Seven whiskies reached Double Gold at the 2026 Bartender Spirits Awards, the tier the competition reserves for scores of 96 points and above. It is a different sort of award list from most, because of who does the judging.
The Bartender Spirits Awards is run by Beverage Trade Network, and its panel is made up entirely of working bartenders, bar managers, and on-premise buyers rather than distillers or critics. The question behind each score is a practical one: would this bottle earn its place on a back bar?
Everything is tasted blind and scored across five weighted areas: mixability; balance and versatility; taste, mouthfeel and finish; packaging; and value. The price is only revealed to judges after the blind tasting, so it does not impact their flavor scores.
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Below Double Gold sit the other tiers, with Gold covering 90 to 95 points, Silver 80 to 89, and Bronze 70 to 79.
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The seven Double Gold whisky winners cover a good range of styles, from American rye and bourbon to an Indian single malt and a blended Scotch. The balance tips heavily toward the United States, though, with five of the seven made in America, and three of those coming from a single Kentucky producer.
Here is a closer look at all seven Double Gold whiskies, how they are made, where they come from, and whether you can get hold of one.
Every Kirkland Bourbon Ranked, From Worst to Best
READ THE STORYWhistlePig PiggyBack 100% Rye
Awards: Double Gold Medal, Whisky of the Year, Rye Whiskey of the Year, Spirit of the Year United States of America, Spirit of the Year
Score: 99 points
Tasting Notes: “The nose reveals expressive grassy and black pepper notes with dried spices, leading to a well-balanced palate with a smooth, lingering finish that exemplifies true rye character.” – Bartender Spirits Awards
Find Your Next Bottle: $40 / £43
PiggyBack was the last whiskey developed by Dave Pickerell, the former Maker’s Mark master distiller who did as much as anyone to shape the American craft whiskey scene before his death in 2018. He and Master Blender Pete Lynch designed it as a rye for bartenders, with The Spirits Business reporting that the rye was “the realisation of Dave’s dream to create the best aged rye whiskey”.
PiggyBack has a 100% rye mash bill, is aged six years in American oak, and is bottled at 96.56 proof, a figure WhistlePig chose for how it works in cocktails. The brand itself grew out of a farm in Shoreham, Vermont, and while it now distills on site, the earlier rye in PiggyBack is widely understood to have been sourced from Canada.
Within a lineup that runs to premium, older bottlings, this is the affordable everyday option.
Godawan 02 Fruit & Spice Indian Single Malt Whisky
Awards: Double Gold Medal, Indian Single Malt Whisky of the Year, Spirit of the Year India
Score: 97 points
Tasting Notes: “This whisky offers an inviting nose of vanilla, orchard fruits, and citrus peel, leading to a silky, well-balanced palate with subtle oak, leather, and molasses, culminating in a smooth, refined finish.” – Bartender Spirits Awards
Find Your Next Bottle: $76 / £61 / ₹5,400
Godawan is distilled in Alwar, in the desert state of Rajasthan, where the heat pushes maturation along quickly and takes a heavy toll in evaporation. It is the artisanal single malt brand from Diageo India, and it takes its name from the Great Indian Bustard, a critically endangered bird found in the region. The company actively contributes to conservation efforts by finding the protection of grasslands and water reserves in the bustard’s national habitat.
The whisky is made from six-row barley and matured first in ex-bourbon casks. What sets the 02 apart is the finishing: a portion is rested in casks treated with two Ayurvedic botanicals, Rasna and Jatamansi, before a final period in cherry-wood casks. It is bottled at 46% ABV, non-chill filtered and at natural color.
Godawan 01 Rich & Rounded is the sherry-influenced counterpart to this fruitier expression.
Heaven Hill Grain to Glass Traditional Barrel Series Kentucky Straight Rye Whiskey
Awards: Double Gold Medal
Score: 97 points
Tasting Notes: “This well-balanced rye offers a harmonious nose of floral oils, citrus, caramel, and vanilla, with a palate of spice, maple, honey, and oak, culminating in a lingering, warm finish.” – Bartender Spirits Awards
Find Your Next Bottle: $135 / £120
The Grain to Glass line is Heaven Hill’s most transparent, and the label spells out production details that you won’t often see: the corn varietal, the barrel-entry proof, the rickhouse, and even the warehouse floors the barrels rested on.
The grain is traceable to a single source, grown by Peterson Farms in Nelson County, Kentucky, on fields close to the distillery’s own rickhouses. This rye carries a mash bill of 63% rye, 24% corn, and 13% malted barley, distilled in 2018 and aged more than six years in rickhouses W5 and W6 at Cox’s Creek before bottling at barrel proof, which came in at 105.2 for the second edition. The corn varietal for this edition was Beck’s 6225.
Heaven Hill has made whiskey in Kentucky since 1935 and remains the largest family-owned and operated producer in the country. This is a limited, small-batch release rather than a permanent fixture on the shelf.
