Two Colorado distilleries won big at the recent 2026 London Spirits Competition, which is a renowned event that judges various spirits on a global scale.

A key part of the competition is how scoring works, taking into account quality, value, and packaging. All categories are judged on a scale of one to 100, with quality counting double for the overall final score (50% quality, 25% value, 25% packaging). Once the numbers were crunched, two Colorado whiskeys landed among the highest-rated spirits across all genres.

The highest rated local winner was the Root Shoot American Single Malt 4-year Bottled-in-Bond whiskey, which is produced on a 5th-generation family farm in Loveland, Colorado. The Root Shoot Spirits’ whiskey not only earned an overall score of 97 accompanied with a ‘double-gold’ designation – something no other whiskey around the world achieved – it was also dubbed the global ‘Whisky of the Year,’ the ‘American Single Malt Whiskey of the Year,’ and the ‘Spirit of the Year’ for the United States. This whiskey can generally be found priced at around $60 per 750 mL bottle.

Finishing the competition just shy of the Root Shoots winner was Stranahan’s Original, which is a whiskey out of Denver. This whiskey earned a 96 ‘double gold’ score. Stranahan’s Original wasn’t the only whiskey from the distillery that medaled, either. The distillery’s ‘Blue Peak’ scored 95, as did their ‘Sherry Cask’ variety. Meanwhile, ‘Mountain Angel 12-Year’ scored 94, ‘Diamond Peak Local Brewer’s Cask’ scored 90, and ‘Mountain Angel 10-Year’ scored 80.

Overall, the ‘Spirit of the Year’ worldwide was No.3 Gin produced by No.3 Gin Ltd in Holland.

Find the full list of winners here.

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