How Spirits Competitions Really Work: IWSC’s U.S. Plan to Curb Bias, Create Revenue, and Wash 10,000 Glasses

Bronze. Double Gold. Double Platinum. In the world of spirits awards, it’s tough for consumers to make sense of the accolades on a bottle. It’s difficult enough to differentiate one medal from the next, let alone among different competitions.

Whether competitions purposefully or incidentally seem like walled gardens is up for debate. Some organizations may prefer to work in relative obscurity and out of public view. They’re businesses, after all, whose clients are the spirits brands who pay to enter, not the average consumer. (More on that later.)

These days, some prolific spirits judges cross over into the influencer realm. Several boast large social media followings, and their Instagram Reels and Stories are often the closest most get to seeing how the sausage is made. What’s clear is there’s simply more incentive for brands to market their earned accolades rather than the inner workings of the competitions that bestowed them.

That dearth of info may soon shrink. One of the world’s largest spirits competitions — International Wine & Spirit Competition (IWSC) — recently announced an expansion into North America. Beginning in 2024, IWSC North American will take place in Bardstown, Kentucky, in the days leading up to the annual Kentucky Bourbon Festival. (The inaugural event will focus on whiskey and the burgeoning RTD category.)

Breaking out the competition into a new continent means a new managing team, and with it, a chance to pull back the veil on how their awards actually work. We sat down with Nate Gana, a Vancouver-based spirits judge leading business development on the IWSC’s expansion into North America.

Gana walked us through IWSC North America’s upcoming goals, challenges, and paths to profitability. He also detailed some of the competition’s plans to curb judge bias — and explained why a Bronze medal might not be something brands should rush to celebrate.

Drinkhacker: Tell us about the expansion of IWSC to a North American-specific competition.

Nate Gana: The IWSC is by far the most respected spirits competition in the world. It takes place in London over a two week period, and every spirit comes out to be judged by the world’s best judges, all the way from Italy and South Africa to the United States. It’s truly a most unique endeavor, and also one of the most well-respected competitions because of the caliber of judge that come out. A lot of other competitions feel the need to hand out Gold and Double Gold, and you know what? That’s cool, and good for you. This is a little different. I think this really puts your spirits up to see if you’re actually producing quality or not.

This is one of those things where you’ve got so few products reaching such elite status, that really gives you a good gauge as to what you’re creating and if it’s actually a viable product, rather than receiving something for the sake of receiving something.

Drinkhacker: Why bring it to the U.S. if it was already the world’s most prestigious competition? Everything seemed to be going fine.

Nate Gana: A lot of the reasons actually stem from logistics. With COVID happening and brands actually being able to ship their products from America to the UK, we noticed that quite a few products were getting held up. You’re now avoiding taxes, duties, tariffs, and wait times by having this competition be based in Kentucky. When you base this competition in the States, getting your product into the state is much easier than getting it into another country. A lot of the companies in this competition are creating their products in Kentucky anyway. So it was just a nice idea to have a logistical nightmare become something that people wanted to do, and to bring out more brands to compete and really see what they can do in this particular field.

Drinkhacker: Let’s talk about how this new expansion started. Did you approach IWSC, or did they approach you initially for this idea?

Nate Gana: It was actually a mutual idea. It was a two-parter. I was invited to judge in London last year, in March of 2023. And that was to see if I was a right fit for the team. And once we determined the fit really was there, after the week I had judged, it really just became evident that I was the person to bring this to the U.S.

Drinkhacker: How are you monetizing this? And if you can, take us through some of the costs you’re anticipating to actually run this event in Kentucky in September.

Nate Gana: A lot of competitions are quite expensive when you enter them. I think we are at a very fair price point, but also we offer a discount on multiple products. If a distillery has three or four or more, you do wind up getting a discount on what you’re entering. From a cost perspective, competitions can be very costly. We have been very fortunate to have Bardstown Bourbon Company generously host the competition this year. This is also a really difficult task because you need to have ample dishwasher space to clean upwards of 5,000 to 10,000 glasses over five days, which not a lot of people think about. That can be a logistical nightmare. Another aspect is transportation for all 17 U.S. Judges and six United Kingdom judges. You’ve got transportation, you’ve got lodging, you’ve got food costs, you’ve got every sort of thing like that.

