Judging for the spirits section of the International Wine & Spirits Competition will begin in early July.
The IWSC says that with lockdown restrictions easing in the UK and the format of tasting sessions being small groups and high frequency, spirits judging can begin at their headquarters in July 13.
The sessions will be run over three weeks, with two – rather than the usual three – panels per day to ensure that social distancing can be maintained.
The results from these judging sessions will be announced in early August, enabling producers to market these results by the time the market hopefully returns to some sort of normality.
The Scotch whisky judging sessions, meanwhile, will be held a little later, and in Scotland this year, with IWSC staff travelling up in early September to host the tastings.
As a result, the delivery deadline for the Scotch whisky category has been extended to August, and all whisky results will be announced in mid-September (including the non-Scotch whiskies, which will be judged with the other spirits at the July sessions).
Updated timeline:
Entry deadline: 8 June 2020 (August for Scotch whisky)
Delivery deadline: 15 June 2020 (7 August for Scotch whisky)
Spirits judging: From 13 July (early-September for Scotch whisky)
Results release: Early August (mid-September for all whiskies)
Click here for entry details.
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