There's a reason more bourbon drinkers are looking past Kentucky these days, and a distillery out of Centennial, Colorado just gave everyone another reason to pay attention. Branch & Barrel Distilling walked away with four medals from the Bartenders Spirits Awards and two more from the SIP Awards, adding to a pile of wins that's starting to look less like luck and more like a pattern.
For anyone who's spent years assuming bourbon only comes from one part of the country, this is the kind of news that should make you rethink that. Colorado's high elevation, its wild swings in climate, and mountain water most people never think twice about are turning out to be exactly what makes a bourbon taste different. Not gimmicky-different. Actually better.
What Branch & Barrel Just Won
Let's start with the hardware, because it's substantial for a distillery that's still relatively young compared to the big legacy names.
At the Bartenders Spirits Awards, the ones judged by industry professionals who taste spirits for a living, Branch & Barrel picked up gold medals for two products: their Cherry Port and their High Rye Bourbon. They also earned silver medals for their Wheated Bourbon and their 3-year Colorado Straight Bourbon. That's four medals in one competition, which is no small feat when you consider how many distilleries are out there submitting their best work hoping for recognition.
Then there's the SIP Awards, a competition that works differently. Instead of industry insiders doing the judging, it's regular consumers, everyday people with real opinions and real palates, deciding what deserves recognition. It's billed as the only internationally recognized spirits competition judged this way, which means the results reflect what people actually want to drink, not just what professionals think they should drink. Branch & Barrel took home a double gold medal for Made in the Shade II, a single barrel expression built off their Flagship Bourbon recipe, along with a gold medal for their High Rye Bourbon.
Six medals across two very different types of competitions, one judged by experts and one judged by the public, tells you something. It's not just insiders who like what this distillery is doing. Regular drinkers are noticing too.
Why Colorado Bourbon Tastes Different
Mitchell Nester, who serves as Branch & Barrel's Master Blender, put it simply when talking about the wins. "We're pleased to see Colorado bourbon gaining recognition among spirits lovers everywhere. Our state's elevation, climate, Rocky Mountain water and local grains result in distinctive spirits that stand out."
That's not just a nice line for a press release. It's actually the whole story of why this bourbon tastes the way it does.
Bourbon aging is a physical process. Barrels expand and contract as temperatures rise and fall, and that movement is what pushes the spirit in and out of the wood, picking up flavor, color, and character along the way. Colorado's elevation and its dramatic temperature swings, hot days followed by cold nights, especially up in the mountains, speed up and intensify that process compared to what you'd get somewhere flatter and more consistent, like a barrelhouse in Kentucky or Tennessee.
Add in mountain water that's naturally filtered through rock and snowmelt, plus grains sourced locally from Colorado farms, and you end up with a spirit that's shaped by its environment in ways that are hard to fake or replicate anywhere else. This is often called terroir when people talk about wine, but it applies just as much to bourbon. Where the spirit is made and aged matters just as much as the recipe itself.
A Distillery Built From The Ground Up
What makes Branch & Barrel's story worth paying attention to is how it started. This wasn't a distillery that opened with a big investment and a slick marketing plan from day one. It started small and experimental back in the late 2000s, with the founders literally aging spirits on branches before they ever had a proper barrel program or a brick-and-mortar location.
That kind of scrappy, hands-on beginning is the kind of thing whiskey drinkers tend to respect. It signals that the people behind the bottle were chasing a specific vision of what Colorado bourbon could be, rather than just trying to cash in on a trend. The distillery didn't officially open its doors until 2016, which means everything leading up to that point was trial, error, and refinement.
Today, that same hands-on approach carries through, just at a bigger scale. The distillery is now producing award-winning bourbons in full barrel programs, but the philosophy hasn't changed. It's still about using what Colorado offers, the elevation, the climate, the water, the grain, and shaping the bourbon around those natural advantages instead of fighting against them.
The Lineup Worth Knowing
For anyone new to Branch & Barrel or just now hearing about these wins, it helps to know what's actually in the lineup.
High Rye Bourbon picked up gold medals in both competitions, which is a notable achievement. High rye bourbons tend to bring more spice and a sharper bite compared to standard bourbon mash bills, and clearly the judges, both professional and consumer, responded to whatever balance Branch & Barrel struck here.
Cherry Port earned a gold medal from the industry judges at the Bartenders Spirits Awards, suggesting this is a more experimental or flavored expression that's winning over people who taste spirits professionally, which isn't always an easy crowd to impress.
Wheated Bourbon and the 3-year Colorado Straight Bourbon both took home silver medals, rounding out a lineup that shows range. This isn't a distillery putting all its eggs in one basket. They're producing multiple styles and having success across the board.
Made in the Shade II stands out as the single barrel expression of their Flagship Bourbon recipe, and it earned a double gold medal from consumers at the SIP Awards. Single barrel releases tend to appeal to more serious bourbon drinkers who like knowing exactly what barrel their pour came from, and a double gold from regular consumers means this one is resonating with a broad audience, not just collectors.
Why This Matters For The Bigger Picture
Colorado isn't the first place most people think of when they picture bourbon country. That's changed a lot over the last decade as craft distilleries across the state have started putting out serious, competition-worthy spirits, and Branch & Barrel is positioning itself as one of the names leading that shift.
Winning at the Bartenders Spirits Awards proves the product holds up under expert scrutiny. Winning at the SIP Awards proves regular people enjoy drinking it, too. Getting both kinds of validation in the same stretch of time is a strong signal that this isn't a one-off, it's a distillery that's consistently producing quality across a range of styles.
For guys who've spent years reaching for the same bottle out of habit, or who assume good bourbon can only come from a handful of familiar states, this is worth a second look. The terrain, the water, and the climate in Colorado are doing something different to these spirits, and the medals are starting to back that up.
Where To Find It
Branch & Barrel bottles are available at craft spirits retailers across Colorado for anyone who wants to try the award-winning lineup for themselves. For a more complete experience, the distillery's Tasting Room in Centennial is open for people who want to see the operation, talk to the people making the bourbon, and taste it fresh from the source.
More information, including how to find a bottle or plan a visit to the Tasting Room, is available at babdistilling.com.