You pay the judges daily to ensure they are happy and that they’re being paid for their quality and their time of work. There are a lot of costs associated with bringing something like this to town, but the rewards for everybody in the industry are plentiful.

I think more American judges is a really good thing here because there is a vast difference between Scotch and bourbon, and a lot of the palates that we have from the American judges are very geared towards bourbon and rye and American whiskey. I think it will add a lot of credence to the judging caliber for what you’re getting from an American side.

Drinkhacker: How much are brands paying per entry, before those discounts?

Nate Gana: Brands are paying per entry, and there might be discounts associated with that to get their products into the competition. The fee is $360 per entry before those discounts. But here’s the reason I feel like competitions are so prevalent nowadays. When you win a very prestigious award in a competition, it is almost impossible not to reap the marketing rewards from that many times over. If you’re placing that high in competitions, or if you’re winning best in show, or you’re winning world’s best whiskey, outlets have no choice but to pick you up and talk about you’re doing as among the very best spirits in the world.

If you’re hitting a Gold or a Double Gold, or into world’s best, you wind up making your money back, I would say fifty to a hundred fold depending upon how many outlets pick you up. This is also very important to note because there are a lot of small distilleries out there that cannot afford a $50,000 marketing budget. They’re judged along with the companies that can afford that. This gets you on a level playing field with all those other companies out there that have the budgets to do this. You might be an amazing producer and just not have the material resources financially to get your product out there into shelves. This is a way that happens quite quickly, and in quite a spectacular fashion, because you’re being judged by so many of your peers. And if you’re creating some of the best in the world, it’s going to get out there no matter what.

Drinkhacker: You also have sponsors for the competition. It’s a 100 percent blind competition, but bias could still be a concern. How is the integrity of the competition maintained given that additional monetization structure?

Nate Gana: We do have a lot of good sponsors, including a lot of distillery sponsors that are coming on board. Every night we’ve got something going on for the judges. We’ve got judge dinners, or we’ve got distillery tours, or tours of different things in Kentucky that are sponsored by certain distilleries.

However, when it comes to the judging, we have removed anybody that will be a creator, so to speak. If a brand is entering some of their skus, an individual who works for that brand will specifically not be judging skus they have entered. That’s a very important point to this competition. You can’t be judging what you’re creating.

So some of our judges are from some of the brands, but they will not be on those particular panels with their whiskeys on them. A very important point to note is that Bardstown Bourbon Company is our host, and they produce whiskeys for over 50 companies. So there’s not going to be any misconception as to the fact that just because Bardstown Bourbon is a brand, they’re also a large producer and manufacturer for so many other brands. In Scotch whisky, if you were to host this at one distillery, that would be very different than if you were to be hosting at a bourbon distillery because they’re producing for so many other producers.

Drinkhacker: What hurdles do you anticipate having to overcome in the competition’s first year?

Nate Gana: I do anticipate hurdles, including folks understanding there are now two IWSC competitions. The main hurdle we’ve been facing is that people are wondering if they should enter the London competition, or this one. However, it’s not possible to enter both anymore. You are being judged based solely now in the U.S. if you are an American or Canadian spirit. That’s been the biggest hurdle so far, explaining that the competition hasn’t changed, just expanded to specifically focus on American and Canadian spirits.

Drinkhacker: What do you wish more consumers understood about spirits judging?

Nate Gana: I do wish that people understood that receiving a Bronze medal probably does mean that you should improve the quality of what you’re producing. I think a lot of people have a misconception that a Bronze is a good medal. A Bronze is not something that you’d want to be particularly proud of, just being completely candid. That is in competitions across the board, not just ours. If you are in front of those judges and you’re producing something at a Bronze level, that’s quite a low quality. And I do believe that you can improve upon that and create a better spirit and move it forward into a Silver or even possibly a Gold. That would tell you that you’re doing something right if you are improving on a Bronze.

Drinkhacker: How do you see the North American version of this competition growing in subsequent years?

Nate Gana: Once we have proven this model out for the first year, we are expanding into Mexican spirits as well. And that’s going to be huge, to be able to have agave spirits and also Mexican whisky in the next year’s competition. Being able to have North American judging on North American soil is quite crucial. I do believe the same thing applies to Mexican spirits being shipped across the pond. But this is our first year, and we didn’t want to bite off more than we could chew.

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