Shiny awards for Estonian beverages
Premium beverages produced by Liviko AS are making even more name for themselves – in recent international competitions, Vana Tallinn, Hõbe Vodka and Crafter’s London Dry Gin won bright medals.
SIP Awards (Spirits International Prestige) is the most valued competition of alcoholic beverages in the USA with hundreds of beverages being evaluated using a blind tasting method. The competition is unique due to more than 100 common consumers who make up the jury. Each judge undergoes a thorough background check to guarantee complete independence upon making decisions. All enlisted products are evaluated using a blind tasting method – the judge cannot see the packaging of the product and does not know its name. Only the category of alcohol is known upon evaluation.
This year, a record-breaking number of 673 different beverages competed in different categories in the SIP Awards.
Among hundreds of different products, the finalists of various categories are selected. Hõbe Vodka, Vana Tallinn and Crafter’s London Dry Gin represented the portfolio of Liviko. In the category of vodkas, Hõbe Vodka received a gold medal for an exceptionally qualitative taste and a silver medal for a beautiful design.
The flagship of Estonian gins – Crafter’s London Dry Gin – competed in the best gin category with 45 different gins from ten countries and brought home a gold medal. In addition, Crafter’s London Dry Gin was given a platinum award in the bottle design category of the same competition where 49 of the most beautiful bottles designed for alcoholic beverage from 11 different countries were brought to the jury for evaluation.
Vana Tallinn which has successfully participated in the same competition also in the previous years did not disappoint – once again, this liqueur proved its special quality by receiving a gold medal in the SIP Awards! Also, Vana Tallinn received the Consumers Choice Award which is given to brands which can continuously keep its high level in the competition for at least 2 consecutive years.
Highly valued also in Europe
IWSC (International Wine & Spirit Competition) is one of the most important competitions of alcoholic beverages in the world. It has been held in Great Britain as of 1969. Liviko’s products has repeatedly participated in this competition and brought home gold, silver as well as bronze medals. In the IWSC competition, all products are also evaluated at blind tasting where the names are not revealed and bottles are not shown to the jury. In addition, the products are randomly analysed in a laboratory to verify their quality.
This year, we were especially eager to see how Vana Tallinn Elégance and Crafter’s London Dry Gin as the newest participants would do. We were very pleased to hear that rum liqueur Vana Tallinn Elégance received a gold medal for the excellent taste. The judges described what they felt, “Grassy aromas of rhum agricole intermingled with rich pimento dram, cloves, ginger, cassia, cinnamon, and orange. On the palate, nose of candied orange and lemon are accompanied by a zesty hint of lime, before they develop back into richer, luxurious notes of spice, dark sugar, and rum. These linger, mixed with more green, grassy notes, and are wrapped up with a restrained sweetness. This is a moreish, balanced and quality product.”
However, the classic Vana Tallinn liqueur (40% vol) received a silver medal in a tight competition. The jury emphasised the impressive spicy bouquet of taste and colour of the liqueur.
Crafter’s London Dry Gin competed in the gin category with a high number of other gins. This year, 400 different gins from 35 countries participated in the competition. Among these, we received a silver medal in the London Dry Gin category. Since gin is mainly consumed with tonic, then in this competition, a special sub-competition “Gin and Tonic” was created in the gin category. The cocktail was made with Fever Tree tonics and Estonian handcrafted gin Crafter’s received a bronze medal in this interesting competition. It goes without saying that we are proud to be at such a high place among the most famous gin brands in the world. Especially when considering that our gin was created only 2 years ago!
In the vodka category, Hõbe Vodka was awarded a silver medal! The vodka was rated as of “exceptional quality”.
A multi-step filtration system is used when making Hõbe Vodka. First, the vodka goes through a usual carbon filter and then 29 silver filter elements which give the beverage a pure taste. Finally, the vodka is directed to a polishing filter which gives the beverage a special clarity. Due to the filtration method, the strength of Hõbe Vodka is exactly 39.2% vol, because exactly at this strength, the silver-filtered vodka achieves the best balance between a pure aroma and a crisp taste.
The high places of our products in the SIP Awards as well as in the IWSC Competition encourage us to strive even further and maintain the exceptional quality. These titles are a great honour to the small country of Estonia and to the Liviko team.
