Chattanooga's Gate 11 Distillery and their signature gin have been awarded a Platinum Medal win at the 2025 SIP Awards, one of only three gins in the United States and eight worldwide to earn the competition’s highest honor this year.
The SIP Awards stands apart as the only internationally recognized consumer judging spirits competition. Catering to the opinions and palates of the discerning public, the SIP Awards presents a unique, spirit judging competition, unaffected by industry bias.
"Winning a SIP Awards has become synonymous with elite quality as judged by the selective tastes of the consumer," said SIP founder Pouya Hashemi. "There is no better salute to superior quality and fine spirits than winning the consumer panel’s vote in a completely blind tasting."
The Gate 11 founders and master distillers experimented for three years to define the exact blend of nine botanicals for their refreshingly elegant gin. They even included Orris (Latin for Iris) root as a tribute to the Tennessee state flower.
Gate 11 Gin delivers a complex and subtle balance between floral and herbaceous, citric and earthy notes. Distilled in small 7-liter batches for quality control, their gin distillates are carefully collected in an ice bath receiver before being bottled, to capture all the nuance of our botanical blend.
Gate 11’s spirits have also won big at other prestigious international competitions including Gold at the UK Gin Masters and Double Gold at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition. Only one other US gin has repeated at this level at the SFWSC making Gate 11 Dry Gin objectively one of the very best gins in the US.
This milestone award marks a major step forward for founders Bill and Wanda Lee and their vision to grow Gate Eleven’s presence throughout the Southeast, introducing more people to the brand’s high-quality, small-batch spirits that celebrate the region’s deep roots in craft and hospitality.
Gate 11 Distillery is located in the historic Choo Choo terminal building on Market St. in the Southside. Learn more about them at gate11distillery.com.