There's a distillery sitting at the foot of the Rockies that most bourbon drinkers outside of Colorado probably haven't heard of yet. That's about to change.
Branch & Barrel Distilling, based in Centennial, Colorado, just walked away from the Denver International Spirits Competition with two medals — a Double Gold for its Wheated Bourbon and a Gold for its High Rye Bourbon. The Wheated Bourbon scored 96 points. The High Rye came in at 91. Those aren't participation numbers. Those are the kinds of scores that make serious whiskey people pay attention.
But this wasn't some overnight breakthrough. Branch & Barrel has been building toward this moment for nearly two decades.
From Branches to Barrels — A Backstory Worth Knowing
The distillery's origin isn't the typical startup story. Branch & Barrel traces its roots back to the late 2000s, when the people behind it were still experimenting — aging spirits on actual branches, not barrels, trying to figure out what Colorado could do for whiskey that nowhere else could. That kind of curiosity-driven approach isn't something you can manufacture. It either lives in a distillery's DNA or it doesn't.
By 2016, they had moved from experiments to a fully operating distillery. The branches gave way to barrels, but the mindset never shifted.
"We got our start aging spirits on branches during our experimental days in the late 2000s," said Mitchell Nester, Branch & Barrel's Master Blender. "By the time we opened our distillery in 2016, we had moved on to using barrels, but even today, our mindset hasn't changed. We still honor an authentic and hands-on approach as we've grown. We focus on designing equipment and processes intentionally, leaning into the Colorado environment."
That last part — leaning into the Colorado environment — is the key to understanding what separates Branch & Barrel from distilleries operating in more traditional whiskey country.
Why Colorado Changes Everything About Bourbon
Most bourbon conversations start and end in Kentucky. That makes sense historically, but it's increasingly an incomplete picture of what American whiskey looks like today. Colorado, in particular, has something going for it that no amount of heritage can replicate: geography.
The high elevation and dry climate of Colorado affect how barrels breathe. The temperature swings are more dramatic. The air is thinner. The seasons do different things to wood and spirit than they do at lower altitudes along the Ohio River Valley. It's not better or worse than Kentucky — it's genuinely different, and in the hands of a distillery that understands how to use those conditions, the results speak for themselves.
Branch & Barrel isn't just distilling in Colorado because that's where the founders happened to live. The entire operation is built around the state. The grain is Colorado-sourced. The water is Colorado water. The distillery grew out of, as the company describes it, land ownership, water rights, and long-standing grain relationships with families who have been in the state for generations. That level of vertical integration and local commitment is rare in any industry, let alone one as capital-intensive as distilling.
The Wheated Bourbon: A Case Study in Restraint and Reward
Image credit: Branch & Barrel
Branch & Barrel's Wheated Bourbon is the flagship, and the medal history around this bottle is starting to get genuinely impressive.
Start with the most recent: Double Gold at the Denver International Spirits Competition, with a score of 96 points. Before that, a Gold medal at the 2025 London International Spirits Competition, where it ranked as the second-best scoring bourbon in the world — not in Colorado, not in the American West, but globally. It also earned Double Gold at the 2024 International Wine and Spirits Competition, Double Gold at the 2024 America's Best Spirits Competition where judges named it the "Best Wheated Bourbon of the Rockies," and a Gold at the 2025 Bartender Spirits Awards.
That's a sweep across multiple years and multiple continents.
The bourbon itself is a three-grain whiskey made entirely with Colorado grain and water. On the nose and palate, it delivers milk chocolate, honeyed red berries, cashew, and caramel cream, with a finish that swings into marshmallow territory with a banana brûlée character. For wheated bourbon drinkers who appreciate something that's complex without being aggressive, this bottle checks every box. It's the kind of pour that doesn't need explaining — it just needs a glass.
The High Rye: Limited, But Worth Tracking Down
Image credit: Branch & Barrel
While the Wheated Bourbon is the one drawing the loudest praise, Branch & Barrel's High Rye Bourbon earned its own Gold medal at this year's Denver competition with a score of 91 points, and it deserves its own conversation.
This is a limited release. It's a three-grain rye whiskey built around San Luis Valley Rye, sourced from one of Colorado's most productive agricultural regions. It has spent five years in oak barrels — enough time to develop real depth without burying the rye character that makes the spirit interesting in the first place.
The flavor profile is layered. Spiced walnut leads, followed by lemongrass, cocktail cherry, and lemon custard. It's described as soft-drinking and approachable, which for a high-rye expression is a meaningful distinction. Rye whiskies can veer into sharp, aggressive territory. This one doesn't. That balance, achieved over five years of careful aging at altitude, reflects exactly the kind of intentional process that Nester and the Branch & Barrel team have been refining since those early experimental days.
Because it's a limited release, finding a bottle requires some effort. That's part of what makes it worth finding.
Colorado Whiskey Is Having Its Moment
Branch & Barrel isn't operating in a vacuum. Colorado's craft spirits scene has been growing steadily, and the state is starting to develop a recognizable identity in the national whiskey conversation. The elevation, the agricultural resources, the dry climate — these are consistent threads running through what the best Colorado distilleries are producing.
But awards matter in this industry, not because they tell a drinker exactly what to like, but because they signal that trained, experienced palates from outside the local market are finding something worth noticing. When a Colorado bourbon places second in the world at the London International Spirits Competition, it's hard to dismiss that as regional cheerleading.
Branch & Barrel is making a case — with medals, with scores, and with a backstory that's genuinely earned — that Colorado bourbon belongs in the same conversation as anything coming out of more established whiskey states.
Where to Find It
Branch & Barrel's bottles are available at craft spirits retailers across Colorado. For those who want the full experience, the distillery operates a Tasting Room in Centennial where visitors can try the lineup firsthand. More information, including a bottle finder, is available at babdistilling.com.
For anyone who has been sleeping on Colorado whiskey, Branch & Barrel is a compelling reason to wake up.
