Whiskey Roundup — Week of February 22–28, 2026
February 22, 2026
Whiskey Roundup — Week of February 22–28, 2026
Your weekly dispatch from the Backyard Whiskey Club.
This week brought serious news from both ends of the whiskey spectrum — the big players are making headlines for what they’re not doing (looking at you, Jim Beam), while craft distilleries from Pennsylvania to the Texas Hill Country are reminding us why small and patient wins the day. Throw in a landmark Islay release that’s been nine years in the making, and there’s plenty to talk about over a pour.
This Week’s Headlines
- World Whiskies Awards America 2026 crowned its winners on February 12 at Louisville’s Brown Hotel — New Riff Bottled in Bond took Best Kentucky Bourbon honors.
- Jim Beam is pausing production at its flagship Clermont distillery for all of 2026, a sign of the broader American whiskey industry reckoning with record barrel inventory (16.1 million barrels in storage).
- Lagavulin 11 Year Old Sweet Peat officially arrives — the distillery’s first new permanent expression in nine years, already carrying a Gold Medal from the 2025 San Francisco Wine & Spirits Competition.
- Traveller Whiskey Full Proof (Buffalo Trace × Chris Stapleton) debuts at 121 proof for just $39.99, making it one of the most accessible cask-strength releases in recent memory.
- Shiner’s K. Spoetzl Brewery & Distillery dropped a Texas first: a 125.4-proof cask-strength rye distilled from just three barrels of their inaugural rye production.
New & Notable Releases
Bourbon
Booker’s 2026-02 “Milkshake Batch” is turning heads this month with an unusually rich, dessert-forward profile — think peanut butter, vanilla, and milk chocolate riding on Booker’s signature cask strength heat. It’s exactly what longtime Booker’s fans expect: no apologies, no dilution, just a bathtub’s worth of flavor. Allocated as always, so check with your local shop soon.
Elijah Craig Barrel Proof Batch A126 continues Heaven Hill’s streak of delivering one of the hobby’s best values in high-proof bourbon. This batch clocks in around 120.4 proof with approximately an 11-year age statement, non-chill filtered. If you can find it near retail, buy it.
Traveller Whiskey Full Proof is the week’s most interesting mainstream story. Buffalo Trace and Chris Stapleton’s collaboration finally gets a line extension, pushing the original expression to full proof at 121 proof (60.5% ABV) with an SRP of $39.99. At that price point for a Buffalo Trace-distilled cask-strength whiskey, this one warrants a serious look when it hits your market.
Rye
Stoll & Wolfe Pure Rye Whiskey continues the Pennsylvania distillery’s mission to revive authentic Monongahela-style rye. This new single barrel expression uses a 100% rye mash bill — 80% