Cheers to the finalists in the second Sunday Times Lifestyle Gin Awards

The top four finalists of both the local and international categories of the second Sunday Times Lifestyle Gin Awards in partnership with Makro and Fitch & Leedes have been announced.

The awards celebrate the creators and retailers of locally and internationally crafted gins and variants.

This year's competition sees the number of international entries more than double from 13 to 30 entries since 2018. Similarly, entries increased from 74 to 80 in the local gin category in 2019.

It was down to the panel of judges, Louis Janse van Rensburg (aka The Bearded Gin Guy), Msizi James (5FM radio presenter), Amanda du Pont (actress, model, TV presenter), and Tiso Blackstar's magazine supplement publisher, Aspasia Karras, to decide which four products in each category would be shortlisted for public tasting.

The finalists in the international gin category are:

• Beefeater (James Burrough Ltd)
• Drumshanbo Gunpowder Irish Gin (The Shed Distillery)
• No 3 London Dry Gin (Berry Bros & Rudd)
• Roku Japanese Gin (Osaka Distillery)

The finalists in the local gin category are:

• Geometric Gin (Geometric Drinks) 
• Ginifer Joburg Dry Gin (Angel Heart Distillery)
• Monks Mysterium (Monks Distillery)
• The Prospector (Unit 34 Distilling Company)

The shortlisted finalists will be showcased at blind-tasting events to be held at the following Makro stores on Saturday October 26 2019, where consumers will be able to  taste and vote for their favourites:

• Woodmead Makro 
• Strubens Valley Makro
• Silver Lakes Makro 
• Cornubia Makro 
• Montague Gardens Makro. 

The winner in each category will be awarded a trophy, along with R250,000 worth of advertising space in the Sunday Times, ST Lifestyle, and Sowetan – reaching more than 2.1m South African readers.

All the finalists will be invited to an awards event that will be held in Cape Town on November 8 2019.