The FCancer bottling from Penelope Bourbon started with a personal request. A member of the company's sales team, Tennessee State Manager Brian Aten, had lost his wife to brain cancer, and he asked whether the brand could create a whiskey in her honor. That one blend became an annual tradition, and this fall it reaches a milestone. On October 19, Penelope announced Penelope Bourbon FCancer Batch 5, marking five years of its partnership with the cancer nonprofit FCancer, along with a pledge of $250,000 to the organization.
Michael Paladini, Penelope's founder and vice president of strategy, framed this year's release around that beginning. "Five years ago, the goal was to create a whiskey to honor our colleague's late wife who was lost to cancer. It was an opportunity to bring people together while also supporting FCancer's incredible mission," he said. "Blending Batch 5 alongside the FCancer team, cancer survivors, and friends of the brand makes this year's bottle even more special."
Batch 5 by the Numbers
The new release is a six-year-old blend of straight whiskeys bottled at 101 proof. It was distilled in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, and carries a suggested retail price of $79.99. Penelope says the limited annual release reaches select retailers nationwide starting in October 2026, while supplies last.
At 101 proof, the whiskey sits at 50.5 percent alcohol by volume, just above the 100-proof mark that American drinkers associate with bottled-in-bond whiskey, though this blend is not a bonded product. The extra strength over last year's bottling gives the flavors more concentration and leaves room for drinkers who like to add a splash of water or a single ice cube.
The stated mash bill uses four grains: 64 percent corn, 20 percent rye, 1 percent malted rye and 15 percent barley malt. Four-grain recipes have been central to Penelope's identity since the brand's early days, and this one is notable for the heavy barley malt component, a figure well above what most bourbon mash bills carry.
That malt share makes sense given how the blend was built. Danny Polise, Penelope's founder and master blender, described a mix of components rather than a single whiskey. "For this release, we brought together six-year-aged bourbon and American malt whiskey to create a blend with its own unique character," Polise said. "Each component was carefully selected for what it contributes to the final blend, resulting in a well-balanced whiskey with great depth and complexity. It makes this release even more meaningful knowing it's supporting such an important cause."
The Tasting Notes
Penelope describes a nose of toffee, vanilla bean, baked apple and toasted grain. The palate brings brown sugar, honeyed corn, cinnamon and malt, and the finish offers caramel, charred oak, dark chocolate and warm spice. The malt and honeyed notes line up with the American malt whiskey in the blend, while the caramel, oak and spice reflect six years of bourbon aging.
How This Year's Bottle Differs From 2025
Last year's edition looked quite different. The 2025 FCancer release, announced in September 2025, was bottled at 94 proof with a minimum suggested retail price of $79.99, and it was produced in a run of 10,000 six-bottle cases, according to Fred Minnick's coverage of the announcement. It was accompanied by a separate FCancer Barrel Strength bottling at 114.6 proof and $99.99, sold exclusively through retail partner SharedPour.
Batch 5 moves to a single expression and a higher everyday proof, going from 94 to 101 while keeping the same $79.99 price point. It also carries a specific age statement of six years, something the 2025 coverage did not specify, and it introduces American malt whiskey into the recipe. The release is also positioned as a numbered batch, which makes it easier for collectors who have followed the series from the start to track each year's bottle.
The Ribbon Label
The visual identity has stayed constant. "Each release features bold label artwork of multicolored ribbons, representing the many forms cancer takes and the many people it touches," according to the release. Different colored ribbons are associated with awareness for different cancers, and putting many of them on one label signals that the partnership is not tied to a single diagnosis.
The $250,000 Pledge and the Running Total
This year Penelope itself is pledging $250,000 to FCancer. The figure is easy to confuse with last year's numbers, so it helps to lay them side by side. In 2025, Penelope and SharedPour together committed more than $500,000 to FCancer, with SharedPour pledging $250,000 of that amount. The 2026 commitment of $250,000 comes from Penelope.
Neither the 2026 announcement nor the 2025 coverage gives a cumulative figure for everything the partnership has raised since the first bottle. Combining the two most recent years alone, the publicly announced pledges exceed $750,000. Totals for the earlier releases have not been published, so the full five-year amount is higher than that but not on record. Pledges are commitments rather than reported payments, and the brand has not released a breakdown of how much has been delivered to date.
What FCancer Does With the Money
FCancer describes its mission as advancing health equity through cancer prevention and early detection. According to the release, the nonprofit funds clinic navigators in high-risk communities who help people get HPV vaccines and screenings for breast, cervical, colorectal and lung cancer. It also runs emotional and practical support programs for people living with cancer, along with education campaigns on prevention and early detection.
Julie Greenbaum, FCancer's co-founder and chief revenue officer, credited Penelope's long-term support. "Penelope has been an extraordinary partner and their commitment to supporting FCancer grows stronger every year," she said. "This year's pledge will help us reach more people with the education, early detection resources, and support they need."
The focus on screening and navigation is practical. Many cancers, including colorectal and cervical, are far more treatable when caught early, and public health research has long shown that barriers such as cost, transportation, time off work and confusion about the health system keep people from getting screened. Patient navigators work directly on those barriers, helping people book appointments, understand results and follow through on care.
A Brand Built on Blending
Penelope's approach to the FCancer series fits the way the company has always worked. The brand does not run its own distillery; it sources whiskey and focuses on blending, finishing and recipe design. Its whiskeys have long come from Lawrenceburg, Indiana, home of the large distillery now owned by MGP Ingredients, which supplies aged stock to many of the best-known names in American whiskey.
That relationship became closer when Penelope joined Luxco, which operates as the Branded Spirits business unit of MGP Ingredients. The arrangement gives the brand access to deep inventories of aged bourbon, rye and malt whiskey, the raw material that makes a blend like Batch 5 possible. A six-year-old blend combining bourbon and American malt whiskey is the kind of project that depends on having many different barrel types to choose from.
Why Blenders Reach for Malt
American malt whiskey has been one of the faster-growing segments of the domestic market, and federal regulators recently finalized a formal standard for American single malt, giving producers clearer rules on what can carry that label. Malt whiskey tends to add a bready, cereal sweetness and a rounder texture, which blenders often use to soften the sharper edges of high-rye bourbon. Pairing it with six-year bourbon, as Polise described, is a way to add depth without simply pushing the proof higher.
The brand's two founders remain closely involved in the FCancer series. Polise leads the blending, and Paladini has acted as the public voice of the partnership's origin story. Having both founders attached to a charity release, rather than handing it off to a marketing team, helps explain why the series has kept its personal tone across five batches.
Charity Bottlings and the Whiskey Business
Cause-linked releases have become a regular part of the whiskey calendar. Distilleries and brands have released bottles benefiting veterans' groups, disaster relief, conservation and medical research, and many of them sell out quickly to collectors who like knowing part of the proceeds goes somewhere specific. The Penelope and FCancer series stands out for its consistency: rather than a one-time fundraiser, it has returned every year with a recognizable label and a story that ties back to one person's loss.
The approach also gives drinkers a reason to follow the series over time. Five batches in, the FCancer bottles now form a small vertical of their own, each with a different recipe, proof and blending team. Paladini's description of blending Batch 5 alongside survivors and the FCancer team suggests the brand intends to keep the release personal rather than turn it into a standard seasonal product.
Availability
Batch 5 is a limited annual release distributed to select retailers across the country starting in October, while supplies last. Earlier editions sold through quickly, according to coverage of the 2025 release, which suggests this one will not linger long either. For those who follow Penelope closely, Batch 5 marks five years of the series with a new recipe, a higher proof and a $250,000 pledge, and it keeps the focus on why the first bottle was made.
