- Old Bardstown Bottled-in-Bond from Kentucky’s Willett Distillery has been named Best Bourbon at the 2026 International Wine and Spirits Competition after scoring 98 points and an outstanding gold medal.
- Despite its $25 price tag, the four-year-old bourbon outperformed its competitors by costing significantly more and is made entirely by Willett using the distillery’s original 1936 mash bill.
- Old Bardstown Bottled-in-Bond is currently only officially sold in Kentucky, where Willett produces it at 100 proof from whiskey aged for at least four years.
A $25 bottle of Kentucky bourbon has won one of the year’s top honors, besting whiskeys that cost 10 to 20 times more.
The International Wine and Spirits Competition (IWSC) exclusively revealed to Food & Wine that Old Bardstown Bottled-in-Bond from Willett Distillery in Bardstown, Kentucky, will receive the 2026 Bourbon Trophy at the organization’s annual awards ceremony in London later this fall.
This distinction follows Old Bardstown’s 98 points and an outstanding gold medal in the North American straight bourbon category earlier this year. The judges praised its “lively, cereal aromas, its balanced dry mouth where marmalade and brioche blend perfectly with a delicate floral touch,” as well as a “persistent finish full of character and charm.”
Perhaps most notable is its price: Old Bardstown costs a fraction of what some of its competitors offer.
For connoisseurs of American whiskey, Willett is a household name, as revered as Van Winkle, Weller or Fitzgerald. Its highly sought-after Willett Family Estate releases are among the most expensive American whiskeys on the market, making the relatively accessible Old Bardstown an outlier in the distillery’s portfolio.
AEKACHAI LUNGMIN / Willett Distillery
Old Bardstown has a closer connection to Willett than some of the more coveted Family Estate releases. Many of these older whiskeys came from other Kentucky distilleries during a period when Willett was not producing, from the late 1970s to 2012. Old Bardstown, in comparison, is distilled by Willett using its original 1936 mash bill: 72% corn, 15% malted barley, and 13% rye.
As a bottled-in-bond bourbon, Old Bardstown is bottled at 100 proof, aged in new oak for a minimum of four years, and produced in a single distilling season. It bears an antique beige-tinted label depicting a hand-painted thoroughbred, the same logo Willett has used since relaunching the brand in 2016. The expression bottled in bond is distinguished by its gold screw cap.
Quick Facts: Old Bardstown Bottled-in-Bond from Willett Distillery
ABV: 50%
Maturation: Old Bardstown Bottled-in-Bond is distilled from a mash of 72% corn, 15% malted barley and 13% rye. It is aged for at least four years, then bottled at 100 proof.
Availability: Available at many Kentucky retailers and select e-commerce platforms.
MSRP: 25$
Old Bardstown’s $25 price tag makes it considerably more accessible than many of Willett’s collectible releases, but availability presents a different challenge: The Bottled-in-Bond expression is only officially sold in Kentucky. (But for that price, a trip to Kentucky and a case of Old Bardstown might still cost less than a single bottle of some Willett Family Estate releases.)
For bourbon fans willing to make the trip, Bardstown, Kentucky, has another IWSC 2026 winner. Bardstown Bourbon Company will receive the competition’s Best American Whiskey award for its Lochs of Jura Barrel 10-Year-Old, a blend of straight whiskeys finished in single malt Scotch whiskey barrels.
For a city known as the “Bourbon Capital of the World,” these two major IWSC trophies explain why.
Gn bussni
