The International Spirits Challenge awards Double Gold only when a spirit receives a unanimous Gold score from every judge on the panel, which is why the 2026 bourbon results stood out. Just one bourbon earned a Double Gold, while sixteen earned Gold — a deep field rather than a single runaway winner.
Part 1 covered nine of those medalists, including the lone Double Gold. This second article covers the remaining seven Gold-winning bourbons, ranging from a $15 supermarket staple to a $500 mizunara-finished release from Brooklyn.
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Widow Jane Black Opal
Medal: Gold
Tasting Notes: Vanilla, white miso, apricot, molasses, tobacco, walnut, poached plum, brown butter, sage, almonds, caramelised sugar, beeswax, chocolate ganache
Find Your Next Bottle: $470 / £377
Black Opal is the oldest whiskey Widow Jane has ever released, and the Brooklyn blender treated it accordingly. It was announced in 2024, with just 5,000 bottles produced and packaged in a black steel box alongside a numbered fine-art print.
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The base is sourced bourbon from Kentucky and Tennessee, with an undisclosed mashbill, matured for a minimum of 20 years in new charred American oak. It was then given an extended secondary finish in Japanese mizunara casks that were air-seasoned for 12 months and given a medium toast and light char.
It is bottled at 91 proof, non-chill filtered, and proofed with limestone mineral water from the Rosendale Mines in upstate New York.
Mizunara is associated with Japanese whisky and is rarely used to finish American bourbon at this age. The casks are known for their porosity and lack of tannins, imparting flavors such as sandalwood and incense.
Old Fitzgerald Fall 2025 Edition
Medal: Gold
Tasting Notes: Leather, subtle oak, baking spice, honey, butterscotch, plums, peaches, figs, dark fruit, milk chocolate
Find Your Next Bottle: $160
The Old Fitzgerald Bottled-in-Bond Decanter Series is Heaven Hill’s twice-yearly collectible run, with each release presented in a 1950s-inspired diamond decanter. Fall editions wear a black label, spring editions a different color, and the Fall 2025 release is the 16th in the series.
The Old Fitzgerald name traces to the 1800s and was Pappy Van Winkle’s wheated benchmark during its Stitzel-Weller years before Heaven Hill acquired the brand in 1999. It uses the same wheated mashbill as Larceny — 68% corn, 20% wheat, and 12% malted barley — but sits in a more allocated and more aged tier.
The Fall 2025 Edition was distilled in Fall 2014 and bottled at 11 years old, at 100 proof, meeting the Bottled-in-Bond Act requirements.
Maker’s Mark Classic
Medal: Gold
Tasting Notes: Sweet oak, fruit, wheat, vanilla, soft spice
Find Your Next Bottle: $21 / £24
Maker’s Mark is one of those classic bourbons that needs no introduction.
The distillery was founded in 1953 by Bill Samuels Sr. in Loretto, Kentucky, with the first bottling released in 1958. The dripping red wax on the neck of every bottle was the idea of Margie Samuels, who is also credited with designing the label and the brand name. Maker’s Mark is now part of Suntory Global Spirits.
The mashbill is wheated — 70% corn, 16% soft red winter wheat, and 14% malted barley. Barrels are hand-rotated between rickhouse floors to even out maturation, and bottling is determined by taste rather than a fixed age, typically landing around six to seven years. It is bottled at 90 proof and chill-filtered, with an SRP of around $30.
Maker’s Mark offers fantastic value for money, with its soft, rounded, wheated character and distinct notes of cherries.
Knob Creek 21 Year Old
Medal: Gold
Tasting Notes: Caramel, char, fruit, caramelized sugar, toffee
Find Your Next Bottle: $300 / £240
The Knob Creek 21 Year Old is the oldest expression ever released from the James B. Beam Distilling Co., per Beam’s press release announcing it on October 28, 2025.
Knob Creek was created by Booker Noe in 1992 as part of Beam’s Small Batch Collection, intended as a pre-Prohibition-style bourbon with deeper color and heavier char than the standard Beam range.
The 21 Year uses Beam’s standard mashbill of 77% corn, 13% rye, and 10% malted barley, matured in new, heavily charred American oak. The batch was drawn from barrels aged across Beam’s Clermont, Boston, and Frankfort rickhouses.
It is bottled at 100 proof, with eighth-generation master distiller Freddie Noe noting in the announcement that the team “weren’t chasing any specific age statement” when they laid the batch down.
