There is a moment in American whiskey history that tends to arrive quietly, without the marketing blitz of a major distillery rollout or the fanfare of a heritage brand's anniversary expression. It arrives from somewhere unexpected — a family farm in the shadow of the Rockies, a grain-to-glass operation that most people outside Colorado have never heard of — and it lands on the global stage with a kind of authority that the old guard cannot ignore. That moment arrived in April 2026, when Root Shoot Spirits, a small operation rooted in a fifth-generation family farm near Loveland, Colorado, was named Whisky of the Year at the London Spirits Competition, arguably the most rigorous and commercially grounded spirits judging event in the world.
This was not an upset born from novelty or a judges' appetite for the unconventional. Root Shoot American Single Malt 4 Year Old Bottled-in-Bond earned a cluster of honors — Spirit of the Year for the United States, Whisky of the Year, and American Single Malt Whiskey of the Year — scoring 97 points and a Double Gold. Those numbers, awarded by a panel stacked with people who make and sell whisky for a living, are about as close to unanimous praise as the spirits world offers.
A Farm That Became a Distillery That Became a Champion
To understand what Root Shoot Spirits is, you have to understand what Olander Farms is. Root Shoot is the spirits arm of Root Shoot Malting, a craft on-farm malthouse built in 2016 on Olander Farms, a fifth-generation family farm near Loveland, Colorado that has been in operation since 1926. Nearly a century of farming preceded the first barrel of whiskey. That kind of generational continuity shapes everything: the relationship with the soil, the understanding of the local grain, the patience required to let a spirit age properly instead of rushing it to market.
Founder Todd Olander launched Root Shoot Spirits in 2023 with this Bottled-in-Bond American Single Malt as its debut release. The ethos is built around regenerative agriculture and hyper-local sourcing. The spirits side of the operation grew organically out of the malting business, which was itself a direct extension of the farm's agricultural DNA. The local operation has expanded from the farm to Root Shoot Malting and Root Shoot Spirits, founded by farmer Todd Olander and Emily, his wife. What that means in practice is a family business where every decision — which barley varieties to plant, how to malt them, how to spec the distillation — flows back to a single piece of land and a single family's accumulated knowledge of it.
Root Shoot Whiskey is made from 100% Colorado-grown grain, representing a uniquely hyper-local supply chain journey of only about 30 miles from field to bottle. In an era when "craft" is deployed as freely as any other marketing term, that figure is worth sitting with. Thirty miles. The barley grows within sight of the malthouse. The malthouse is within a short drive of the still. The result is a whiskey where the concept of terroir — borrowed from wine but increasingly applicable to grain spirits — is not aspirational language but a verifiable geographic fact.
What Bottled-in-Bond Actually Means Here
The Bottled-in-Bond designation is one of the most meaningful legal standards in American spirits, and it is one that Root Shoot wears without any apparent strain. The whiskey is contract-distilled just a few miles from the farm, aged four years in new charred American oak barrels, bottled at 50% ABV with no cask finish, and meets all four requirements of the 1897 Bottled-in-Bond Act. That last detail matters. The Bottled-in-Bond Act was passed in an era when adulterated whiskey was a genuine public health hazard, and its requirements — produced at a single distillery, in a single distilling season, by a single distiller, aged at least four years in a federally bonded warehouse, and bottled at exactly 100 proof — were designed to give consumers a guarantee of authenticity and quality. A producer that earns that designation in 2026 is essentially volunteering for a level of scrutiny that most distilleries choose to sidestep.
At 50% ABV, the whiskey has enough proof to carry flavor with authority, and the four-year maturation in new charred American oak is particularly notable given Colorado's climate. The whiskey is distilled on a copper pot still in Colorado, using 100% malted barley grown and malted on Olander Farms. After distillation, it matures for four years in new charred American oak where the dramatic temperature swings between Colorado seasons accelerate the interaction between spirit and wood. The high-altitude environment, with its extreme daily and seasonal temperature variance, means that spirit moves in and out of the wood at a different pace than it would in the more temperate conditions of Kentucky or Scotland. That is not necessarily a shortcut — it is a different kind of conversation between spirit and barrel, one that Colorado distillers are only beginning to understand and articulate fully.
