Eight bourbons took Master medals at the American Whiskey Masters 2026, and seven of them belong to Sazerac. The list includes George T. Stagg, Eagle Rare 17, and W.L. Weller Full Proof, which are among the hardest bourbons in America to actually buy at retail. The whiskey that finished above all of them was a five-year-old sourced bourbon finished in orange wine casks, released by a brand that had been on the market for a matter of months.
Today we are taking a look at every bourbon that was given a Master medal at the 2026 American Whiskey Masters, run by The Spirits Business.
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So let’s start with the one that came out on top. Let us know in the comments whether you agree with the judges.
Ampersand Aureus
Award: Master, and Taste Master
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Category: Bourbon – Ultra-Premium
Tasting Notes: Not yet announced
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READ THE STORYFind Your Next Bottle: RRP $75
Ampersand is the whiskey line Chip Tate has been putting together since joining Foley Family Wines & Spirits as master distiller for innovation in January 2024. Tate founded Balcones in Texas in 2008 and left the company in 2014. The first three Ampersand bottlings arrived in November 2025, and Aureus followed as the fourth.
Aureus is around five years old, sourced, and finished in Vino de Naranja casks, which previously held Spanish orange wine. Bottling takes place at Minden Mill in Nevada, a distillery Foley bought in 2023.
Christopher Davies, CEO of the North American Bourbon & Whiskey Competition, confirmed the strength to us as 60.9% ABV. Aureus also placed third for Best of Show at that competition.
At the time of writing, Aureus still hasn’t appeared on the Ampersand website. So, watch this space for more details on this upcoming release that has already swept the competition circuit.
Early Times Bottled-in-Bond
Award: Master
Category: Bourbon – Premium
Tasting Notes: Caramel, candy corn, vanilla, oak, spice, brown sugar
Find Your Next Bottle: $16
The remaining seven Masters all went to Sazerac, and we will work up from the everyday shelf.
Early Times was introduced by John Henry “Jack” Beam, uncle of Jim Beam, in 1860, and Brown-Forman bought it in 1923, making it the first brand the company ever acquired. Brown-Forman completed the sale to Sazerac on July 31, 2020, and distillation, aging, and bottling moved to the Barton 1792 distillery in Bardstown the following summer.
Sazerac bought the existing whiskey stocks along with the brand and said Barton would use the original recipe and mash bill. Breaking Bourbon reported in 2022 that barrels filled at Barton would keep aging until they met the brand’s sensory requirements, so some of the bottles on shelves now may still hold whiskey distilled by Brown-Forman.
The judges found “dried fruits on the nose, honey, caramel. Syrupy texture, and spice comes through quickly alongside sweet caramel.”
Benchmark Full Proof
Award: Master
Category: Bourbon – Premium
Tasting Notes: Brown sugar, chocolate, caramel, baking spice
Find Your Next Bottle: $22
Buffalo Trace describes Benchmark Full Proof as “bottled at 125 proof, the same strength it enters the barrel.” An important distinction here is that full proof and barrel proof are not the same thing. Barrel entry proof is fixed, so every bottle of Benchmark Full Proof is 125, while cask strength bottlings vary depending on the angel’s share and other factors.
Seagram’s created Benchmark in the late 1960s and made it at the Old Prentice distillery in Lawrenceburg, now Four Roses. Sazerac bought the brand in 1989, three years before it acquired the distillery that became Buffalo Trace, and the McAfee name was added later.
Benchmark took two more medals in this flight, with Golds for Benchmark and Benchmark Single Barrel.
Buffalo Trace
Award: Master
Category: Bourbon – Premium
Tasting Notes: Vanilla, brown sugar, toffee, dark fruit
Find Your Next Bottle: $20 / £19
Buffalo Trace Distillery’s flagship product, and one that needs no introduction.
Sazerac bought the Frankfort distillery in 1992, when it was still called the George T. Stagg Distillery, and the site had traded under several names before that, including O.F.C. and Old Fashioned Copper.
The Buffalo Trace name arrived in 1999, applied to the distillery and to the bourbon at the same time, and it refers to the buffalo trackway that crossed the Kentucky River at that point. The property was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2013.