Kentucky Beau
Medal: Gold
Tasting Notes: Caramel corn, cinnamon, nutmeg, leather, stone
Find Your Next Bottle: $40
Kentucky Beau is an old Heaven Hill label, historically applied to a charcoal-filtered 80-proof Kentucky Blended Whiskey. The name was revived in 2025 for an all-new Kentucky Straight Bourbon, with TTB label approval announced in May 2025.
The current release carries a six-year age statement and is bottled at 100 proof. The mashbill is not officially disclosed, though Heaven Hill’s traditional bourbon recipe of 78% corn, 10% rye, and 12% malted barley is the most likely basis given the producer.
Distribution appears to be limited, with Total Wine & More listing it on a dedicated brand page at an SRP of $39.99 and few other retailers carrying it. Total Wine’s product page describes the bourbon as having “a soft sweetness of caramel, corn, warm spice, and toasted oak.”
A six-year age statement at 100 proof for under $40 is a competitive proposition, and a Gold medal at ISC does no harm to the case.
Evan Williams Black
Medal: Gold
Tasting Notes: Oak, brown sugar, caramel, vanilla, mint
Find Your Next Bottle: $12 / £26
Evan Williams Black is the flagship of Heaven Hill’s Evan Williams range, introduced in 1957 and named for the Welsh-born distiller credited as one of Kentucky’s earliest commercial whiskey makers. It is one of the highest-volume American whiskey brands on the global market, with The Spirits Business reporting around 3.1 million 9-liter cases sold in 2024.
The mashbill is Heaven Hill’s traditional bourbon recipe of 78% corn, 10% rye, and 12% malted barley, aged in new charred American oak. The bottle carries no age statement, though it formerly carried a seven-year statement that was dropped years ago, and current bottlings are typically four to seven years old. It is bottled at 86 proof and chill-filtered.
It retails at around $15, which is what makes a Gold medal at a competition this rigorous a useful data point for anyone shopping the bottom shelf. This is probably the best bang-for-buck whiskey on this list.
Elijah Craig Small Batch
Medal: Gold
Tasting Notes: Vanilla bean, sweet fruit, fresh mint, spice, smoke, nutmeg
Find Your Next Bottle: $23 / £42
Elijah Craig was launched in 1986 and named for the Baptist preacher historically credited (with some dispute among bourbon historians) with charring oak barrels for whiskey maturation. Small Batch is the entry-level expression in the Elijah Craig lineup, sitting below the Barrel Proof, 18 Year, and 23 Year releases.
It uses Heaven Hill’s traditional bourbon mashbill of 78% corn, 10% rye, and 12% malted barley, aged in new charred American oak at char level #3. Each batch is a blend of around 200 barrels. The bourbon is bottled at 94 proof.
Small Batch was originally a 12-year age-stated bourbon, but Heaven Hill removed the age statement in early 2016 and the current product is non-age-stated. It is a core release, widely available, retailing at around $30.
Elijah Craig Toasted Barrel
Medal: Gold
Tasting Notes: Oak, caramel, spice, pepper, milk chocolate, hint of smoke, baking spice
Find Your Next Bottle: $43 / £54
Elijah Craig Toasted Barrel is fully matured Elijah Craig Small Batch given a secondary finish in custom new oak barrels crafted by Independent Stave Company from 18-month air-dried oak, with each barrel given a moderate toast and then a flash char.
The base is Heaven Hill’s traditional bourbon mashbill of 78% corn, 10% rye, and 12% malted barley. There is no age statement on the toasted barrel finish itself, with the age coming from the underlying Small Batch component. It is bottled at 94 proof and chill-filtered.
It originally launched as a limited edition in 2020 and is now a permanent part of the Elijah Craig lineup, retailing at around $50. The toasting brings out different wood compounds than charring alone, particularly vanillins and caramelized sugars.
The 2026 ISC Bourbon Verdict, Part 2
Eight bourbons, a price spread running from around $15 to $500, and a medal table that rewards both the supermarket staple and the mizunara-finished collector’s piece. The 2026 ISC results read as an unusually broad endorsement of the bourbon category.
If you only pick up one from this group, make it the Evan Williams Black. A Gold medal at a competition this rigorous, for a bottle that costs around $15, is the kind of result worth acting on.
Do you agree with the judges? Think they got it wrong? Drop your favorites from the 2026 ISC bourbon medalists in the comments and let us know which ones you’d have given the Double Gold to.
