2022 World Gin Awards announce Country winners

After an expert panel of international judges scored and evaluated the world’s best gins for months, the World Gin Awards announces the Country Winners on 21 Jan 2022. These gins will go through to the World Gin Awards Finals when the best in the world will be named and crowned next month.

The World Gin Awards presented by TheDrinksReport.com is part of The World Drinks Awards and recognises quality international drinks. The Awards select, reward and promote the world's best beverages to consumers and trade across the globe. 

The international judging panel includes more than 80 experts from around the world, including Italy, Norway, Ireland, Germany. UK and Australia. This year because of pandemic restrictions, the judging took place virtually but under extremely tight and regulated tasting conditions.

Along with the Australian country winners in each category, Australia gained eight Gold medals, 45 Silver and 28 Bronze.

Last year Australia was the only country to win multiple categories in the World’s Best = with two gongs for Best Contemporary and Best Signature Botanical Gin.

The Australian country award winners by category are:

Best Classic Gin - Ginworth Future Vintage Gin

Best Compound Gin - Native Australia Lilly Pilly Gin

Best Contemporary Style Gin - Beachtree Distilling Co. Organic Quokka Gin

Best Flavoured Gin - Never Never Distilling Co. Ginache.

Best London Dry Gin style - Never Never Distilling Co. Triple Juniper Gin Export Strength Mature Gin - Heartwood Absolution of Gin.

Navy Strength - Devils Thumb Distillery Navy Strength Gin

Old Tom Style Gin - Four Pillars Experimental Old Tom Style Gin

Signature Botanical - Ginfinity Bubblegum Gin

Sloe Gin – Dasher + Fisher Sloe Gin

The Gin Queen, Caroline Ashford, was the only Australian international judge for the Country Winners section. She said Australian distillers continue to innovate and impress the international judges.

“The next phase will be interesting to see how the Australian winners fare when they go up against all the other country winners. It will be really exciting to see if we can emulate 2020 results when Australia won Best Navy Strength with Ester Spirits Strong Gin and Best Signature Botanical with Four Pillars Olive Leaf.

“These awards are tightly scored, and brands get detailed notes fed back to them, which can help with future product development. It's an excellent way for distillers to benchmark their products with the best in the world and can sometimes lead to export market opportunities,” Ashford said.

Congratulations to all the Australian Country Winners and best of luck for the World Gin Awards Finals. See the complete list here.