Recent Awards Articles

A Spirit From the Sugarcane Fields of North India Is Turning Heads at the Most Respected Rum Competitions on the Planet For most American drinkers, rum means the Caribbean. It means Jamaica, Barbados, Cuba. It means molasses and heat and centuries of a very specific tradition. The idea that a bott

How WildRye Distilling Became the Most Decorated Distillery in the State There's a distillery tucked into Bozeman, Montana, that most people outside the Northern Rockies haven't heard of yet. That's about to change. WildRye Distilling just walked away from one of the most competitive regional spir

A small craft distillery from the Pacific Northwest just pulled off something no one in the spirits world has ever done There are a lot of whiskey competitions out there. Some matter. Some don't. But when Whisky Magazine hands out its World Whiskies Awards in London, the spirits industry pays atte

Every year, the World Whiskies Awards cuts through the noise of an overcrowded market and points drinkers toward what actually deserves their attention. In 2026, two small batch bourbons rose above every other competitor to claim the top spots in their respective categories — one from the heartland

Most people think bourbon is the top dog of American whiskey. And for good reason — it dominates bar shelves, gets the most press, and carries the most cultural weight. But there is an older style sitting quietly in its shadow that has been around longer than bourbon ever has. Corn whiskey predates

There's a distillery sitting quietly in the Scottish Highlands that most American whisky drinkers have never heard of. That's starting to change — and the people responsible for turning heads happen to all be women. Tullibardine Distillery, tucked away in Blackford, Perthshire at what locals ca

For a long time, the word "blended" has been something close to an insult in American whiskey circles. Mention a blended whiskey at the wrong bar and you might get a raised eyebrow. The assumption, fair or not, is that blended means watered down, stretched out with cheap neutral grain spirit, somet

The World Whiskies Awards America 2026 has spoken, and finished bourbon is no longer a side conversation. Two expressions have claimed the title of World's Best Finished Bourbon this year, split between Kentucky and Non-Kentucky categories, and together they make a compelling case that the art of f

For years, the big names in bourbon have dominated the conversation. Buffalo Trace, Heaven Hill, Maker's Mark — these are the brands that show up on best lists, line the back bars at serious whiskey spots, and fill the shelves of collectors. So when a smaller, independent distillery out of Newport,

There's a moment in every underdog story where you stop and ask yourself whether what just happened was real. For Onyx & Amber, that moment came at the Brown Hotel in Louisville, Kentucky, when Copper Buffalo was named the World's Best American Style Whiskey at the 2026 World Whiskies Awards —