Artfully Bourbon / November 10, 2026Elijah Craig 15 wins Best Overall Bourbon, but the biggest whiskey honor goes to a six-year-old rye. Here are the American whiskey winners worth watching.
The 2026 San Francisco World Spirits Competition winners are in, and while Elijah Craig 15 Year Single Barrel walked away with Best Overall Bourbon, the biggest whiskey award of the night went to a six-year-old rye from Maryland. That's a result worth noting.
The winners were announced November 8 at The Tasting Alliance's Top Shelf Awards Gala in San Francisco, following blind judging earlier this year.
The list includes familiar names, along with smaller producers and a few whiskeys we haven't had the chance to try. Some of those are now on our radar.
A Maryland Rye Takes the Top Honor
Baltimore Spirits Company's Epoch Maryland Straight Rye Whiskey 6 Year Cask Strength earned Best of Class Rye Whiskey before claiming Best in Show Whisk(e)y, the competition's highest whiskey honor.
The judges described a bold, oak-forward rye with grassy notes and a bright, lingering mint finish.
Maryland has a long history with rye whiskey, and seeing a Baltimore producer take the top honor is pretty exciting. We've yet to try Epoch, but this certainly gives us a reason to track it down.
Elijah Craig Wins Best Overall Bourbon
Elijah Craig 15 Year Single Barrel had an impressive showing of its own, earning Best of Class Single Barrel Bourbon 11 Years and Older, Best Overall Single Barrel Bourbon and Best Overall Bourbon.
The 108-proof release debuted in March with a suggested retail price of $149.99.
We reviewed Elijah Craig 15 earlier this year and landed at a combined 7/10. Good whiskey, but it didn't quite deliver what we expected from a 15-year-old bourbon.
Of course, that's the interesting thing about single barrels. The barrel the judges evaluated isn't necessarily the barrel we reviewed, or the one you'll find on the shelf.
It's a good reminder that an award recognizes the whiskey submitted for judging, not necessarily every bottle carrying the same label.
Other American Whiskey Winners Worth Watching
Beyond the two biggest honors, several other results caught our attention.
Pinhook 10 Year Vertical Series Bourbon took Best of Class Straight Bourbon. Judges highlighted baked cherry, dark chocolate, toffee and baking spice. Pinhook's ongoing exploration of how whiskey develops with age makes this an especially interesting win.
Starlight Distillery Mizunara Reserve Bourbon earned Best of Class Special Barrel-Finished Bourbon. The judges noted incense, leather, vanilla and caramel. We're already familiar with Starlight's willingness to experiment with barrel finishes, and we'd love to get our hands on this one.
Heaven Hill Traditional Barrel Series Kentucky Straight Wheated Bourbon, part of the Grain to Glass lineup, won Best of Class Wheated Bourbon, adding another honor to Heaven Hill's impressive showing.
Henry McKenna Single Barrel 10 Year earned Best of Class Single Barrel Bourbon Up to 10 Years, while Wenzel Distillery Toasted Bourbon took Best of Class Blend of Straight Bourbons.
And outside bourbon, Dark Arts Whiskey House American Single Malt Whiskey won Best of Class American Single Malt, a category we're increasingly interested in exploring.
Heaven Hill also had an impressive year overall, earning approximately 88 medals across its portfolio and being named the competition's Most Awarded U.S. Distillery for the third consecutive year.
The AB Take
We pay attention to whiskey competitions, but we don't treat medals as buying instructions.
Blind judging is valuable because it gives smaller producers an opportunity to compete with established brands without the influence of familiar labels or marketing budgets.
But whiskey is still personal. And as our experience with Elijah Craig 15 illustrates, even an award-winning whiskey might not deliver the same experience for everyone.
What interests us most about this year's results is the variety. A Maryland rye taking the biggest whiskey honor, an experimental Mizunara-finished bourbon winning its category, and several producers we haven't spent enough time with.
There's plenty here worth exploring, and hopefully we'll get a few of these winners into our glasses soon.
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