The International Whisky Competition is one of the more respected blind-tasting contests in the spirits calendar, judging each entry without the panel knowing what they are assessing.
The 2026 results for Irish whiskey were dominated by a single distillery: three of the five winners covered here are Powers expressions made at Midleton in County Cork. The other two come from very different places, with an American-owned blend built from sourced Irish whiskey and an independent bonder working out of Newry.
Across the Best Irish Whiskey and Best Blended Irish Whiskey categories, the lineup takes in single pot still tradition, a revived rye, and modern independent blending. Let’s take a look at each of the winners.
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Michael Collins Irish Whiskey
Award: 1st Place, Best Irish Whiskey, 1st Place, Best Blended Irish Whiskey, 90.77 points
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Tasting Notes: Honey, fruit, floral, peat, spice
Find Your Next Bottle: $64 / £47
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Taking both the Best Irish Whiskey and Best Blended Irish Whiskey titles, Michael Collins is named for the Irish revolutionary, and “The Prediction” refers to a prophecy his father is said to have made about him as a child.
Reportedly, Collins’ father said on his deathbed that his son would “be a great man and do great things for Ireland.” Michael Collins later became a leading figure in the fight for Irish independence in the 1910s. He served as a Director of Intelligence for the IRA and later as Chairman of the Provisional Government of the Irish Free State. He died during the Irish Civil War in 1922 at the age of 31.
The Michael Collins brand was launched in the United States in 2006 by the Sidney Frank Importing Company, using whiskey sourced from the Cooley Distillery. After Cooley’s owner cut off supply to independent bottlers, the brand changed hands and is now owned by the Sazerac Company, the New Orleans firm behind Buffalo Trace.
Sazerac does not own an Irish distillery, so the whiskey is sourced and matured in Ireland, then bottled as a triple-distilled blend of pot still, grain, and malt whiskey. It remains a primarily US-focused release.
Powers John’s Lane 12 Year Irish Whiskey
Award: 2nd Place, Best Irish Whiskey, 90 points
Tasting Notes: Earthy, leather, tobacco, charred wood, dark chocolate, treacle toffee, vanilla, honey, dried apricot, toasted oak
Find Your Next Bottle: $65 / £62
Powers takes its name from a distilling family who opened a distillery on John’s Lane in Dublin in 1791. The distillery was founded by James Power, an innkeeper who began distilling on the side. Following the establishment of the distillery, Alfred Barnard, a famous whisky writer and historian, called the distillery “about as complete a work as it is possible to find anywhere”.
Production moved to the Midleton Distillery in County Cork after the original Dublin site closed in the 1970s, and the brand is now part of Irish Distillers, owned by Pernod Ricard.
This release is a single pot still Irish whiskey, a style made from a mix of malted and unmalted barley and triple-distilled in copper pot stills. It spends at least 12 years in cask, matured mainly in American oak that previously held bourbon, with a portion in ex-Oloroso sherry casks, and is bottled at 46% ABV.
It is a permanent part of the Powers range and is sold across Ireland, the UK, Europe, and the United States.
Powers Irish Rye Whiskey
Award: 3rd Place, Best Irish Whiskey, 88.90 points
Tasting Notes: Burnt orange, maraschino cherries, toffee, banana, rye bread, pastry, spices, candied ginger, peppermint, caramelised apples, liquorice, vanilla, choli oil, honey glazed fruits, cereal
Find Your Next Bottle: $45 / £35
Powers Irish Rye arrived in 2023 as the first Irish rye whiskey of its kind, made by Irish Distillers at Midleton. Where American rye whiskey has to contain at least 51% rye, this one uses a mash of 100% rye, grown in Ireland at a farm in County Wexford close to the ancestral home of the Powers family.
The grain presented some practical challenges in production, which is part of why a full-rye Irish whiskey had not been made in the modern era.
It is matured in American oak, including a mix of virgin, first-fill, and refill casks, and bottled at 43.2% ABV. It was added as a permanent expression to the Powers lineup, and it is available in Ireland, the UK, and the United States.
Two Stacks The First Cut Signature Blend
Award: 2nd Place, Best Blended Irish Whiskey, 87.93 points
Tasting Notes: Honey, vanilla, toasted oak, citrus, caramel, dried fruit
Find Your Next Bottle: $36 / £36.50
Two Stacks is an independent Irish whiskey brand founded in 2020 by Shane McCarthy, Liam Brogan, and Donal McLynn, and it works as a bonder, meaning it blends, matures, and bottles whiskey.
The First Cut is a blend of five whiskeys, and according to the company, every label lists the full recipe: 40% single grain aged in former bourbon casks, 40% single grain aged in virgin American oak, 8% pot still whiskey aged in Oloroso sherry casks, 10% double-distilled malt, and 2% peated malt. The component whiskeys are sourced from the Great Northern Distillery in Dundalk, and the blending and bottling happen at the company’s warehouse in Newry. It is bottled at 43% ABV.
Two Stacks has expanded beyond Ireland into a number of markets, and its distribution in the United States runs across more than 19 states.
Powers Gold Label Irish Whiskey
Award: 3rd Place, Best Blended Irish Whiskey, 87.80 points
Tasting Notes: Cinnamon, clove oil, white pepper, russet apples, pears, oak, peppers, nutmeg, orchard fruits, vanilla, toasted oak, honey
Find Your Next Bottle: $35 / £27
Powers Gold Label carries the longest history of any whiskey here. In 1886, John Power & Son began bottling their own whiskey rather than selling it by the cask to merchants, one of the first distilleries in the world to do so, and the gold label on those bottles gave the whiskey its name.
Like the rest of the Powers range, it is now made by Irish Distillers at Midleton in County Cork. It was originally a single pot still whiskey, and it was reformulated as a blend after production moved from Dublin to Midleton in the 1970s, combining pot still whiskey with grain whiskey. It is matured in ex-bourbon American oak casks and bottled at 43.2% ABV.
Powers Gold Label has long been one of the best-selling whiskeys in Ireland, and it is widely available across Ireland, the UK, Europe, and the United States.
Final Thoughts
What stands out in the 2026 Irish results is how much of the winning came out of one place. Midleton’s pot still tradition runs through three of the five, all under the Powers name, yet the full list still stretches across very different producers: a French-owned heritage brand, an American-owned blend built from sourced Irish whiskey, and an independent bonder working out of Newry.
Between them, they cover most of the ways Irish whiskey gets made today, from long-established distilleries to newer outfits reviving the older craft of blending and bonding.
Have you tried any of these five? Is there one you’d most like to open next? And do you think the judges got the rankings right? Let us know in the comments.
