Why the OSWA’s are important – my 2 cents

Saturday last the first ever OSWA’s were revealed. In case this means absolutely nothing to you, OSWA is the abbreviation for Online Scotch Whisky Awards – a project masterminded by Ralfy and Roy from Aqvavitae. What it comes down to is this: Whisky awards by and for the online whisky community. Ralfy and Roy reached out to over 20 other YouTube channels, all covering whisky, asking them about their favourite whisky in 8 categories. The answers were then processed and a shortlist of 6 nominations in each category was made public on the OSWA website for everyone to vote for, with the added option to put forward one’s own favourite regardless of the 6 nominations.

This is rather significant, for several reasons, and I’ll try my best explaining why that is, and also why those who criticise things are either ‘wrong’ or missing the point. And just to be clear, I’m not trying to defend Roy or Ralfy here, nor am I trying to fight their battles, as they are perfectly capable of doing so themselves, with far greater impact.

First off all: why are the OSWA’s important? It may seem surprising, but I generally don’t like awards, as a concept. Frankly I find the concept of electing one song, movie, TV show, book, car… as ‘the best’ of the lot rather absurd. Music, or cinema, or literature, or any other form of art or craft isn’t a competition, nor should it be. That said, I understand why they exist and I can get behind the idea of an award show being a celebration of certain craftsmanship. But all too often it’s either a rather self-indulgent, navel-gazing phenomenon celebrating and feeding ego’s more than anything, or just a large scale marketing scam, what a lot of of spirit and drinks awards essentially are. Sometimes they are both. And yet, I immediately clicked with the idea of the OSWA’s. Why?

Simply put: because it’s the first awards on such a scale that celebrates those whiskies that we, the ONLINE SCOTCH WHISKY community (names and titles are relevant, I don’t care what some 16th century playwright says), love to see. If you look at the whiskies that made the shortlists, there is a clear pattern across the board: integrity whiskies (as Ralfy likes to call them) dominate each and every category. Naturally presented, unchillfiltered, higher ABV whiskies. That alone is a clear and strong message that’s being sent. Obviously, there are or have been awards in the past that are run independently from the industry, prime example being probably the Malt Maniacs Awards, but to my knowledge there is not one other whisky award out there that is so focussed on the community aspect as the OSWA’s. Nor is there one out there where so many people get to have their say about which whiskies win it. Over 3000 people put in their votes, which is pretty astonishing. It may not appear like that if you look at the subscription numbers of some of the channels, but consider the fact that not all of these channels are primarily focussing on scotch whisky, while the awards are, far and large, scotch whisky orientated. Also bear in mind the overlap in subscriptions on multiple channels and the fact that the vast majority of subscribers are often ‘casual’ followers, making the +3K voters look not too shabby at all. Not only that, Roy also set up the form in such a way that voters were asked to define themselves on the ‘whisky scale’: from casual drinker to downright anorak, from scotch whisky puritan to promiscuous lover of everything whisky and whiskey. The vast majority of those who voted are indeed mainly, and strongly, focussed on scotch single malt whisky. Allow me a small analogy here, even if it’s got its flaws: how many independently run events do you know that can boast 3000 participants on their first ever edition?

If you stick your neck up, obviously you’re bound to catch some wind. The OSWA’ s are no exception. Looking at the awards as a concept, and more specifically the different categories, there were several points of criticism. I’m not even bothering about those saying the ‘grain category’ was too broad, or that there should be a separate bourbon category, as both Roy and Ralfy have addressed those comments on several recent vlogs on their respective channels. There are, however, one or two remarks/complaints I’d like to get deeper into. One of them was that people didn’t agree with the nominations, feeling some whiskies were overlooked, whereas others should perhaps not even be on those lists. Another point made was that in a few categories the same brand or distillery was represented more than once. A number of people feel that it should have been limited to one distillery or brand in a category. Both points are, in my opinion, missing the bigger picture here. For starters, limiting the allowed entries to one distillery/brand in any given category is nonsense. It’s a bit like telling ‘The Godfather’ that as they’ve been nominated in the best film category, they can’t be in the best script or best actor category as well. If several expressions from the same distillery get put forward in the same category, that’s telling us something and ‘tampering’ with it would be doing exactly the opposite of what the OSWA’s are all about. I’m sorry, but you simply can’t have a community driven award and then complain about the results put forward by the channels representing that same community. There’d be little point to the whole thing otherwise, wouldn’t it?

Furthermore, rather than complaining about the whiskies on the list, or not on the list, we should embrace and celebrate the fact that there even is a list. A list compiled by the community, for the community and decided on by the community. I’ll take it one step further: the list of nominees and even the winners are (almost) of secondary importance. Well, it’s an award, so deciding on winners is pretty much what the whole thing is all about, but bear with me for a moment. What’s important here, really important, is the fact that there is – finally- an award out there that we, as whisky enthusiasts, can get behind, rather than having to roll our eyes on seeing yet another press release stating that a 3 year old supermarket blend was voted ‘best whisky in the world’. Because we know it’s not a marketing trick, the fancy shining award hasn’t been paid for by industry people, and that at least in the case of the OSWA’s we can be sure that there isn’t a ‘best blended whisky aged for 5 years or less under £15 released by a German supermarket chain not beginning with a vowel’ category to begin with.

What matters is that the whisky community, generally speaking a bunch of well informed, passionate and caring group of enthusiasts, now has a tool that gets noticed by to those making and producing whisky. It’s important for us to have a megaphone shouting at the industry that if they want to connect and engage with us, they may want to follow the example of those whiskies that were nominated. And 3000 people using their voice to do just that is a pretty decent start I reckon. In an ideal world it’ll be 10,000 people next year, and 30,000 a few years on. Because the more people commit to voting in an award like the OSWA’s, the stronger the message sent to distilleries, and their marketing departments.

I’d like to believe that those criticizing or even complaining, are doing so because they care and feel passionate about whisky and our community. I’m hoping (and counting on it, in fact) that they won’t abstain from getting involved because they don’t agree with the nominations, or worse: because they don’t connect with Roy and/or Ralfy as the faces of the whole thing. We don’t need to agree on every whisky on every list, and we certainly don’t need to agree on all the winners, but we do need to see the value and merit of the thing behind it.

So let the thing have its little growing pains and imperfections – it’ll work itself out; don’t fuss about the fact that Kilkerran didn’t get nominated, or Redbreast was nominated twice in the best world whisky category, or that Compass Box was all over the blended scotch category (yet didn’t win). These are of minor importance in the greater scheme of things and were often rectified by the ‘people’s choice’ option in any case. What we should be doing instead, is celebrating the fact that 22 channels almost immediately jumped on board when Ralfy and Roy approached them. If you ever needed proof that the whisky community is an inclusive thing rather than channels competing for views and subscribers: here it is. The fact that several other channels felt left-out, something I feel will be set right in future editions, only goes to show how passionate, engaged and opinionated we all are when it comes to our beloved dram.