Bain’s Cape Mountain Whisky toasts awards success ahead of new Travel Retail Exclusive launches

South Africa’s Bain’s Cape Mountain Whisky has scooped a flurry of awards at two prestigious spirits competitions, including top recognition for its Travel Retail Exclusive trio of whiskies.

The innovative range of 18YO sherry cask-finished whiskies, which launched exclusively in travel retail last year, recognises the vision of Founder Distiller, Andy Watts. The trio was successful at the recent San Francisco World Spirits Competition, after a special late tasting took place due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Travel Retail Exclusive range scooped the following medals:

Bain’s Oloroso Cask Finish Single Grain Whisky – Double Gold

Bain’s Fino Cask Finish Single Grain Whisky – Gold

Bain’s PX Cask Finish Single Grain Whisky – Silver

Bain’s 18-Year-Old, the oldest whisky to date launched in South Africa, was crafted at the James Sedgwick Distillery in Wellington – the only commercial whisky distillery in Africa. The different sherry cask finishes interact with the spicy sweet notes of the single grain to create a range of expressions that offer different takes on the classic Bain’s profile. Fino is the lightest and driest of all the sherries; Oloroso contributes a multitude of flavours and PX brings a dark, intense ebony colour to the whisky with deep red fruit flavours. All three whiskies are bottled at a strength of 50.5% ABV.

The 18-Year-Old single grain whisky started its life off as Bain’s Cape Mountain Whisky. Bain’s is made from 100% sun-kissed South African grain and spends its first three years maturing in first-fill casks previously used for bourbon before being re-vatted into a fresh set of first-fill ex-bourbon casks for a further two years. The 18-Year-Old whiskies then spend an additional ten years maturing in older American oak to develop hints of sweet butterscotch, raisins and banana loaf flavours before being finished individually for three years in either Oloroso, Fino or PX sherry casks.

The San Francisco World Spirits Competition accolades come on the back of success at Whisky Magazine’s Icons of Whisky Awards, at which Bain’s and Andy Watts were crowned winners in two categories. Watts scooped World Whisky Ambassador of the Year and The James Sedgwick Distillery, the home of Bain’s, was named Sustainable Distillery of the Year.

Distell Head of Whisky Intrinsic Excellence and Bain’s Founder Distiller, Andy Watts, commented: “To receive such prestigious awards during these unprecedented times is a true honour and a great boost for everybody at Distell. It is a very proud moment for all involved and, importantly, the accolades are a further step in putting South African whiskies on the map.

“This welcome positive news gives us all a renewed sense of hope as we look to emerge from the crisis stronger than ever and prepare to launch three more Travel Retail Exclusive whiskies later this year.”