The bourbon carries no age statement and is bottled at 90 proof. The judges called it “a fantastic option for under £30, sip neat or mix.” According to the distillery website, Buffalo Trace Bourbon has won 135 different awards.
W.L. Weller Full Proof
Award: Master
Category: Bourbon – Ultra-Premium
Tasting Notes: Vanilla, caramel, toasted oak, creme brulee
Find Your Next Bottle: $160 / £195
The only wheated bourbon among the eight winners. William Larue Weller, an iconic figure in American whiskey history, is credited with being among the first to replace rye with wheat in a bourbon mash bill. Created by Weller in 1849, the brand changed hands repeatedly after 1972 before Sazerac took ownership in 1999.
Full Proof works the same way here as it does with Benchmark, and the bourbon is bottled at 114 proof.
The whiskey arrived in June 2019 and was announced as an annual release in limited quantities. W.L. Weller Special Reserve, Antique 107, CYPB, Single Barrel and the 12 Year Old all took Golds elsewhere in the competition.
Stagg
Award: Master
Category: Bourbon – Ultra-Premium
Tasting Notes: Chocolate, brown sugar, cherry, clove
Find Your Next Bottle: $148 / £250
This bourbon spent its first nine years as Stagg Jr., a name that acknowledged its relationship to the older George T. Stagg further down this list. Buffalo Trace launched it in August 2013, and Batch 17 in winter 2021 was the last to carry the “Jr.”, with Batch 18 arriving the following year as simply Stagg.
Here the strength does move around, because Stagg is bottled uncut and unfiltered at barrel proof after at least 8 years of aging. Recent batches have run between roughly 126 and 131 proof, and the label now carries a year and letter code.
The judges noted the 65.5% ABV version that they tasted was “brilliantly controlled.”
Eagle Rare 17 Year Old 2025
Award: Master
Category: Bourbon – Aged Over 8 Years
Tasting Notes: Dark tobacco, cherry, leather, pepper, caramel, vanilla
Find Your Next Bottle: $1,880 / £1,505
Eagle Rare was launched in 1975 and originally made at the Old Prentice distillery, now Four Roses, arriving at Sazerac when the company bought the brand from Seagram in 1989.
The 17 Year Old is released each fall as part of the Buffalo Trace Antique Collection, which began in 2000 with this whiskey, William Larue Weller, and Sazerac 18 Year.
It also sits apart from its Antique Collection siblings on strength, since the others go out at barrel proof while Eagle Rare 17 is bottled at a set 101 proof after a few years at 90 proof. Despite its 17-year age statement, the 2025 release was actually aged for 18 years and four months.
Eagle Rare 10 and 12 both took Golds in this same flight.
George T. Stagg 2025
Award: Master
Category: Bourbon – Ultra-Premium
Tasting Notes: Vanilla, dark tobacco, ripe cherry, earthy, oak
Find Your Next Bottle: $1,300 / £790
Like Stagg Bourbon mentioned above, this bourbon was named for George T. Stagg. Buffalo Trace credits him with rising from whiskey salesman to co-owner of the O.F.C. distillery, the operation that eventually became Buffalo Trace itself.
His bourbon joined the Antique Collection in 2002, two years after the collection started, and the 2025 lineup added E.H. Taylor Bottled-in-Bond to make six whiskeys in the annual fall release.
Like the younger Stagg, it goes out uncut and unfiltered at barrel proof, and the number moves considerably from year to year.
There has been one gap since 2002, when Buffalo Trace left it out of the 2021 collection because, in the distillery’s words, “the 15-year-old barrels do not meet the Distillery’s taste standards for the Stagg brand.”
The 2025 release was aged for 15 years and four months and bottled at a hazmat 71.4% ABV.
What Do You Think?
One company took seven of the eight Masters, and six of those came out of a single distillery in Frankfort. What separates them is mostly proof, age, and how hard they are to find. The award for the best whiskey in the competition went elsewhere, to a brand that has been selling whiskey for less than a year.
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.
