NZ Whisky proclaimed one of the world’s best

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NZ Whisky proclaimed one of the world’s best

Oamaru, New Zealand– Feb 26, 2014 – He’s believed to have visited more whisky distilleries than anyone on earth and Jim Murray’s Whisky Bible boasts over 4,500 whiskies. But few score 94 points or higher, so Murray has created a special symbol for the handful of whiskies that earn the status ‘Liquid Gold.’

In a great start to 2014 for the New Zealand Whisky Company, Jim Murray’s latest edition hot off the press in London, sees the South Island Single Malt 21 y.o. scored at 95 points, placing it in the highly coveted category. This is the first time ever that a New Zealand whisky has scored so high and been anointed ‘Liquid Gold’.

“This is a salute to the craftsmanship of the Dunedin distillers,” says company CEO Greg Ramsay. “Being recognised as one of the world’s great whiskies by Jim Murray, that’s the ultimate endorsement of your dram and all the Dunedin distillers like Cyril Yates can be proud that what they were doing in the 80s and 90s in New Zealand, was every bit as good as what the Scots were doing over in Speyside and on Islay.”

Murray tastes every whisky and scores each dram out of 25 for nose, taste, finish and balance, totaling 100 points. His influence on the whisky world is unrivalled, with the bible now in its tenth year, including an additional 1,100 new whiskies in 2014.

 “There are over 4,500 different brands and expressions listed in this year's Whisky Bible and from every corner of the planet,” says Murray. “Those which score 94 and upwards represents only a very small fraction of them. These whiskies are, in my view, the elite: the finest you can currently find on the whisky shelves of the world. Rare and precious, they are Liquid Gold.”

The South Island Single Malt is the company’s flagship single malt, aged for 21 years in American Oak, ex-bourbon barrels. According to Murray’s latest bible, “you would be forgiven for thinking this was a 30 or even 35-year-old Speysider; almost a grassy maltiness melding into the light, exotic fruit and freshly chopped celery. Clean, delicate and elegant beyond words.

If someone asked me how I would like my 21-year-old non-peated malt to come to me, it would probably be something like this: a top of the range 40-year-old. Proof that the country in which a whisky is made is totally irrelevant. Great whisky is great whisky.”

At the World Whisky Awards last year, the New Zealand Whisky Collection’s Dunedin DoubleWood won the category for Best Australasian Blend, while it’s the second big gong for the South Island Single Malt, the first being the DoubleGold at the World Wine & Spirits Show in San Francisco.

The whisky is now exported from Oamaru and available across Canada, the UK, Australia and Europe.

ENDS

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