Root Shoot's American Single Malt Takes Spirit of the Year at the London Spirits Competition
There's a farm in Loveland, Colorado, sitting at the foot of the Rockies, where a fifth-generation family has been working the same land for over a century. For most of that time, the Olander family was known for growing grain. Now, the world knows them for something else entirely: making what judges at one of the most respected spirits competitions on the planet just declared the best whiskey in the world.
Image credit: Root Shoot Whiskey
Root Shoot Spirits' American Single Malt Whiskey didn't just win a category at the 2026 London Spirits Competition. It swept the floor. The Colorado-made spirit walked away with Spirit of the Year, Whisky of the Year, and American Single Malt Whiskey of the Year — a triple crown that almost never happens. Judges handed it an overall score of 97 out of 100. To put that in perspective, the London Spirits Competition receives several thousand entries from distilleries across the globe every year. Root Shoot beat all of them.
And if that wasn't enough, the same whiskey turned around and took home Double Gold at the American Craft Spirits Awards — one of only ten whiskies in the entire competition to earn that distinction.
From Seed to Bottle in 30 Miles
What makes Root Shoot Whiskey genuinely different from nearly everything else on the shelf isn't just the awards. It's how the whiskey is made, and where every ingredient comes from.
Most distilleries buy their grain from suppliers. Root Shoot grows its own. Every kernel that goes into Root Shoot Whiskey was planted and harvested on the Olander family farm in Loveland, Colorado. From there, it travels to Root Shoot Malting — the craft malthouse the family built on the same property — before making the short trip to the distillery. That entire journey, from field to finished bottle, covers roughly 30 miles.
Image credit: Root Shoot Whiskey
That kind of supply chain is almost unheard of in the American whiskey industry. Most large distilleries source ingredients from multiple states, sometimes multiple countries. Root Shoot is operating on a completely different philosophy — one rooted in the belief that where grain is grown, and how it's cared for, has a direct and measurable impact on what ends up in the glass.
Todd Olander, who farms the land and founded the spirits operation, put it plainly: "You can't recognize Root Shoot Whiskey without also acknowledging the power of Colorado agriculture — from the high altitude, to the soil, to the people working the land. This is a special place that produces special malts and whiskies. I can't think of better news to receive on Earth Day."
He announced the London Spirits Competition wins on April 22nd, Earth Day, which felt fitting for a man who built his distillery around the idea that agriculture and craft are inseparable.
What's Actually in the Bottle
Root Shoot Whiskey is a bottled-in-bond American Single Malt, coming in at 50% ABV and aged four years in American White Oak barrels. Those details matter. Bottled-in-bond is a legal designation that requires the spirit to be distilled at a single distillery, by a single distiller, during a single distillation season, then aged at least four years under federal oversight. It's a standard that dates back to 1897 and was originally created to protect consumers from adulterated spirits. Producers who earn it aren't cutting corners.
Image credit: Root Shoot Whiskey
The grain bill is built around Root Shoot Malting's own award-winning malts. The Munich 10 Malt is the cornerstone — it's earned gold at the Craft Maltsters Guild Malt Cup in 2023, 2024, and 2026, with a silver in 2025. CaraRuby malt contributed gold in 2026 and silver in 2025. The Distillers Malt rounded it out with gold in 2025 and silver in 2026. These aren't just ingredients — they're award-winning raw materials going into an award-winning finished product, which is a level of grain-to-glass pedigree that's genuinely rare.
The tasting experience Root Shoot describes starts in the nose, with aromas of fruit cobbler and honey granola — warm, approachable, and inviting. The first sip brings what the distillery calls "clean flavors of alpine florals," a nod to Colorado's high-altitude agricultural character. The finish stretches out long, moving through rich pastry notes, a whisper of cocoa dust, and a bright, slightly spicy warmth that sticks around.
It's a whiskey that tells a story in the glass — not through heavy oak tannins or aggressive proof, but through a kind of layered subtlety that reflects the craft put into every stage of production.
