Announcing the Winners of the 2023 New Orleans Spirits Competition

Photo: Courtesy of Tales of the Cocktail

July 25, 2023

2023 New Orleans Spirits Competition medals

Kicking off this year’s Tales of the Cocktail is the announcement of the winners for the 2023 New Orleans Spirits Competition’s Spirits of the Year. This is the second year of the competition, which aims to spotlight world-class distillers and their spirits to the global beverage community.

Back in June, for two days a judging panel of some of the industry’s most esteemed bartenders, distillers, and writers, including Imbibe editor Paul Clarke and Imbibe 75er Tiffanie Barriere, blind-tasted nearly 500 entries. They decided on medals for categories, such as “Specialty Spirit of the Year” and “No/Low Elixir of the Year.” But on Monday, July 24, at Tales of the Cocktail, the tasting panels determined the winners for Spirits of the Year. Given the high quality of the entrants, nearly one in 10 spirits won a gold or double gold medal.

“The gap in quality is clearly narrowing, and the longtime producers are releasing more and more interesting limited expressions to be in the conversation. It’s a treat to be able to taste this evolution.” —Wayne Curtis

“I was impressed by the quality of spirits this year overall,” says head judge (and Imbibe columnist) Wayne Curtis. “Our competition is open to legacy producers who’ve been making spirits for more than a century, as well as craft producers around for less than a decade. But the gap in quality is clearly narrowing, and the longtime producers are releasing more and more interesting limited expressions to be in the conversation. It’s a treat to be able to taste this evolution.”

“The rise of certain categories of spirit is fun to watch,” adds managing partner Andrew Faulkner. “Rye whiskey, Irish whiskey, and American single malt have risen from a handful of brands a few years ago to take many of the top whisky awards. Mezcal, which was an exotic spirit only a decade ago, eclipsed tequila in number of awards.”

The “best of class” winners will be highlighted in Imbibe‘s September/October issue.