A BORDERS distillery's newest addition has been awarded a prestigious whisky award.

The Borders Distillery's new-make spirit, WS:00 was awarded Best New-Make and Young Spirit in the Scotland round of the World Whiskies Awards.

WS:00 will now go on to compete against other global winners for the top spot at the Whisky Magazine Awards in London next month.

Director of The Borders Distillery John Fordyce said: “WS:00 is the building block of our gin, vodka and most importantly whisky, so to get this kind of recognition fills us with excitement that The Borders Distillery is on the right track for producing some top-quality spirit.

“We know that bartenders especially are using New Make more often in their serves; just a splash is enough, or even coating the glass in a light layer of the spirit can provide a hint of spice and excitement in a drink.”

WS:00 has a peppery, apple and pear character, with grassy and tropical fruit notes.

The World Whiskies Awards – run by Whisky Magazine – receive whisky entries from around the world across 16 categories.

Round one of the awards is a blind tasting judged by independent spirit experts.

Their scores decide a winner in each category and country and sees winners give gold, silver and bronze medals.

Country winners then compete in round two for the chance to be named as world's best in their category.

Bethany Brown, editor of Whisky Magazine, said: “The Whisky Magazine Awards is an opportunity for us to review the successes of the Scotch whisky industry over the past year, and the strong crop of entries to the World Whiskies Awards shows that producers are continuing to push themselves and their whiskies to new heights, in spite of ongoing challenges in the global marketplace.

"The awards also serve as a bellwether, highlighting movements or trends in the industry – in Scotland, the ever-more innovative methods being adopted to achieve sustainable production and distillers’ experiments with grain whisky could prove particularly interesting areas to watch.”

The Borders Distillery's WS:00 will compete in the global round of the World Whiskies Awards in London on Wednesday, March 20.

WS:00 (63.5 per cent ABV), which costs £50 for 70cl, can bought from The Borders Distillery website.