The San Diego Spirits Festival International Bottle Competition, now in its 16th year, announced its 2026 results on September 18. The festival was founded in 2009 by Liz Edwards, who still runs it as founder and director. The competition is judged double-blind on a 100-point scale, with every entry poured into coded NEAT glasses and the bottles kept out of sight until judging is over.
Eight whiskeys won Gold medals this year, all of them American, and five of those went to Uncle Nearest, which has been in the spotlight for a very different reason this year.
So here are the eight Gold medal whiskeys from this year’s competition. Let us know in the comments whether you agree with the judges.
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READ THE STORYUncle Nearest 1884 Small Batch Whiskey
Award: Gold
Tasting Notes: Honey, warm brown sugar, cedar, orange peel, tobacco flower, ground ginger, white pepper, caramel, spicy wood tannins, baking chocolate, cigar leaf, nougat, cinnamon, maple syrup
Find Your Next Bottle: $36 / £56
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Uncle Nearest has been the subject of some less-than-desirable headlines recently. The brand won its five Golds while under court-ordered receivership. It has been in receivership since August 2025, after it defaulted on more than $100 million owed to its lender, Farm Credit Mid-America. Founders Fawn and Keith Weaver were fired in June.
The receiver, Phillip G. Young Jr., has told the court that three potential buyers are in the running, and on October 23 a federal judge turned down Fawn Weaver’s request to stop a sale while her appeal against the receivership is pending.
1884 Small Batch is bottled at 93 proof, and each batch is curated by master blender Victoria Eady Butler, a fifth-generation descendant of Nearest Green. The company states that the whiskey is “distilled, aged and bottled entirely by Uncle Nearest”.
Uncle Nearest Master Blend Edition, Blend No. 072
Award: Gold
Tasting Notes: Caramelized sugar, dark fruit, warm baking spice
Find Your Next Bottle: $149.99
Uncle Nearest is one of this year’s festival sponsors. It is listed among the 2026 Platinum & Gold sponsors on the festival’s website, and Inc. reports that the brand has sponsored the event for the last five years. Judging was still double-blind, and festival founder Liz Edwards told Inc. that Uncle Nearest’s earlier medals at the festival had mostly been Silver.
For the Master Blend Edition, Victoria Eady Butler picks out the one barrel she thinks is best from every blend of Uncle Nearest and sets it aside. Those barrels are then blended together and bottled at cask strength at Nearest Green Distillery in Shelbyville, Tennessee.
Master Blend Edition No.72 is proving difficult to find due to its limited nature, but you may still be able to find a bottle at local retail.
Uncle Nearest Cognac Cask Copper
Award: Gold
Tasting Notes: Caramel, stone fruit, almond, tobacco, stone fruit, oak, fig
Find Your Next Bottle: $160 / £128
Uncle Nearest bought Domaine Saint Martin, a historic estate in Cognac, France, in 2023, with plans to release a Cognac of its own. The estate has since been pulled into the receivership. In an October 9 court filing, the receiver confirmed he had finalized the sale of the French vineyards, subject to approval from the French government. No buyer has yet been found for the chateau.
Cognac Cask uses the 1884 mash bill and is finished in casks that previously held XO Cognac from the Fins Bois and Borderies crus. According to Uncle Nearest, the barrels are between 10 and 20 years old and are made of French Limousin oak. Copper is a limited label from the second release in the series. The brand describes the whiskey as a cask-strength, small batch blend.
Uncle Nearest Single Barrel Whiskey, Batch 862
Award: Gold
Tasting Notes: Rich caramel, vanilla, baking spices, oak, pepper, brown sugar
Find Your Next Bottle: $85 / £68
The Weavers opened Nearest Green Distillery in Shelbyville, Tennessee, in 2019, two years after launching the brand.
The Single Barrel is bottled at barrel strength and goes through a triple filtration process, and Uncle Nearest says it is distilled, aged, and bottled in middle Tennessee.
Because each barrel is hand-selected, the flavor will vary from one release to the next. However, you might find familiar notes like caramel, vanilla, baking spice, and brown sugar. It is typically bottled between 115-125 proof.