The Competition That Validated It All
The London Spirits Competition is not a regional American awards show. It draws entries from distilleries in dozens of countries, covering every major spirits category. What sets it apart from some other competitions is its evaluation criteria — judges score on quality, value for money, and packaging, reflecting how consumers actually make purchase decisions rather than how industry insiders assess technical perfection.
Image credit: Root Shoot Whiskey
Getting a 97 score at this competition is exceptional under any circumstances. Getting Spirit of the Year while also winning the top whisky category and the top American Single Malt category in the same competition is the kind of result that redefines a brand's trajectory.
The American Craft Spirits Awards adds a domestic layer of credibility to go with the international recognition. The ACSA exists specifically to champion small and independent producers, and its judges are tasked with finding spirits that stand out in a crowded craft market. Receiving Double Gold there — again, one of only ten whiskies to earn it — confirms that Root Shoot isn't just winning on the global stage. It's winning among serious American craft spirits judges who taste hundreds of entries and have no particular reason to favor a small Colorado farm operation over more established names.
What a Fifth-Generation Farm Brings to Whiskey
There's a version of this story that's easy to reduce to marketing language — local, craft, sustainable, farm-to-table. Root Shoot uses those ideas, but they're backed by something more substantial than branding.
Image credit: Root Shoot Whiskey
The Olander family has been farming this land long enough to understand its particular character — the soil composition, the altitude, the weather patterns that shape how barley grows in Northern Colorado. That knowledge doesn't transfer easily to a distillery that sources grain from a commodity supplier in the Midwest. It's the kind of accumulated, generational understanding of a place that only comes from being tied to that land for over a hundred years.
Root Shoot Malting, the malthouse side of the operation, has been building its own track record separately from the whiskey. It produces malts used by craft brewers and distillers across Colorado and beyond. Those malts have won at the Craft Maltsters Guild Malt Cup across multiple years and multiple categories. The fact that Root Shoot Whiskey is made from these same in-house malts means the distillery is starting with a foundation that's already been independently validated.
Root Shoot Malting is also working to protect the farmland itself through a conservation easement with Colorado Open Lands — a legal agreement that limits development on agricultural property in perpetuity. For a family that's been farming the same ground for five generations, that commitment suggests they're thinking about the next five generations as well.
Colorado's Place on the American Whiskey Map
American whiskey has long been dominated by Kentucky bourbon and Tennessee sour mash. The craft spirits movement of the last fifteen years has changed that picture considerably, with distilleries from New York to Washington state producing serious whiskey that's earned critical attention. But Colorado has emerged as one of the more interesting states in that landscape, and Root Shoot's London Spirits sweep adds significant weight to that argument.
Image credit: Root Shoot Whiskey
The state's high altitude, cold winters, and relatively dry growing conditions create agricultural inputs that are genuinely different from what producers in the South or Midwest are working with. Whether that translates directly into a distinctive character in the finished whiskey is a question distillers like the Olanders are in the best position to answer — and they've now got a 97-point score and three international titles to back their side of that argument.
Root Shoot Whiskey launched in August 2023, which means this is a relatively young operation achieving these results. A four-year-aged whiskey from a distillery that opened in the recent past suggests the Olanders were aging spirit before the public launch, building inventory the right way rather than rushing younger whiskey to market under commercial pressure.
Finding It
Root Shoot Whiskey is currently available throughout Colorado. The distillery maintains a Whiskey Finder tool on its website at rootshootspirits.com to help locate bottles on shelves across the state. For brewers and distillers looking to use Root Shoot Malting's award-winning malts in their own production, that operation can be found at rootshootmalting.com.
For anyone who takes American whiskey seriously — and particularly for those who've been watching the American Single Malt category develop into something genuinely distinct from Scotch and bourbon traditions — Root Shoot's sweep at the London Spirits Competition is the kind of result worth paying attention to. A 97 from international judges, Spirit of the Year, Whisky of the Year, American Single Malt Whiskey of the Year two years running, and Double Gold from the ACSA is not a fluke. It's a signal.
A family that's been farming the same Colorado land for five generations just made the world's best whiskey. And they did it with grain that traveled 30 miles from seed to bottle.
