023
accolade by the jury.
For twenty years the Frankonian St Kilian
has been named the first whisky distillery of the year.
CTO and Master Blender Marion Rudolf
received the honours in South Tirol in Italy.
"The superstars of the World Spirits Award can rightly feel like 'world champions'. We have painstakingly and consistently worked towards this position on the market over two decades - with constant fine-tuning when it comes to quality and innovation,"
Organzier of the contest Wolfram Ortner said. "The perhaps most highly qualified jury in the world tasted 304 samples from 77 distilleries this year and rated them according to the tough but fair WSA definitions with a high degree of expertise.
The best of the best were awarded the highly prized 'World Spirits Awards'."
"...With the classification of the distilleries, the World Spirits Award enjoys a special position among all the worldwide competitions. Apart from the overall medals, we also classify establishments according to their fields, as is customary, for example, for the world's best Bordeaux wines. The differentiation ranges from 'World Class' to 'First Class' and is topped with 'Distillery of the Year'.
...
After 20 years of the World Spirits Award, for the first time a whisky distillery was crowned a World Class Distillery and Distillery of the Year with gold as well as the award. The German shooting star, the St. Kilian distillery, was granted this award. The fascinating product portfolio ranges from classical and peated to cask strength and convinced the WSA jury."
The young team around St Kilian's CTO Mario Rudolf - Whiskey Creation, Stocks & Blending
Master Distiller - happy about the shower of gold from the World Whiskey Awards:
"We are more than proud and very happy about the awards and the associated recognition of our qualities.
Especially since our blended whiskeys and our two core range products - Classic and Peated - have been always very successful in all competitions."
The Award Winners
An international jury awarded the St. Kilian portfolio fourteen medals from among 304 different spirits from 77 distilleries in fifteen nations.
The international jury not only awarded the Core Range bottling St. Kilian Peated - Rich & Smoky - Single Malt Whisky - as well as the smoky Terence Hill - The Hero - Whisky with the "World Spirits Award" as group winner, but also praised these whiskies with the title "Spirit of the Year" as variety winner in the category "Whisky Worldwide".
Further awards followed:
WSA-DOUBLE-GOLD:
St. Kilian PEATED - Rich & Smoky - Single Malt Whisky
Terence Hill – The Hero – Whiskey (smoky)
Single Cask Ex PX Sherry #1527 peated – single malt whisky
WSA GOLD:
Bud Spencer - The Legend - Whiskey (mild)
Terence Hill – The Hero – Whiskey (mild)
Bud Spencer – The Legend – Single Malt Whiskey (smoky)
Judas Priest - 50 Heavy Metal Years - Single Malt Whisky
St. Kilian CLASSIC - Mild & Fruity - Single Malt Whisky
Information about St Kilian Distillers
You may find more information about the Germany distillery working with Scottish equipment from Forsyths in Rothes at whiskyintelligence
Part One
Part Two
St Kilian's Portfolio. From non peated to heavily peated. Choice.
See also St Kilian Distillers website in English and French
Author
Ernie - Ernst J. Scheiner is the editor of The Gateway to Distilleries www.whisky-distilleries.net
He documents over 150 distilleries photographically from the inside and describes the production of the whiskies in detail. Since his studies at the University of
Edinburgh, he has been involved with the subject of whisky and has published in specialist magazines such as The Ireland Journal, Kleinbrennerei, Whisky Passion and The Highland Herold. Features and stories have appeared in blogs like whiskyexperts, whiskyfanbl, SHMKR (closed) and whiskyintelligence. As former head of the VHS Ingelheim, and now as a whisk(e)y ambassador, he teaches distilling, organizes study tours and tours to the sources of whisky.