The Tasting Notes: What 97 Points Smells and Tastes Like
Numbers tell part of the story. The liquid tells the rest. The Root Shoot Whiskey experience starts with aromas of cobbler and honey granola. Upon first sip, clean flavors of alpine florals breeze across the palate, and the sip finishes with an alpenglow of rich pastry, faint cocoa dust, and long, lingering bright-yet-spicy flavors. Those are not the tasting notes of a whiskey trying to ape Scotch or replicate a Kentucky benchmark. There is a distinctly regional character at work — something lighter and brighter in the mid-palate, the influence of high-altitude barley and a climate that pushes the oak integration in a direction that is genuinely its own.
The London Spirits Competition judges, for their part, identified rich pastry, baking spice, faint cocoa dust and minty, spicy botanicals, with a bright finish balanced with deep tones of leather and forest floor. Both sets of notes point to the same conclusion: this is a whiskey with complexity built on restraint. The cocoa dust recurs across descriptions, as does the herbal edge — characteristics that seem to trace directly back to the specific malt varieties Root Shoot grows and processes on-farm.
That malt quality is not incidental. Root Shoot Whiskey was crafted from Root Shoot Malting's award-winning malt, including the heavily awarded Munich 10 Malt (which earned a gold medal in 2023, 2024, and 2026 and silver in 2025 at the Craft Maltsters Guild Malt Cup), CaraRuby malt (gold 2026 and silver in 2025), and Distillers Malt (gold 2025 and silver 2026). This is a rare instance where the malting program's trophy cabinet directly correlates to what ends up in the finished whiskey. When the raw material is this consistently awarded at the ingredient level, the resulting spirit carries that quality forward through every step of the process.
The Competition: What It Takes to Win in London
The London Spirits Competition is not the oldest spirits competition in the world, but it may be the one best designed to reflect commercial reality. The London Spirits Competition was founded on a straightforward idea: that spirits should be judged the way trade professionals actually buy them. Quality matters, but so does value for money and packaging. A spirit that scores well on all three is one that will genuinely sell, and that is what the LSC sets out to find.
Now in its ninth year, the international competition pulled in entries from more than 30 countries and assembled a judging panel of over 70 trade professionals to seek out the best whiskies of 2026. The judges are not hobbyist enthusiasts or critics who earn their living writing tasting notes. Among them were Stephanie Macleod, Master Blender and Director of Blending, Scotch Whisky for Bacardi; Billy Leighton, Master Blender Emeritus at Irish Distillers Pernod Ricard; Craig Wallace, Whisky Creation Leader and Master Blender at Diageo. These are people whose professional opinions shape what millions of drinkers pour into their glasses every year. A 97-point Double Gold from this panel carries genuine weight.
The international London Spirits Competition evaluates spirits on the factors that matter most to consumers, including quality, value, and packaging aesthetics. Several thousand entries from around the world are submitted to the prestigious competition each year. For a whiskey with distribution currently concentrated in Colorado, with wider availability through US online retailers, to clear that field and claim Whisky of the Year is an outcome that demands explanation — and the explanation, when you look closely at what Root Shoot has built, turns out to be straightforward: the whiskey is genuinely that good.
The LSC's CEO Sid Patel has described the competition's standard clearly: "At the London Spirits Competition, a winning spirit must excel in quality, offer outstanding value for money, and be packaged in a way that truly connects with today's consumer. What makes this competition unique is that all products are judged by the highest level of trade professionals — bartenders, bar managers, and buyers — who understand what sells and what delights customers." Root Shoot, a whiskey that retails at a price accessible to most enthusiasts, checked every box.
