Bourbon pricing has certainly shifted in recent years, and not necessarily in a good way. Allocations, secondary market pricing, and lotteries have put many bourbons out of reach for the majority of drinkers. However, there remains a breadth of great bourbons that you can buy without taking out a loan.
If you are not sure where to spend your hard-earned money on bourbon, looking at the cheaper end of recent competition winners is a sensible place to start.
Here are seven bourbons under $60 that picked up medals and titles from whiskey competitions across 2025 and 2026, spanning wheated, high-rye, bottled-in-bond, cask strength, and finished styles.
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READ THE STORY1. New Riff Bottled-in-Bond Kentucky Straight Bourbon
This is the headline story of 2026. At the World Whiskies Awards in February, judges named New Riff’s flagship Bottled-in-Bond the World’s Best Bourbon and Best Kentucky Bourbon, beating much pricier and more heavily marketed competition in a blind tasting.
The WWA panel’s published notes describe lemon zest and butterscotch on the nose, a palate of cinnamon, caramel, fresh fig, vanilla cookie, sweet pastry, dried leather, pumpernickel rye, corned beef, and brine, and a finish carrying caramel, lemon peel, crumb cookie, and coffee.
New Riff is a Newport, Kentucky distillery founded in 2014 by longtime liquor retailer Ken Lewis. It is fiercely independent, built its identity around the 1897 Bottled-in-Bond Act, and bottles everything non-chill filtered. The mash bill is high-rye at 65% corn, 30% rye, and 5%malted barley.
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At 100 proof, aged at least four years, and priced between $35 and $40 with distribution in all 50 states, it offers fantastic value for money. The best bourbon in the world this year is not out of reach for the average drinker, and that is something to celebrate.
2. Green River Kentucky Straight Wheated Bourbon
Green River’s wheated expression won Best Overall Bourbon and Best Wheated Bourbon at the 2025 New York World Spirits Competition in October, beating a field of contenders that included Blanton’s Gold Edition.
The Tasting Alliance, which runs the competition, judged it blind. The judges described a “richly textured bourbon” opening with peppery spice, moving through honeyed grains, oats, and creamy butterscotch, and finishing with soft honey and warm barrel notes.
The Owensboro distillery is DSP-KY-10, the 10th-oldest licensed distillery in Kentucky. Founded in 1885 and dormant for decades, it was reintroduced in 2022 and now sits under the Lofted Spirits umbrella alongside Bardstown Bourbon Company.
The mash bill is 70 percent Kentucky-grown corn, 21 percent wheat, and 9 percent malted six-row barley. Bottled at 90 proof from a blend of four- to six-year-old barrels aged in clay tile rickhouses, it carries a suggested retail price of $34.99.
Master Blender Dan Callaway has said the goal was a bourbon that was deeply flavorful, accessible, and full of character. The judges in New York seem to agree.
3. Maker’s Mark 46
Maker’s 46 was the first new major expression from the Loretto, Kentucky distillery in 52 years when it launched in 2010.
Bill Samuels Jr. wanted to develop a profile he could call his own, and worked with Independent Stave Company on a finishing technique nobody else was using. Ten seared (not charred) virgin French oak staves are inserted into a fully matured barrel of Maker’s Mark, and the whisky is returned to a limestone cellar for several more months. The name comes from the stave profile number.
The mash bill is the standard wheated recipe: 70% corn, 16% soft red winter wheat, and 14% malted barley.
In 2026 alone, Maker’s Mark 46 took Best Finished Bourbon (Kentucky) and World’s Best Finished Bourbon at the World Whiskies Awards.
It also picked up a Gold Medal at the London Spirits Competition with a score of 95. The LSC Judges noted, “aromas of sweetcorn, grains, and subtle tropical notes lead to a palate of corn, rye spice, honey, toasted nuts, and dried fruits, with a long, lightly floral, lemon-peel finish.”
Bottled at 94 proof and typically priced between $40 and $45, it sits in the small group of finished bourbons that judges keep returning to year after year.
4. 1792 Small Batch
The 2025 Top Shelf Awards Gala, run by The Tasting Alliance, named 1792 Small Batch the Best Small Batch Bourbon in the up-to-five-years category. The bourbon is built around a high-rye recipe, so expect plenty of spice up front, balanced by caramel and vanilla sweetness and a clean, elegant finish.
