The San Francisco World Spirits Competition finished its 2026 season with the Top Shelf Awards Gala in San Francisco on November 8, where this year’s Best of Class and Best in Show winners were announced. For Scotch, the biggest prize went to Tamdhu 21 Year Old, which was named Best Overall Scotch as well as Best of Class and Best Overall Distillers’ Single Malt Scotch.
The seven Scotch winners cover a lot of ground. They range from a peated single malt from John Crabbie in Edinburgh to a 32-year-old Dewar’s blend, with a brand-new Ardbeg and Sam Heughan’s Sassenach blend in between. So, here are the best Scotch whiskies from SFWSC Top Shelf Gala 2026.
How the Top Awards Are Won
Every spirit entered at SFWSC is tasted blind in a flight alongside others of the same style. A spirit earns a Double Gold when every judge on its panel gives it a gold medal, and only Double Gold winners move on to the sweepstakes round. There, they are tasted blind against each other to decide Best of Class.
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READ THE STORYThe Best of Class winners then compete for Best Overall in their spirit type, and those winners compete for a single Best in Show.
John Crabbie Virgin Oak Peated Single Malt Scotch
Award: Best of Class Distillers’ Single Malt Scotch, No Age Statement
Tasting Notes: Creamy vanilla, toffee, toasted oak, cinnamon, cardamom, bonfire smoke, light ash, pepper
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Find Your Next Bottle: $35.34 / £30.95
The Crabbie name goes back to 1801, when Miller Crabbie opened a shop in Edinburgh. His son John later founded John Crabbie & Co., which blended whisky, made green ginger wine and helped set up the North British grain distillery.
Halewood Artisanal Spirits now owns the brand and has been distilling at Bonnington Distillery in Leith since 2020. This peated single malt was distilled at Bonnington. It is matured in virgin American oak and bottled at 40% ABV with no age statement.
Noble Rebel Hazelnut Harmony Blended Malt Scotch
Award: Best of Class Blended Malt Scotch
Tasting Notes: Nuts, sweet honeycomb, pear, warm oak, light floral notes, honey, toffee
Find Your Next Bottle: $50 / £40
A blended malt is made only from malt whisky, drawn from more than one distillery, with no grain whisky in the mix.
The Loch Lomond Group launched Noble Rebel in February 2023 with three blended malts, Hazelnut Harmony among them. All three are overseen by master blender Michael Henry at Loch Lomond Distillery.
Hazelnut Harmony is finished in toasted American oak casks and bottled at 46% ABV without chill filtration. Its sibling, Smoke Symphony, was named Best Scotch Blended Malt at the 2026 World Whiskies Awards.
The Balvenie DoubleWood 12 Year Old
Award: Best of Class Distillers’ Single Malt Scotch, Up to 12 Years
Tasting Notes: Sweet fruit, Oloroso sherry, honey, vanilla, nutty sweetness, cinnamon spice, long warming finish
Find Your Next Bottle: $70 / £49
DoubleWood first appeared in 1993, replacing Balvenie Classic in the core range for the distillery’s centenary. It grew out of experiments by former malt master David C. Stewart MBE, who began moving whisky from one type of cask into another in the late 1970s, a practice now known as finishing. In this way, The Balvenie DoubleWood 12 Year Old was a pioneering whisky, and Stewart is often credited as the pioneer of cask finishing in Scotch whisky.
The whisky spends around 11 years in ex-bourbon American oak and about a year in European oak casks that held Oloroso sherry. It then rests for three to four months in oak tuns.
Kelsey McKechnie, Stewart’s former apprentice, is now malt master.
Ardbeg Trudernish 15 Year Old
Award: Best of Class Distillers’ Single Malt Scotch, 13 to 19 Years
Tasting Notes: Earthy peat, woodsmoke, vanilla cream, fudge, pine resin, heather honey, green apple, pear, dark licorice, chocolate lime, toasted nuts
Find Your Next Bottle: $72 / £72
Trudernish went on sale on September 15, 2026, as Ardbeg’s first permanent 15-year-old. It is named after an ancient settlement on Islay’s “Enchanted Cape,” where local legend says the water from the well never freezes.