Bardstown Bourbon Company Rye Whiskey
Awards: Double Gold Medal, American Straight Rye Whiskey of the Year
Score: 96 points
Tasting Notes: “Rich, inviting aroma of stone fruit and baking spices leads to a palate that refines smoothly with a balanced, lingering finish.” – Bartender Spirits Awards
Find Your Next Bottle: $53 / £42
Bardstown Bourbon Company makes whiskey for a large number of other brands through its collaborative distilling program, so the Origin Series carries some weight for them: it was the first lineup made entirely from their own distillate.
The rye uses a 95% rye, 5% malted barley mash bill, the same recipe found across a good deal of American rye. After aging in new American oak, it is re-barreled into a custom cask built from alternating staves of toasted oak and toasted cherrywood. It carries a six-year age statement and is bottled at 96 proof.
The company was founded in 2014 in Bardstown, Kentucky, and built its reputation on transparency, down to glass-walled rickhouses.
Heaven Hill Grain to Glass Specialty Barrel Series Kentucky Straight Wheated Bourbon
Awards: Double Gold Medal
Score: 96 points
Tasting Notes: “Aromas of maple, oak, and subtle floral notes lead to a palate with gentle spice, caramel, pecans, and a remarkably long, warm finish.” – Bartender Spirits Awards
Find Your Next Bottle: $124.99
This wheated bourbon is one of three whiskeys in the Heaven Hill Grain to Glass Specialty Barrel Series, which launched in November 2025 alongside a bourbon and a rye. The series sits within the same Grain to Glass family as the Traditional Barrel rye covered earlier, and the point of difference is the wood.
Where the Traditional line uses standard charred oak, all three Specialty releases are fully aged in Chinquapin oak, a species of American white oak grown in Missouri and known for its high vanillin content, which helps account for the caramel and pecan notes.
The mash bill is 52% corn, 35% wheat, and 13% malted barley, with the grain grown by Peterson Farms in Nelson County, Kentucky. It was distilled in 2018, aged for six years, and bottled at 105 proof, non-chill filtered.
This is an allocated national release in limited quantities, priced at $129.99, so it will take some looking for.
Elijah Craig Rye
Awards: Double Gold Medal
Score: 96 points
Tasting Notes: “Aromas of allspice, nutmeg, and Asian pear lead to a spice-laden palate with dry, balanced texture and a warming, integrated alcohol finish.” – Bartender Spirits Awards
Find Your Next Bottle: $20 / £40
Elijah Craig is one of Heaven Hill’s best-known bourbon brands, named for the Baptist minister who is often credited, on fairly thin evidence, with being the first to age Kentucky whiskey in charred oak barrels.
Heaven Hill first put the Elijah Craig name on a rye whiskey in early 2020, and it uses the distillery’s corn-heavy Kentucky rye recipe of 51% rye, 35% corn, and 14% malted barley, which sits right at the legal threshold for the category. It is bottled at 94 proof and carries no age statement, though it is generally understood to be around four years old.
Of the seven winners here, this is the one most clearly aimed at everyday drinking and mixing, and it usually sells for around $30, which does a lot to explain its appeal to bartenders. Those wanting something with more strength behind it now have the option of an older barrel proof version.
Maclean’s Nose Blended Scotch Whisky
Awards: Double Gold Medal, Blended Scotch of the Year
Score: 96 points
Tasting Notes: “A refined expression with subtle peat, balanced smokiness, and a dry fruity palate culminating in a long, smoky finish.” – Bartender Spirits Awards
Find Your Next Bottle: $30 / £30
Maclean’s Nose is named for Charles MacLean, the Scottish whisky writer familiar to some viewers from his appearance in the Ken Loach film The Angels’ Share, and it doubles as a reference to a headland of the same name on the Ardnamurchan peninsula.
The whisky comes from Adelphi, the independent bottler that also owns the Ardnamurchan Distillery on Scotland’s west coast. The blend is built around a high proportion of malt, roughly 70% malt whisky from Western Highland and Campbeltown distilleries to 30% Lowland grain, with a good deal of ex-sherry cask maturation in the mix. The result is a coastal, lightly smoky, sherried style that reflects MacLean’s own taste. It is bottled at 46% ABV, non-chill filtered and at natural color, and the label is made from a barley-based paper produced using draff, a by-product of distillation.
Of the seven Double Gold winners, this is the most straightforward everyday sipping Scotch, and a reasonable value at that.
Seven Whiskies, One Bartender’s-Eye View
The seven Double Gold winners cover four countries’ worth of styles, but the American showing is hard to miss, with five of the seven distilled in the United States and three of those coming from Heaven Hill alone. The mix ranges from allocated, barrel-proof bottles that will take some hunting down to everyday pours like Elijah Craig Rye and Maclean’s Nose that you can pick up without much trouble or expense.
Despite their differences, all impressed on-trade bartenders who, perhaps better than most, understand what consumers are looking for.
If you have tried any of the seven, we would like to know which ones you think earned their Double Gold, and which you would pour first. Let us know in the comments.
