We’re delighted to announce that The Craft Irish Whiskey Co. has won Best Single Malt whiskey in Ireland under the no age statement category from The World Whiskies Awards for our inaugural release The Devil’s Keep! After narrowly missing the deadline last year in order to allow The Devil’s Keep an extra week in virgin Hungarian oak, we’ve been counting down to this year’s awards. Entering this year allowed us to enter not only The Devil’s Keep, but also The Taoscán and The Brollach. And we can safely say that it was a triumph. Not only did The Devil’s Keep win Best Single Malt whiskey in Ireland in the no age statement category, but we received a Silver for our latest release, The Taoscán, and a Bronze for our third release, The Brollach.

Since the early days, our founder, Jay Bradley, has set his sights on the World Whiskies Awards. He was confident that all of our whiskeys could be forerunners to take the title of the Best Whiskey in the World, and to take three awards is proof that he was right. The Devil’s Keep will now go forward to fly the flag for Ireland at the finals of The World Whiskies Awards on 24th March where it will be up against gold standard single malts from over 17 countries worldwide, all looking to take the title as the world’s best whiskey. 

This is a phenomenal achievement for such a young company, founded just four years ago in 2018. The competition was fierce, with Ireland proudly represented by some exceptional whiskeys. To become the category winner, The Devil’s Keep saw off competition from Teeling Whiskey Single Malt, Method and Madness Single Malt, The Whistler P.X. I Love You and Writers’ Tears Red Head.  

But then this is the eighth award for The Devil’s Keep, a rare triple distilled, single malt whiskey and one of the finest whiskies that Ireland has ever created. The launch of The Devil’s Keep in November 2020 saw just 333 bottles released. It was the most expensive inaugural first release in history, and sold at auction for USD $60,000 (almost £46,000 and €51,000 Euros), and the oldest triple distilled Irish whiskey in existence, only to be topped by our second release in February 2021 of the 30-year-old The Emerald Isle Collection. 

Amongst its other accolades is a Gold award from the world-renowned International Wine & Spirit Competition (IWSC) 2021 and a Gold from the Global Luxury Spirit Masters 2021. The Devil’s Keep also scooped the highest scoring Gold award in the ‘Packaging Design Category’ of the A’ Design Award, Bronze at the Pentawards 2021 and an iLuxury award. It follows a further two awards from 2020; winner of the Luxury Drinks Secondary Pack award at the 2020 Luxury Packaging Awards and Highly Commended under the category of Luxury Drinks Primary Pack at the 2020 Luxury Packaging Awards.

While the first release of The Devil’s Keep sold out in record time, a second release of a limited number of bottles is due in the coming months. However, this release will only be available to Whiskey & Wealth Club members. 

Commenting on the award, Jay Bradley said: “I couldn’t be prouder of the impact The Craft Irish Whiskey Co. is having on the whiskey industry and of how our whiskeys are speaking for themselves on the world stage. We spared no expense with The Devil’s Keep, from the liquid to the design to the accompaniments. At The Craft Irish Whiskey Co., we believe age is just one tiny factor of what makes a whiskey great which is why we make no age statements and why we entered this specific category. We missed last year’s awards deadline for that very reason; I felt the whiskey needed another week in virgin Hungarian oak and I was tasting it daily. I didn’t compromise and I only released when I knew it was absolutely perfect. It’s all the sweeter to be recognised this year by the highly regarded World Whiskies Awards and we look forward very much to representing Ireland on the 24th March for the world title!”

The judging panel of the World Whiskies Awards includes international leading journalists, specialist drinks retailers and industry experts. Each whiskey goes through a rigorous three-round judging process at The World Whiskies Awards.

For the first round, each whisky is tasted in its relevant style to identify and select the style winners. For the second round, the Style winners are tasted against each other to identify the ‘Best’ whisky in each category and for the final round the ‘Best’ whisky in each category are then tasted against each other one last time to select the World’s Best whisky. Judges at this stage include those in Round 1 and 2 as well as a panel of leading distillers and experts from the whisky industry. 

The World Whiskies Awards will take place on Thursday 24th March and we’re counting down the days already…