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Inver House Distilleries Honored as Distiller of the Year |
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Thursday, 13 December 2007 |
 Inver House Distillers, producer of some of Scotland's most exciting and fastest growing malts, has received the prestigious Distiller of the Year award at the Glasgow Icons of Whisky 2007 event. The Airdrie, Scotland-based company beat competition from Glenmorangie, Bowmore and William Grant & Sons amongst others after an international judging panel voted for the company due to its "excellent and impressive contribution" to whisky.
"Based on the innovative and brave work that Inver House have pioneered this year, we felt that they really needed to be included in the 'Distiller of the Year' category and every person on our panel strongly backed their win," says one of the judges, Damian Riley-Smith, managing director of Paragraph Publishing. "[This year] has been a big year for whisky—there has been a lot of changes and investment in the industry—but Inver House has found a way to inject ambition, personality and a genuine warmth into everything it has done. As a team they've contributed to the world of whisky in an impressive way and we felt that their efforts in particular deserved the Distiller of the Year award."
Within the last few years, Inver House's malts have established themselves with those in the know and continue to attract increasing attention and distribution in the US with its Old Pulteney and Speyburn brands. In 2007, Old Pulteney Single Malt, also known as The Genuine Maritime Malt, celebrated the Stateside launch of its 17- and 21-year-old single malts, joining the award-winning 12-year-old for a strong presence on the shelf.
Announced on the eve of Whisky Live! Glasgow, the Icons of Whisky dinner is a glittering awards event, seen as one of the most important in the industry. Held at Oran Mor in Glasgow, this particular Icons of Whisky event is especially prestigious, marking the best whisky companies in Scotland and Ireland—the spirits' homelands. Inver House will now compete against distillers throughout the world for the International Distiller of the Year award, which will take place in London next year, the company says. The Icons of Whisky judging panel is comprised of an international editorial board drawn from the Paragraph Publishing group. |