Back-to-Back: A Record Worth Noting
One award in a single year can be attributed to a strong entry and favorable judging conditions. Two consecutive years of top honors at the same competition, in the same category, tells a different story. This is not Root Shoot's first year at the top, with the same whiskey being named American Single Malt Whiskey of the Year at the London Spirits Competition in 2025. The 2026 result was not just a repeat — it was an escalation. Co-founder Emily Olander noted the significance: "Earning American Single Malt Whiskey of the Year for the second year in a row, and now Whisky of the Year, and Spirit of the Year (USA) at the London Spirits Competition is incredibly meaningful to us, not just because of the recognition, but because of what it represents."
What it represents, in practical terms, is that the first whiskey Root Shoot ever released — a debut expression launched in 2023 — has now been recognized as the best American single malt on the market by the same panel of international trade professionals in two successive years. That is a record that established distilleries with decades of production behind them have not managed to equal.
Incredibly, the same Colorado-crafted spirit also took home Double Gold at the American Craft Spirits Awards (ACSA). The whiskey won Double Gold at the American Craft Spirits Awards, where a group of expert judges evaluate hundreds of entries and award distinctive spirits with a mission to elevate and advocate for craft spirits makers. Double Gold was awarded to only 10 whiskies. Sweeping both domestic and international competitions in the same year is the kind of performance that signals a whiskey has arrived not as a curiosity but as a benchmark.
Colorado's Whiskey Moment — And Why It's Not a Coincidence
Root Shoot's triumph did not happen in isolation. Right behind Root Shoot's whiskey and also earning a double gold medal was Stranahan's Original American single-malt whiskey from the acclaimed Denver-based distillery. The fact that two Colorado single malts landed at the top of an international competition in the same year is a signal that deserves attention from anyone following the trajectory of American whiskey.
Stranahan's head blender Justin Aden put it plainly: "It's incredibly rewarding to see American Single Malt continue to gain recognition on a global stage. To yet again see our Stranahan's win top marks in the U.K. — the global epicenter of single malt — speaks to the growing appreciation for the depth, character, and craftsmanship coming out of our category." When Colorado's two most prominent single malt producers are winning at this level simultaneously, the state has to be considered a serious terroir for the style, not just a regional novelty.
Emily Olander drew the larger lesson directly: "I think this says a lot about what's happening in Colorado right now. There's a strong ecosystem here — farmers, maltsters, and distillers — who are focused on quality, collaboration, and a real sense of place. The fact that multiple Colorado producers are showing up in international competitions like this signals that the world is starting to pay attention."
Todd Olander framed the agricultural dimension with equal clarity: "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." Root Shoot's whiskey earned 97 points, making it the top-earning U.S. spirit in the entire competition.
The American Single Malt Category: Context and Momentum
Root Shoot's wins arrive at a pivotal moment for the American single malt category. For most of its existence, American single malt — whiskey made at a single distillery, from 100% malted barley, in the American style — existed in a legal gray zone. Distillers produced it, consumers drank it, but there was no federally codified standard of identity governing what the label actually had to mean. That changed in 2024, when the U.S. government officially established the American Single Malt Whiskey category with a formal definition, giving the style the regulatory backbone it had long needed.
The timing of that recognition coincided with Root Shoot's emergence as the category's most decorated expression on the international stage. American whiskey had a strong showing at the 2026 London Spirits Competition, claiming five Special Awards across five distinct categories. The winners span a farm-distilled single malt from Colorado, a wheated Kentucky bourbon, and three expressions from a Tennessee distillery that has become one of the most decorated American whiskey brands in the world. The breadth of that performance — single malt, bourbon, Tennessee whiskey — demonstrates that American whiskey is not succeeding in London on the strength of novelty. It is succeeding on the strength of quality across multiple styles and production philosophies.
For the single malt category specifically, Root Shoot's consecutive Whisky of the Year recognition at the LSC is the kind of credentialing moment that reshapes how international buyers and consumers perceive a style. Scotland remains the reference point, but the fact that a Colorado farm whiskey is claiming the global Whisky of the Year title in a competition judged heavily by Scotch industry veterans is a meaningful reorientation.