1792 is produced at the Barton 1792 Distillery in Bardstown, established in 1879, and the oldest continuously operating distillery in town. It is owned by Sazerac and operates independently of its sister facility, Buffalo Trace, in Frankfort. The name refers to the year Kentucky achieved statehood.
The mash bill is believed to be a high-rye recipe of 15-25%. It carried an eight-year age statement until 2013, when that was dropped.
Current US retail typically falls between $28 and $32, making it one of the most defensible everyday cocktail bourbons on the shelf, and a perfectly good neat pour too.
5. Old Ezra 7 Year Kentucky Straight Bourbon
In 2024, at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition, Old Ezra 7 received the Platinum Medal. It is an honor handed out only to brands that win Double Gold three years running.
Ezra Brooks describes the bourbon as carrying sweet floral notes with undertones of vanilla, cinnamon, and fine wood, ending in a warm, buttery finish.
The whiskey is produced by Lux Row Distillers in Bardstown, the first distillery owned by Luxco, which opened in 2018. Luxco was acquired by MGP Ingredients in 2021 and now operates as MGP’s Branded Spirits division.
Various different mash bills are speculated, but the most common is 78% corn, 10% rye, and 12% malted barley. Aged seven years in new charred American white oak and bottled at barrel strength of 117 proof, it is non-chill filtered with natural color.
Retail typically lands between $40 and $50. High-proof bourbons with a real age statement at this price are increasingly rare, which is part of why judges keep noticing it.
6. Early Times Bottled-in-Bond
The 2025 International Whisky Competition awarded Early Times Bottled-in-Bond first place in its Best Bottled-in-Bond Bourbon Whiskey category, scoring it 92.37 points.
The competition publishes scores rather than per-bottle judge notes, but the brand’s own description points to caramel, vanilla, toasted oak, butterscotch, and baking spices, and reviewers consistently describe it as a much richer, more confident pour than the price suggests.
Early Times is one of the oldest names in American whiskey. The brand was founded in 1860 by John Henry Beam, an uncle of Jim Beam, and was owned by Brown-Forman from 1923 until 2020.
The Bottled-in-Bond expression was first introduced in 1945, disappeared from shelves in the 1980s as the brand drifted downmarket, and was reintroduced by Brown-Forman in 2017.
Sazerac acquired Early Times in July 2020 and moved production to the Barton 1792 Distillery in Bardstown in the summer of 2021, returning Early Times distillation to Nelson County for the first time in more than a century.
Retail is around $18 to $21 for a 750ml bottle, and roughly $25 for a full liter. It is, simply, the cheapest serious bourbon on this list.
7. Angel’s Envy Cask Strength Bottled-in-Bond
Angel’s Envy closed out 2025 with a Platinum Medal at the LA Spirits Awards and a finalist nod for Best Straight Bourbon at the ASCOT Awards. Expect lightly caramelized sugars, vanilla wafers, banana pudding, honey latte, fruit syrup, and toasted oak.
This is the first unfinished, unblended bourbon Angel’s Envy has ever released, which is notable for a brand built on port wine cask finishing. The technical achievement is in how it qualifies as both Bottled-in-Bond and cask strength at the same time.
Most bonded whiskeys are proofed down to 100 with water. For this release, Angel’s Envy reportedly filled barrels at a low entry proof of 103, and after evaporation, blended 27 lower-proof barrels with two higher-proof barrels from the same 2018 season to land at exactly 100 proof with no added water.
Angel’s Envy states that it uses a traditional mash bill of 72% corn, 18% rye, and 10% malted barley in general, so it is assumed that this whiskey is made from the same recipe.
The Cask Strength was aged just under six years at the Louisville Distilling Co. on Whiskey Row, where current Master Distiller Owen Martin was named Craft Distiller of the Year at the 2026 Icons of Whisky America Awards.
Retail varies considerably by state and retailer, often sitting between $55 and $70, so it is worth shopping around to land it under the $60 ceiling.
The Takeaway
Across eight major competitions and two continents of judging, the consistent message is that style diversity is alive and well at accessible prices.
Wheated, high-rye, bonded, cask strength, finished — every major bourbon style has a sub-$60 medal winner currently on shelves. Any one of these seven is a defensible serious first bourbon, and most of them belong on the back bar of someone who already has a lot of bottles.
So, did any of your favorite bourbons make it onto this list? Do you have any other value bourbons (award-winning or not) to recommend? Let us know in the comments.
