Two Suntory-owned brands complete the podium in Drinks International’s annual top 50 list, with The Yamazaki taking second-place for the third year in a row while Hibiki makes its debut in the top three.

The Most Admired Scotch Whisky was awarded to the fourth-placed, Islay favourite Ardbeg, while Redbreast was the highest-ranking Irish whiskey at 19th on the list.

“It’s literally a dream to have Michter’s recognised as the World’s Most Admired Whiskey,” said Matt Magliocco, executive vice president at Michter’s Distillery.

“There are so many outstanding distilleries around the world with so many talented people making excellent whiskey. At Michter’s, we wake up every morning trying to make the highest quality American whiskey – and we’re always asking ourselves what we can improve and where we can do better.

“It’s extremely humbling to be acknowledged by our peers across the industry when there are countless people doing such inspiring work and creating phenomenal products. We take this amazing accolade as a challenge to level up and try to push ourselves further. We could not be more grateful to everyone for their recognition and support.”

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Having initially launched in 2021, The World’s Most Admired Whiskies was established to determine the trade’s 50 most revered brands from across the planet.

To create the list, Drinks International formed a voting Academy of independent whisky experts from across the world to give their 10 most admired brands based on quality and consistency, price-to-quality ratio and the strength of branding and marketing.

Drinks International worked hard to ensure the Academy has a healthy balance of gender and international representation to give an accurate reflection of the global trade.

“Michter's ticks all the boxes when it comes to being an Admired Whiskey brand. It honours traditional practice while pushing innovation, it has provenance without being old-fashioned, and its whiskey is exclusive but available in all the right places.

"Over the past 30 years Joe and Matt Magliocco and the whole Michter's family have built a powerful reputation with the global bar trade, while the quality of its whiskey is revered by the industry's top experts,” said supplement and Drinks International editor, Shay Waterworth.

"To top our ranking once was an impressive achievement, but to do it three times on the bounce is unparalleled, and something I doubt we'll see again for some time."

The full list is available to read here.