The latest wins for local spirits makers happened at the 2025 World Whiskies Awards America (WWA) last month, which, for the first time, held a gala in Louisville, Kentucky, to separately honor American whiskey and bourbon.
Six Colorado distilleries nabbed honors this year, led by Boulder Spirits's category win for Best Small Batch Bourbon. Because bourbon is a protected designation only for U.S. producers, the win captures Boulder Spirits a World's Best designation from the WWA.
After earning Best Non-Kentucky Small Batch Bourbon, Boulder Spirits beat out Best Kentucky Small Batch Bourbon winner 1792 from the Barton Distillery in Bardstown to secure the title — quite a feat considering that 1792 is the most popular brand from one of the largest distilleries in the world.
Colorado winners in other categories at the WWA America round will go up against entries from WWA Scotland, WWA Rest of World and WWA Ireland later this month for the shot at their own World's Best titles.
Boulder Spirits founder Alistair Brogan says the win is a stamp of approval not just for his own efforts as a small producer, but for the craft community at large. "It validates what we're doing here at Boulder Spirits," he notes, "but it also validates in a lot of ways what craft distilling is doing throughout the country. There are some phenomenal craft whiskies out there."
Boulder Spirits also won Best Non-Kentucky Small Batch Bourbon at last year's World Whiskies Awards.
Despite hailing from Scotland and starting a malt whiskey distillery, Brogan says bourbon has long been a mainstay in the company's portfolio. "We decided to do a bourbon very quickly when we started, but we wanted to make it different," he notes. He designed it with the requisite 51 percent corn, but then made malted barley — the sole grain in malt whiskey — the next major component at 44 percent rather than the standard 5 to 10 percent of the mash composition. Rye accounts for the final 5 percent.
"I think that high malt, for me, calms the sweet and heat and Kentucky hug you get from the high-corn bourbons," Brogan says. "It appeals to the bourbon drinkers, and there's an added flavor. Almost nobody else in the U.S. uses malted barley as a flavoring to bourbon."
He adds that the sweet-on-sweet character of high corn bourbons can be too much, whereas the malt helps to give more clarity to the sweetness of the barrel character. "It's overpowered when you're at 70, 80 percent corn. So a lot of people will taste my whiskey and go, 'You know, it is still sweet, but there's a little bit of a different sweetness there,'" Brogan explains. "And yes, because now you're tasting the sweetness of the barrel that's not been overridden by the sweetness of the corn."
Here are the other awards won by Colorado distilleries at the 2025 World Whiskey Awards America:
- Best American Pot Still (12 Years & Under): Talnua, Denver — Virgin White Oak Cask
- Best American Single Cask Single Malt (No Age Statement): Boulder Spirits, Boulder — Distinguished Cask 1760
- Best Non-Kentucky Bourbon: Old Elk, Fort Collins —High Malt Straight Bourbon
- Best American Style Whiskey (12 Years & Under): Storm King, Montrose — Side Gig
- Best Single Cask Single Rye (No Age Statement): Distillery 291, Colorado Springs — Barrel Proof Single Barrel
- Best Small Batch Single Malt Whiskey (No Age Statement): Boulder Spirits, Boulder — Leave No Trace
- Best Single Cask Single Malt, 12 Years and Under: Hogback, Boulder — Wallace Collection Peated Single Malt Barrel #39
