Bill and Wanda Lee have grown accustomed to winning awards for the small batches of rum, gin, vodka and absinthe they distill at their Gate 11 Distillery at the Chattanooga Choo Choo, but nothing like the Double Gold Medal they earned this week for their Gate 11 Dry Gin at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition.
The San Francisco World Spirits Competition is one of the world’s oldest and most prestigious spirits competitions. Over 3,800 spirits were judged by a panel of 30 international experts in a highly controlled blind tasting.
“We’ve won lots of awards at various competitions for all of our products,” Bill said, “but this is the big leagues.”
Wanda pointed out that to earn a double gold in the blind competition, each judge had to have given it a gold medal.
Before opening their small distillery two years ago, the Bill, a former chemist and research and development specialist, and Wanda, a former middle school teacher, spent three years perfecting their formulas for each batch.