The International Wine & Spirits Competition has been judging the world’s drinks since 1969, when wine chemist Anton Massel set it up with one firm rule: every entry would be tested in a lab as well as on the palate. The dual approach still shapes how the competition runs.
Spirits are tasted blind from numbered glasses, panels are drawn from more than 30 countries, and each judging day is capped at 65 samples so palates stay fresh and the discussion stays measured.
The scoring runs in tiers. Bronze covers 85 to 89 points, Silver 90 to 94, Gold 95 to 97, and Gold Outstanding sits at the top, reserved for anything that reaches 98 to 100.
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Four Irish whiskeys reached Spirit Gold Outstanding this year, each scoring 98. Here is a closer look at all four.
Tullamore Dew Special Reserve 12 Year Old Blended Irish Whiskey
Award: Spirit Gold Outstanding 2026
Score: 98
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READ THE STORYTasting Notes: Chocolate, dried fruits, praline, nuts
Find Your Next Bottle: $50 / £30
Tullamore D.E.W. likes to describe itself as triple distilled, triple blended, and triple cask matured. The 12 Year Old brings together the three styles of Irish whiskey, with grain for sweetness, malt for fruit, and pot still for the spice and weight that give this expression more body than the standard Original. The component whiskeys spend their years in a mix of ex-bourbon and ex-oloroso sherry casks, and the sherry is where much of the chocolate, dried fruit, and praline comes from. It is bottled at 40% ABV, smooth rather than heavy, and easy to keep coming back to.
The name reaches back to 1829 and the distillery in Tullamore, County Offaly, and to Daniel E. Williams, the manager whose initials still sit on every label. William Grant & Sons bought the brand in 2010 and later returned production to the town. Of the four winners here, this is the one you can actually buy without much hunting, usually for around $50.
Craft Irish Whiskey Co. The Donn Single Malt Irish Whiskey
Award: Spirit Gold Outstanding 2026
Score: 98
Tasting Notes: Orange zest, digestive biscuits, caramel, pecan nuts, marzipan, dark chocolate, caramel, toasted walnuts, prunes
Find Your Next Bottle: Join the waitlist
The Donn takes its name from Donn, the Irish god of the dead, who was said to gather the souls of the departed at a rocky island off the southwest coast. The decanter borrows its angular shape from those same rocks, and the whole presentation is pitched squarely at the luxury end of the shelf.
This particular whiskey carries no age statement and is younger than you might guess. The Craft Irish Whiskey Co. works on the principle that the cask matters more than the age. The single malt is matured across six different cask types: ex-bourbon, Tawny Port, toasted oak, and Pedro Ximénez sherry barrels.
Craft Irish was founded in 2018 by Jay Bradley, and it has built a reputation quickly, partly on releases like the seven-figure Fabergé collaboration. The Donn is the more attainable end of the range, though of course this is relative. It is a limited release and you must join a waitlist to enquire.
Teeling Distillery Exclusive 20 Year Old Mongolian Oak Cask Single Malt Irish Whiskey
Award: Spirit Gold Outstanding 2026
Score: 98
Tasting Notes: Green apple, pear, floral, woody incense, sweet biscuit, caramel, coconut, baked pear, honey, sandalwood spice, vanilla, oak, earthy tones, stewed orchard fruits
Find Your Next Bottle: Distillery exclusive
The exciting thing about this whiskey is the maturation. Mongolian oak, or Quercus mongolica, is the same species prized in Japan as Mizunara, and it brings a dense, tannic character that pushes a whiskey toward floral incense, sandalwood, and coconut. It rarely turns up in Irish whiskey.
The spirit first spent its years in a bourbon barrel before being moved into Mongolian oak to finish, and it is bottled at its natural cask strength of 45.9% ABV, non-chill-filtered. The result keeps the orchard fruit and honey you would expect from a 20 year old single malt, with the oak adding a spiced, woody edge underneath.
This is a distillery exclusive, sold only through Teeling’s Dublin home and its webshop, with just 276 bottles filled at €200 each. At 20 years old, the whiskey predates the current distillery, which opened in 2015, so it comes from the family’s older reserves rather than anything made on the Newmarket Square stills.
Teeling 33 Year Old Very Rare Cask Single Malt Irish Whiskey
Award: Spirit Gold Outstanding 2026
Score: 98
Tasting Notes: Fresh orchard fruits, roasted nuts, chocolate, peach, apricot, citrus fruits, smoke, herbs, spicy oak
Find Your Next Bottle: $3,478.99
Three decades in a cask puts this among the oldest Irish single malts you can find, and it carries the pedigree to match. The whiskey was already named World’s Best Irish Single Malt at the 2024 World Whiskies Awards before the IWSC judges added their own 98.
After more than 30 years of maturation in ex-bourbon, it was finished in a Pineau des Charentes cask, a French fortified grape spirit, and bottled at 49.7% ABV without chill filtration. The long aging shows in the candied fruit and toasted oak, with a dry, spiced finish underneath.
The Teeling family traces its whiskey roots to 1782 in Dublin, and brothers Jack and Stephen Teeling opened the city’s first new distillery in more than 125 years when they launched the Newmarket Square site in 2015, marking the moment with a phoenix on the label. A 33 year old, of course, comes from long before any of that, drawn from the family’s older stock.
Only 316 bottles reached the market, at $3,478.99 apiece, which makes this the collector’s grail of the four.
The 2026 IWSC Irish Verdict
The spread here is the striking part for me. Tullamore D.E.W. Special Reserve 12 Year Old sits on shelves at around $50, while Teeling’s 33 Year Old asks $3,699 and runs to just 316 bottles.
The medals settle the competition, but the argument is yours. If you have tried any of the four, tell us which earned its place and which you would have marked down. And if you have only read about them, which would you reach for first? Drop your verdict in the comments.
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