The New York International Spirits Competition has announced its 2026 results, and today we’re looking at Irish whiskey. Entries are tasted blind by trade buyers, who judge each spirit “by its category and actual price as if buying it for their business.” A Double Gold means every judge on the panel awarded Gold, while Gold and Silver mean the judges love or really like a spirit.
The winners range from an 18 year old single pot still to a 30% ABV orange-flavored spirit drink, and three come from a Belfast distillery that opened in 2023.
So, here are the best Irish whiskeys according to the New York International Spirits Competition 2026. Let us know if you agree with the results in the comments below.
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Redbreast 18 Year Old
Award: Double Gold, 96 points
Category: 11 – 20 years, Ireland, Pure Pot Still Irish Whiskey
Tasting Notes: Blackcurrants, sugar glazed cherries, dried fig, hazelnut chocolate, caramelised stoen fruits, toasted almonds, cinnamon, oak, worn leather, grapes, peeled ginger, liquorice, orange peel
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READ THE STORYFind Your Next Bottle: $180 / £175
Redbreast’s story begins with W&A Gilbey, a London wine and spirits merchant founded in 1857 that had expanded to Dublin by 1861. Gilbey matured spirit from Jameson’s Bow Street Distillery in its own sherry casks and first used the Redbreast name in 1912. The name is credited to Gilbey’s chairman, a keen bird-fancier. By the 1920s, the whiskey was popular enough with Irish clergy to be nicknamed “The Priest’s Bottle.”
After Gilbey’s final bottling in 1985, Irish Distillers bought the brand and relaunched it as a 12 year old in 1991, using pot still whiskey from Midleton.
The 18 Year Old joined the core range as a permanent addition in September 2024. Made from malted and unmalted barley, it is triple distilled in copper pot stills at Midleton and matured in bourbon, oloroso sherry, ruby port, and cream sherry casks. It is the first core Redbreast to use cream sherry casks, and it is bottled at 46% ABV.
Jameson Triple Triple
Award: Double Gold, 96 points
Category: Blended Irish Whiskey, Ireland, Up to 10 years
Tasting Notes: Toffee fudge, vanilla, hazelnut chocolate, orchard fruit, pear, green apple, dark chocolate, toasted almond, chestnut, wood spices
Find Your Next Bottle: $21 / £23
The name Triple Triple refers not only to triple distillation, but also the number of cask types involved. Jameson Triple Triple is, you guessed it, triple distilled at Midleton and blended from whiskey matured in three types of cask.
This edition used whiskey matured in ex-bourbon, sherry, and sweet chestnut casks. It is a blend of single pot still and single grain whiskeys, bottled at 40% ABV.
As for the brand behind it, Jameson is an iconic Irish whiskey brand that made up more than 70% of Irish whiskey sales in the US in 2021. In the year to June 2022, it passed 10 million cases sold for the first time.
Titanic Distillers Sherry Edition
Award: Gold, 95 points
Category: Blended Irish Whiskey, Ireland, Up to 10 years
Tasting Notes: Honeycomb, vanilla, toasted malt, chocolate, fruit cake, coconut, dark fruit, herbs, polished oak, spice, dark chocolate
Find Your Next Bottle: $46 / £35
Titanic Distillers is housed in the pump house at Belfast’s Thompson Dock. The dock opened in 1911 to service the White Star liners Olympic and Titanic, and it was the last place Titanic sat on dry land before her ill-fated maiden voyage.
Peter Lavery, a former Belfast bus driver who won the lottery, set up the distillery with Stephen Symington and Richard Irwin. It opened in 2023 as Belfast’s first working whiskey distillery in almost 90 years, and head distiller Damien Rafferty began distilling on three Forsyths copper pot stills that same year.
Since its own spirit is still maturing, Titanic’s current releases use whiskey from other Irish distilleries. Its first bottling was made with Great Northern Distillery in Dundalk.
The Sherry Edition (listed at the NYISC as “Sherry Blend”) is a version of Titanic’s Premium Irish Whiskey, blended from 80% grain and 20% malt. The malt portion includes PX cask-matured whiskey and a sherry-vatted malt.
