The London Spirits Competition convened in its namesake city earlier this spring to evaluate the best bottles on shelves in 2026 across all categories of booze. The judges, which include some of the most esteemed palates in all of the UK, sort through bottles and award a score out of 100 based upon their respective quality, value and “what they look like.”
As opposed to other judgings out there, LSC finds separation by taking marketability into account. In its own words: it singles out and shines the spotlight on those spirits brands that consumers really want to buy and have a clear market value for trade buyers. And as that applies to whiskey, it yielded a top-scoring bottle for 2026 that is nothing short of shocking.
With 97 out of a possible 100 points, the winner is Root Shoot American Single Malt. It’s a 4-year old, bottled-in-bond expression from a lesser known craft distillery out of Loveland, Colorado. Clocking in at 100-proof (as required of a bottled-in-bond product), it’s a rich, semi-sweet sipper that can be found on shelves for around $42 a bottle.
On its face, there are many jaw-dropping elements to this selection. For one, it bested all whiskies from all the major producing regions, including Scotland, Ireland, Japan. It even bested Kentucky bourbons and ryes. This is a relatively obscure expression from a nascent category–American Single Malt–that is still struggling to establish global recognition, after only becoming formally recognized here in the US at the beginning of 2025. Certainly this news ought to help elevate that international standing.
For those that are willing to read past the headlines and explore expressions with unbiased curiosity, Root Shoot’s victory becomes less of an audacious outlier. Tasted blind, without preconceived notions, I found the whiskey to hold a hefty bit of complexity–veering from buckwheat honey and spiced pear overtures in initial taste to reveal granola and cacao nibs across repeated sipping. A savory blend of clove and cardamom emerges in a nuanced finish.
And the fact that all of these complexities can come forward in a relatively young malt is a testament to the expressiveness of its underlying ingredient. Root Shoot Whiskey is birthed only a few miles from where its mash bill is sown and grown. It operates a 5th generation family farm and does 100% of its malting in a facility usually reserved for Colorado’s renowned craft brewing industry. All of this affords the independent operation an incredible degree of control in dialing in specificity of flavor.
So while its performance at the 2026 London Spirits Competition might come as a complete surprise to the industry at large, for anyone intimately familiar with Root Shoot Spirits as a brand, this is justly-earned recognition. And for anyone else just learning about the liquid, it’s a timely reminder to get your hands on this American Single Malt while it’s still available and affordably priced.