The whisky is matured in bourbon casks, new charred oak and Oloroso sherry casks, and bottled at 48.8% ABV.
Dr. Bill Lumsden MBE, Ardbeg’s director of whisky creation, said, “You’ll find aromas of peat and woodsmoke engulfed in melted vanilla ice cream.” Its launch came with a new look for Ardbeg’s whole core range.
The Sassenach Spirit of Home Blended Scotch
Award: Best of Class Blended Scotch, No Age Statement
Tasting Notes: Citrus, almonds, vanilla, peach, apricot, honey, butterscotch, nutmeg, toffee
Find Your Next Bottle: $157 / £68
Outlander star Sam Heughan launched The Sassenach in 2021. It was the first release from his Great Glen Company, and he told Square Mile he saw a gap for “a blended scotch whisky, that could rival the new Asian blends but also be quintessentially Scottish, yet balanced and accessible.”
The blend is mostly single malt aged between 9 and 12 years, plus an organic single grain aged in bourbon barrels and finished in Madeira casks. It is bottled at 46% ABV with natural color and no chill filtration.
Heughan and his business partner Alex Norouzi have since founded the Galloway Distillery in southern Scotland.
Dewar’s Double Double 32 Years Old Blended Scotch
Award: Best of Class Blended Scotch, 16 Years and Older · Best Overall Blended Scotch
Tasting Notes: rich treacle, dried fruits, vanilla, exotic spice, orange peel, brown sugar, clove, dark cocoa, subtle smoke, roasted coffee, oak
Find Your Next Bottle: $500 / £400
Dewar’s launched its Double Double range in 2019 with 21, 27 and 32 Year Olds, all made with the same four-stage aging process. The single malts and single grains in this blend are aged separately for at least 32 years. They are then blended and rested in cask, married and rested again, and finished in Pedro Ximénez sherry casks.
Master blender Stephanie Macleod leads the brand, and the whisky is bottled at 46% ABV. The SFWSC judges noted “Toasted almond and hazelnut lead a complex, nutty palate, with dried fruit through a long, confident finish.”
Macleod has a strong track record of her own when it comes to awards, having won Master Blender of the Year at the International Whisky Competition seven times.
Tamdhu Speyside 21 Year Old Single Malt Scotch
Award: Best of Class Distillers’ Single Malt Scotch, 20 Years and Older · Best Overall Distillers’ Single Malt Scotch · Best Overall Scotch
Tasting Notes: sherried oak, chocolate, sultanas, toffee, cinnamon-spiced porridge oats, mocha, marzipan, sherry-soaked raisins, candied orange, warm spices
Find Your Next Bottle: $337 / £270
Tamdhu has been distilling on the banks of the River Spey since 1897 and is now owned by family-run Ian Macleod Distillers. Every Tamdhu single malt is fully matured in Oloroso sherry casks, made by family cooperages and bodegas in Jerez.
The 21 is bottled at 47.5% ABV with natural color and no chill filtration.
Distillery manager Sandy McIntyre said, “Every drop [of the 21 Year Old] reflects more than two decades of patience and the Spain-to-Speyside journey our casks make. Tamdhu has always held true to one idea: exceptional whisky from exceptional sherry casks, with no shortcuts. For that commitment to be recognized on the world stage is deeply rewarding.”
Before San Francisco, it was named Overall Winner at the 2026 Spirit of Speyside Whisky Awards.
What Do You Make of the Results?
Four of the seven winners spent time in sherry casks. Tamdhu, Balvenie and Ardbeg all used Oloroso, and Dewar’s finished its 32 in Pedro Ximénez. The other three used Madeira, toasted American oak and virgin oak.
It was also a good night for Loch Lomond’s Michael Henry, who has a hand in both Noble Rebel and The Sassenach. Ian Macleod Distillers did well too: Tamdhu took the top prize, and its Isle of Skye 30 Year Old was the only other finalist in the Dewar’s category.
Have you tried any of these whiskies, or is there one you’d like to open? And do you think the judges got Best Overall Scotch right? Let us know in the comments.
