The 2009 San Francisco World Spirits Competition was held March 21st and March 22nd. The competition pits different alcoholic beverages against one another for industry clout and more awards for the sake of promotion.
This year, the best vodka goes to Dry Fly out of Washington, USA. The best flavored vodka goes to Binboa Satsuma Vodka out of Turkey.
Several of our favorites scored double gold or gold medals. You can find the full list of winners for 2009 (and earlier if you’re interested) on the San Francisco World Spirits Competition website. Congratulations to Dry Fly and the rest of the winners. I hope we all get to sample your products soon.
Update: Vodka didn’t do very well in the packaging area.
Eric
BiNBOA, the party vodka of Europe, is coming soon to the states with all six delicious flavors and an exceptionally smooth plain. The public will get to decide new flavors.
Don Poffenroth
Dry Fly Distilling here. We were blown away with the results of this years SF World Spirits competition. We are a small craft distillery in Washington State. We currently distribute directly in 12-13 states and 2 provinces in Canada. We also distribute product through Binnys.com, and cover an additional 20 states that way. Feel free to contact us via our web site, or via phone at 509-489-2112
Ben
Just exactly how does Smirnoff and UV get double gold medals? I didn’t like either all that much. Serious credibility issues here.
Robert
@Ben, I agree. I’m not sure exactly what they look for or how they evaluate, but seeing Smirnoff with a double gold does seem dubious.
Robert
@Ben, I saw this on their site:
An entry also costs $400. So, I’m curious if someone like Smirnoff competes year over year if there is any imperative to give them a decent score. It is also evaluated within a group of similar spirits. It’s possible that MSRP helps decide those groups. So, Smirnoff might just be a double gold in the bottom middle shelf vodka category. As far as I’ve seen, they don’t tell you what groups the spirits are in.