More than 150 whiskies, three rounds of judging and there can be only six ... we reveal the winners. The quest is a theme often found in literature and when we set off on our whisky quest the task facing us was almost as difficult as the old Holy Grail quests. However who better to saddle up and announce the best whiskies of the world than the team at Whisky Magazine.

We assembled some of the best noses and experts in the business to form our independent Whisky Magazine panel. These were the brave souls who tackled the some 158 whiskies that initially entered the competition.

The categories are based on the five commonly held whisky groupings which define the style and process of whisky/whiskey production; malt whisky, blended whisky, blended malt whisky, American whiskey and whisky liqueurs. Where appropriate there were age sub-categories.

Chaired by Dave Broom, this annual selection of the very best proprietary whiskies evolved out of Best of the Best, the biannual tasting held since 2000.

The judging process started with the independent panel receiving samples at home and judging blind. This gave us the sub-category age winners, so 12 Years and Under, 13 to 20 Years, 21 plus and Vintage. These were then tasted by an invited panel spanning the whisky industry on the eve of Whisky Live London at the beginning of March.

This second round gave us the category winner. This edition's cover features all those winners.

For the final round, the responsibility of choosing the ‘World’s Best' was handed back to the Whisky Magazine panel, in a final blind tasting.

To say that the competition was tough would be an understatement. The debate is bound to rage over who has won what and why but we hope that you will celebrate the diversity of whiskies and congratulate the winners. It has to be said that given the quality of this year’s awards to get through to the second round, let alone the finals is a tremendous honour.