What's New: The Homestead High Proof Series
Root Shoot is not resting on its competition record. In the weeks following the London Spirits Competition announcement, the brand launched a new expression that signals where the distillery is heading creatively. The new release hits shelves on the heels of Root Shoot's flagship Root Shoot Whiskey earning Spirit of the Year U.S.A, Whisky of the Year, and American Single Malt Whiskey of the Year at the international 2026 London Spirits Competition.
Root Shoot Whiskey Homestead Series incorporates 100% Colorado-grown and malted grain, sourced and malted on Root Shoot's 5th generation family farm in Loveland. From field to bottle, all Root Shoot Spirits whiskey travels only about 30 miles, representing a uniquely hyper-local and sustainable supply chain journey of Colorado agriculture. Todd Olander explained the creative thinking behind the new series: "The Homestead Series is our way of celebrating the barrels and malts we love most. Whether mashed together from the beginning or blended after years in barrels, it's a deeper look into what craft malt can bring to American Single Malt whiskey."
The high-proof approach in the Homestead Series is not simply a proof bump for its own sake. By working with multiple mash bills and a higher proof, the distillery is able to pull more nuance from the whiskey while highlighting the flavor that comes from growing and malting their own grain. The 2026 Vintage opens with orchard fruit that mingles with cocoa and herbal notes of camphor and eucalyptus, while the oak structure offers notes of vanilla paired with fire-roasted marshmallows and warming baking spice. That flavor profile — fruit-forward entry, herbaceous mid-palate, baking spice on the finish — reads as a logical extension of the flagship's character, amplified and sharpened by the additional proof and a more deliberate approach to mash bill construction.
What This Means for Enthusiasts Who Want a Bottle
The practical challenge for whiskey drinkers outside Colorado is simple: Root Shoot is not yet a national release. Root Shoot Whiskey launched August 2023 and is available throughout Colorado. For those not within driving distance of a Colorado retailer, Root Shoot is a core annual release, with each vintage larger than the last, and distribution is currently concentrated in Colorado, with wider availability through US online retailers.
That distribution reality is likely to shift. A Whisky of the Year title from the London Spirits Competition, backed by a 97-point score from a panel that includes master blenders from Bacardi and Diageo, is the kind of result that triggers distributor interest across state lines. The question is not whether Root Shoot will expand its footprint — it is how quickly the farm-to-bottle supply chain can scale to meet demand without sacrificing the hyper-local integrity that makes the whiskey what it is.
Root Shoot Malting is a fifth-generation family farm and a first-generation craft malthouse producing responsibly raised, caringly crafted, high-quality malts. The operation believes farmers are stewards of the land and that responsible agriculture can support a better food and beverage industry. Located on the Olander family farm in Loveland, Colorado, Root Shoot produces malts made from barley, wheat, rye, and corn and is working to protect farmland through its conservation easement with Colorado Open Lands. That conservation easement detail is easy to overlook, but it speaks to an operation that is thinking about its land in generational terms — the same way it thinks about its whiskey.
The Larger Signal
There is a version of this story that gets told as a feel-good underdog narrative: small farm beats the world, David beats Goliath, and everyone raises a glass. That version is true as far as it goes, but it undersells what Root Shoot has actually accomplished. A whiskey that earns 97 points from master blenders at Bacardi, Diageo, and Pernod Ricard in back-to-back years is not an underdog story. It is a quality story.
The American single malt category is producing whiskey that can compete at the highest level internationally, and Root Shoot is now the most decorated proof of that proposition. The fifth-generation farm, the craft malthouse, the copper pot still, the four years in new American oak, the 30-mile supply chain — all of it adds up to a whiskey that the London Spirits Competition's most credentialed judges called the best in the world. For American whiskey enthusiasts who have been watching the single malt category build quietly for the better part of a decade, the Olander family's farm outside Loveland just became the most important address in the category.