Titanic Distillers 5 Year Old Pot Still PX
Award: Gold, 95 points
Category: Ireland, Pure Pot Still Irish Whiskey, Up to 10 years
Tasting Notes: Fruit cake, liquorice, dark chocolate, pepper
Find Your Next Bottle: N/A
The 5 Year Old Pot Still PX belongs to Titanic’s Pumphouse Series. The series is a run of small-batch releases for the years while the distillery’s own spirit matures. When it launched, head distiller Damien Rafferty wrote on LinkedIn that the release “marks the first bottling of a cask that we have sourced and finished here, on-site, at Thompson Dock.”
The whiskey was made from malted and unmalted barley and finished in Pedro Ximénez sherry casks at the Pumphouse. Only 350 bottles were released. Earlier this year, it took Double Gold at the London Spirits Competition and was named Pot Still Irish Whiskey of the Year. It also won Gold at the Irish Whiskey Masters.
Titanic Distillers 8 Year Old Single Malt
Award: Silver, 93 points
Category: Ireland, Single Malt Irish Whiskey, Up to 10 years
Tasting Notes: Vanilla, honeycomb, cherries, citrus, dried fruits, caramel, spice
Find Your Next Bottle: $73 / £55
The 8 Year Old is Titanic’s first single malt. The distillery only began distilling in 2023, so the whiskey in this bottle was made elsewhere. It is aged for at least eight years across ex-bourbon, virgin oak, oloroso sherry, and Pedro Ximénez sherry casks. It is bottled at 42% ABV.
Titanic describes it as made from double-distilled single malt. Its own single malt spirit at Thompson Dock, by contrast, is triple distilled.
This Silver is one of several awards for the whiskey this year. At the 2026 San Francisco World Spirits Competition, it took a Double Gold with 98 points, and at the 2026 IWSC it won a Gold with 95 points. It was also named Irish Single Malt of the Year at the London Spirits Competition.
Jameson Orange
Award: Silver, 93 points
Category: Flavored Whiskey, Ireland, Up to 10 years
Find Your Next Bottle: Orange citrus fruits, orange zest, vanilla, nuts
Jameson Orange is not legally Irish whiskey. Irish whiskey has to be bottled at no less than 40% ABV. Jameson Orange is bottled at 30%.
It is made by combining triple-distilled Jameson with natural orange flavoring, and it launched in the UK in August 2021. Irish Distillers said the flavor was inspired by the Old Fashioned and planned a US launch for 2022.
Jameson dates its story to 1780, when the Bow Street distillery opened in Dublin. The distillery was founded by the Stein family, who employed John Jameson as general manager before he took ownership in 1805. Jameson moved production to Midleton, County Cork, in 1975. Pernod Ricard has owned the brand since it bought Irish Distillers in 1988.
Kinsale Spirits Wild Atlantic Irish Whiskey Rechar Barrel
Award: Silver, 93 points
Category: Blended Irish Whiskey, Ireland, Up to 10 years
Tasting Notes: Toffee, ripe red fruits, blackberry, raspberry, marzipan, port, spice, pepper
Find Your Next Bottle: $34 / £25
Kinsale publican Tom O’Riordan founded Kinsale Spirit Company with his sister Clodagh, a qualified distiller, and their Kinsale Gin first went on sale in 2017. Ernest Cantillon and Colin Ross later joined as partners. The company has since added the Red Earl, Great Earl, and Spanish Earl whiskeys, alongside the two Wild Atlantic releases.
Kinsale set out to build its whiskey brands without waiting years for its own stock to mature. As of late 2023, its distillery in Kinsale was still under construction.
The Rechar Barrel is a blend of triple-distilled Irish grain whiskey and malt whiskey, aged for more than four years and given a rechar barrel finish. Recharring means burning the inside of a used barrel again to open up the wood. The whiskey is bottled at 40% ABV.
What Do You Make of the Results?
Midleton Distillery in County Cork produced both Double Golds this year, with Redbreast 18 Year Old and Jameson Triple Triple each scoring 96. Beyond those two, the list covers a lot of ground. A brand that traces its history to 1780 sits alongside a Belfast distillery that only opened in 2023. The styles range from single pot still and single malt to blends and a 30% ABV flavored spirit drink.
Have you tried any of these? 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.
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