Rye accounted for five of the top-scoring whiskeys at the North American Bourbon & Whiskey Competition in 2026. Each of the five earned a Double Gold, which the competition awards to any entry scoring 95 or higher on its 100-point scale. Three finished on 96 and two on 95, according to the official 2026 winners list.
The competition has run since 2014, is organized by Wine Country Network, and judges every entry blind using a panel of spirits professionals.
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The five ryes come from quite different producers, including two Kentucky bottlings from the same distillery, two from a Vermont brand, and one from an independent bottler with no distillery of its own.
Let’s take a closer look at all five rye whiskeys.
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Tumblin’ Dice Rye Whiskey
Award: Double Gold, 96 points
Tasting Notes: Caramel, dark chocolate, maple, pepper, herbs, hazelnut, cherries
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READ THE STORYFind Your Next Bottle: $85 / £68
Tumblin’ Dice comes from Proof and Wood, an independent bottler founded in 2015 by Dave Schmier, who had previously co-founded Redemption Rye. The company operates from New Canaan, Connecticut.
The whiskey is made in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, at MGP, using the mash bill of 95% rye and 5% malted barley that the distillery is known for.
The competition listing gives no age statement, so the entry is most likely the single barrel bottling, released at seven, eight, and nine years old. Those barrels are filled into new charred oak and bottled at barrel proof, between 112 and 117 proof.
Proof and Wood also released a 13 year old rye from the same mash bill in May 2026. The company also produces a rye whiskey finished in apple brandy casks.
Thomas H. Handy Rye 2025
Award: Double Gold, 96 points
Tasting Notes: Cinnamon, black pepper, toasted oak, caramel, spice
Find Your Next Bottle: $500 / £600
Thomas H. Handy ran a bar in New Orleans in the late nineteenth century and is credited with using American rye whiskey in the Sazerac cocktail in place of cognac. His business is the ancestor of today’s Sazerac Company, and the whiskey carrying his name is made at Buffalo Trace in Frankfort, Kentucky, where the distillery keeps its mash bills private.
This bottling is the uncut, unfiltered rye in the Buffalo Trace Antique Collection, and it is the youngest whiskey in the set.
The 2025 release was aged six years and three months, distilled in spring 2018 and 2019, matured on floors four through seven of warehouses AA, DD, L, and N, and bottled at 129.8 proof.
It carried a suggested price of $149.99 and arrived in October 2025 as part of an annual, allocated release. Although, thanks to limited availability and a passionate fanbase, actual retail prices often reach $500 or above.
WhistlePig Estate Oak Rye 15 Year Old
Award: Double Gold, 96 points
Tasting Notes: Caramel, vanilla, oak, allspice, burnt orange, butterscotch, leather, tobacco
Find Your Next Bottle: $250 / £235
The Estate Oak bottling takes its name from the oak grown on WhistlePig’s own farm in Shoreham, Vermont, which the brand harvests and has made into barrels for finishing.
WhistlePig was founded in 2007 by Raj Bhakta on a former dairy farm, with Dave Pickerell, previously of Maker’s Mark, as its founding master distiller. Bhakta left the company in 2019, and Moët Hennessy took a minority stake at the end of 2020.
The whiskey itself is a 100% rye aged for 15 years, bottled at 92 proof, and finished for a period in Vermont oak custom barrels made from white oak logged on the company’s 500-acre farm in Shoreham.
Sazerac 18-Year-Old Rye 2025
Award: Double Gold, 95 points
Tasting Notes: Rye spice, seasoned oak, herbs, leather, caraway seed, mint
Find Your Next Bottle: $2,000 / £1,200
The Sazerac name started out as a French cognac, Sazerac de Forge et Fils, which was sold exclusively at a New Orleans bar that took the same name. Thomas H. Handy, whose rye appears elsewhere on this list, later ran that bar, and the firm he left behind eventually reorganized as the Sazerac Company in 1919.
Sazerac 18 was one of the three bottlings that made up the first Buffalo Trace Antique Collection in 2000, alongside Eagle Rare 17 Year Old and W.L. Weller 19 Year Old. Like the rest of the collection it is made at Buffalo Trace in Frankfort, Kentucky, from a rye mash bill the distillery does not publish.
For the 2025 edition, it had an age of 18 years and five months at botting, spring 2006 and 2007 distillation, maturation on the second and third floors of warehouses O, K, and L, and a loss of about 77% to evaporation.
It is bottled at 90 proof and priced at $149.99. Again, though, expect to much, more more.
WhistlePig PiggyBack 100% Rye
Award: Double Gold, 95 points
Tasting Notes: Cinnamon, peppercorn, tangerine, grapefruit, cocoa, cardamom, vanilla, citrus, leather, baking spice
Find Your Next Bottle: $40 / £43
PiggyBack was one of the last whiskeys Dave Pickerell worked on before his death in 2018, and WhistlePig developed it specifically with cocktails in mind rather than as a sipping rye. The label carries a nod to him as well, with the pig wearing a Stetson in place of the top hat used elsewhere in the range.
It is made from 100% rye, aged for a minimum of six years in new charred American oak, and bottled at 96.56 proof at the company’s farm in Shoreham, Vermont. Unlike the other four whiskeys here, it is part of the permanent lineup and much easier to find than many of the other ryes on this list.
Rye’s Strong Showing at the 2026 North American Bourbon & Whiskey Competition
The five ryes have very little in common beyond the medal. Two came from the same Kentucky distillery and the same annual collection, two carry the same Vermont brand while sitting at opposite ends of its range, and one comes from a company that owns no stills at all.
What you will pay ranges from around $40 to roughly $2,000, since the Buffalo Trace bottlings almost never sell at their suggested price.
Have you tried any of these five? If not, which one would you reach for first, and do you think the judges got it right? Let us know in the comments.
