There are plenty of ways to judge a gin. Ultimately, the most important one is whether you enjoy drinking it.
But when choosing among hundreds of bottles, an award can provide useful reassurance. It tells us that a gin has been put in front of professionals who taste a great many spirits and that, on that occasion, it stood out.
That is why we enter Smeaton’s Bristol Method Dry Gin in spirits competitions.
The San Francisco World Spirits Competition result in 2021 was particularly gratifying. Smeaton’s Bristol Method Dry Gin was awarded Double Gold - a distinction given when every judge on the relevant panel awards the spirit a Gold rating.
The people doing the judging matter, too. Among the judges was Desmond Payne MBE, one of the most experienced figures in modern gin. Payne’s career in gin began in the 1960s and included three decades at the helm of Beefeater. He created Beefeater 24 and received Lifetime Achievement Awards from both The Gin Guild and the International Wine & Spirit Competition. In 2018, he was awarded an MBE for services to the UK gin industry.
Also on the panel was Charles Maxwell, founder of Thames Distillers, whose family has been involved in distilling since the seventeenth century. Maxwell himself is one of the most experienced names in contemporary gin distilling and has been closely involved in the development of many modern gins.
And they were not judging Smeaton’s alone. The 2021 San Francisco panel brought together experienced figures from across the spirits industry. Smeaton’s received Gold from every judge. That is what makes Double Gold meaningful to us. Awards are not a substitute for personal taste, nor should one competition be regarded as having the final word on what makes a great gin. Different competitions bring together different judges and perspectives. For a producer, entering several competitions provides the opportunity to have a spirit assessed independently in different settings. For a consumer, repeated recognition is reassuring: it suggests that the quality is not simply the result of one particularly favourable tasting.
The San Francisco result sits within a broader record of Gold and Trophy recognition. Smeaton’s has received Gold at the International Spirits Challenge and The Gin Masters in 2018; a Trophy and Gold at the International Spirits Challenge and Global Gin Masters respectively in 2019; Gold at the International Spirits Challenge and Double Gold at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition in 2021; Gold at the European Spirits Challenge and Bartender Spirits Awards in 2022; and Gold again at both the International Spirits Challenge and Global Gin Masters in 2025. The medals themselves, however, are not really the point. The point is that Smeaton’s has repeatedly been tasted, judged and recognised by people who know spirits. And, in San Francisco in 2021, every single member of the panel thought it worthy of Gold.
For a gin recreating an 1870s Bristol recipe, using a method that individually distils its fresh botanicals according to season, that was a particularly gratifying endorsement.
Sometimes, the people doing the judging matter almost as much as the medal.
Awards at a glance
2018 — International Spirits Challenge — Gold
2018 — The Gin Masters — Gold
2019 — International Spirits Challenge — Trophy
2019 — Global Gin Masters — Gold
2021 — International Spirits Challenge — Gold
2021 — San Francisco World Spirits Competition — Double Gold
2022 — European Spirits Challenge — Gold
2022 — Bartender Spirits Awards — Gold
2025 — International Spirits Challenge — Gold
2025 — Global Gin Masters — Gold
European Spirits Challenge 2022 Gold Medal, awarded to Smeaton’s Bristol Method Dry Gin.
