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The best alcohol brands in the 2023 Finder Retail Awards
Australia's favourite alcohol brands for 2023, as determined by real Aussies.
The Finder Retail Awards recognises Australia's favourite brands across more than 100 retail and product categories. We surveyed thousands of real Australians to understand how they feel about their recent product purchases and used that information to reward the most popular brands.
These are the winners in the alcohol category for 2023.
Best-rated beer brand: Great Northern Brewing
Australia has a great variety of strong breweries, but Great Northern Brewing has come out on top for this year's Finder Award for best beer. Great Northern Brewing outscored more than 40 other beer brands to take out the top gong with customers praising its taste and value for money. A massive 98% of surveyed Australians recommend the brand.
Finalists
Carlton
Hahn
Best-rated bourbon brand: Jim Beam
Kentucky has a long, storied history with bourbon so it's no surprise to see Jim Beam from Bullitt County taking home the Finder Award for best bourbon brand in 2023. Jim Beam beat the competition for taste and product range with 93% of surveyed customers giving it the thumbs up.
Finalists
Maker's Mark
Woodford
Best-rated gin brand: Never Never
In a surprise result, Australians have rated Never Never the best gin in Australia, beating out a brace of famous international brands including Hendricks, Tanqueray, Gordon's and Bombay Sapphire. Recommended by 97% of respondents and with the highest taste rating of qualified brands, Never Never was the clear winner.
Finalists
Bombay Sapphire
Darby-Norris Distillery
Best-rated rum brand: Cubaney
Cubaney has been named this year's best rum brand at the 2023 Finder Retail Awards. Recommended by 88% of surveyed Aussies, Cubaney scored well across all metrics including taste, product range and value for money.
Finalists
Bundaberg
Sailor Jerry
Best-rated tequila brand: Del Maguey
For the finest tequila, look no further than Del Maguey. It won the 2023 Finder Award for best tequila brand, scoring impressively high for taste and value for money. 94% of customers we surveyed recommended this brand of tequila.
Smirnoff edged out its chief competitor Absolut to claim the prize of best-rated vodka brand in Australia. It received the highest score for its extensive product range and was recommended by 91% of customers we surveyed. Salut!
Finalists
Absolut
Belvedere
Best-rated whisky brand: Laphroaig
Laphroaig received more ticks of approval than any other whisky brand in our survey, making it this year's Finder Award winner. With solid scoring across all areas and an overall recommendation rating of 94%.
The Finder Retail Awards recognises brand sentiment from customer feedback on different retail product categories. Finder worked with data and insights company Dynata to conduct thousands of customer interviews regarding their product purchasing history and satisfaction with their purchased products.
Disclaimer: Please refer to our methodology for more information about how we scored and judged Finder Retail Awards candidates. While we endeavour to assess the majority of product providers in the market, this is not always possible and it may be that not every brand in the market was included for judging.
Chris Jager is the editorial lead for shopping at Finder. With over 16 years of experience as a full-time journalist, Chris has provided expertise to many leading technology publications, including PC World, Australian Gamepro, Good Gear Guide, ARN, IT News, PC Authority, CRN, GameSpy, Gizmodo, Business Insider, MSN, Kotaku, Lifehacker Australia, Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.
Before joining Finder, Chris was the editor of Lifehacker Australia for 5 years. He has a Bachelor of Communications in Journalism from the University of Western Sydney. Outside of Finder, you'll find him playing with retro '80s computers while juggling 3 TikTok-obsessed daughters.
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