Uncle Nearest Toasted Single Barrel, Barrel 3966
Award: Gold
Tasting Notes: Honey, spiced apple, cinnamon, oak, caramel, cinnamon, vanilla, butter, pepper
Find Your Next Bottle: $119.99 / £92
The brand takes its name from Nathan “Nearest” Green, an enslaved man who taught Jack Daniel to make whiskey. Green was the first African American master distiller in the US, and Victoria Eady Butler is his great-great-granddaughter.
Many believe that Green may have perfected the Lincoln County Process, in which whiskey is filtered through sugar maple charcoal before it goes into barrels. This is now a legal requirement for Tennessee whiskey, excluding Benjamin Prichard’s, which is exempt.
The Toasted Single Barrel is a limited edition that was aged in select toasted barrels.
Calumet Farm 12 Year Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
Award: Gold
Tasting Notes: Grain, alcohol, char, fresh cut hay, baking spices, rye spice, smoky tannins
Find Your Next Bottle: $100 / £80
This is a classic example of Kentucky’s two biggest traditions meeting: bourbon and horseracing.
William Monroe Wright, owner of Calumet Baking Powder, established Calumet Farm in Lexington, Kentucky, in 1924, starting out with Standardbred horses before the farm moved into Thoroughbred racing. Calumet produced eight Kentucky Derby winners between 1941 and 1968, among them the Triple Crown winners Whirlaway and Citation.
The bourbon that carries the farm’s name is made by Western Spirits Beverage Company of Bowling Green. Each batch of the 12 Year is blended from 19 barrels and yields fewer than 3,500 numbered bottles. The mash bill is 74% corn, 18% rye and 8% malted barley, the whiskey was barreled in 2014, and it is bottled at 102 proof.
Earlier this year, the 12 Year also won Gold with 95 points at BevTest.
Gadwall Whiskey Cask Strength Straight Bourbon Whiskey
Award: Gold
Tasting Notes: Dense, dark malt, chocolate, dark fruit, milk chocolate, roasted peanuts
Find Your Next Bottle: $59.99 / £45
Gadwall is a wheated bourbon brand, and the Cask Strength has a mash bill of 73% corn, 19% wheat and 8% malted barley. Gadwall doesn’t distill its own whiskey. Instead, it works with an independent Tennessee distillery that produces every batch to the brand’s specifications.
The brand says that is commissioned mash bill crafts a “bourbon that’s approachable without sacrificing depth—proof that a whiskey doesn’t have to overpower the palate to leave a lasting impression.”
The Cask Strength is aged for longer than its Straight Bourbon and bottled at full proof. The current batch is 124.6 proof.
American Metal Whiskey The Disciple
Award: Gold
Tasting Notes: Roasted caramel, torched orange, toasted oak
Find Your Next Bottle: $79.99 / £60
To make The Disciple, American Metal plays the sound of a motorcycle engine into the barrels, using a waterproof speaker placed inside them. The engine is the 1941 Harley-Davidson EL Knucklehead from The Disciple, a custom bike built by co-founder Josh Allison, and the brand describes the process as patent-pending.
Allison also co-founded the American Metal Customs shop and appeared on the reality show American Chopper. The whiskey brand launched in November 2023.
The Disciple is a Tennessee straight whiskey made with the Lincoln County Process. It was distilled in Tennessee and aged for at least four years in new American oak barrels with a #3 char. The mash bill is 80% corn, 10% malted barley, and 10% rye.
What Do You Think?
Uncle Nearest won five of the eight Golds this year. It did so under a court-appointed receiver, with its founders no longer at the company, and the receiver has said he is close to confirming a buyer for the business.
The remaining three Golds went to very different whiskeys: a 12-year-old bourbon named after a famous Kentucky racing farm, a wheated bourbon made for Gadwall by a Tennessee distillery, and a Tennessee whiskey that has had a motorcycle engine played into its barrels.
Have you tried any of these eight? Are there any you would like to get your hands on, and what do you make of the awards? Let us know in the comments.
