Whisky & Alement’s Kimi Kim has been named Australia’s Malt Whisky Tasting Champion for 2025.
The bi-annual Australian Malt Whisky Tasting Championship was held in Melbourne for the first time in its 36-year history on July 19, at the Grand Hyatt Hotel.
Hosted by The Scotch Malt Whisky Society, the competition attracted participants from almost every state in Australia.
The Scotch Malt Whisky Society began in 1983 when a group of friends Edinburgh all purchased a single cask of malt whisky from a Speyside distillery and shared it among themselves. This was followed by many more cask purchases as the syndicate
grew larger. Today, the society has more than 40,000 members around the world with branches in more than 30 countries. It bottles over 500 single casks a year for its members from more than 165 distilleries.
Each guest was seated in front of eight whiskies and had 30 minutes to taste through and match them to an answer
sheet containing nine whiskies — one of which was a red herring.
The 2025 competition saw several high scorers, with 11 people heading to the taste-off round (three whiskies poured, six listed, five minutes, all peated), several of which vied for fourth place.
Kimi Kim took out first place with a perfect 8/8 score in the initial round, 2/3 in the taste-offs, and 1/1 for the final taste-
offs. She was awarded the first-place trophy and a bottle of SMWS Cask 72.121 All the right steps, a 40-year-old single-cask, cask-strength Speyside whisky.
“I fell in love with whisky five years ago and that was the end of the six years of my career in the fashion industry,” Kim told The Scotch Malt Whisky Society.
“The part I enjoy the most is that the more you know about it, the more you enjoy and appreciate it. The past, present and future of the whisky scene is always exciting. Its diverse depth in flavour is what got me to fall in love with it.”
Jayden Taylor came in at second place, having gone head-to-head with Kim in the final taste-offs, while Darian Naidoo was a clear third-place winner and Ryan Sweeney claimed fourth place.
When the tasting was over, an afterparty kicked off in The Residence with pop-up bars hosted by sponsors Monkey Shoulder and The Glendronach, with Starward pre-batched cocktails also being poured at the Grand Hyatt bar.
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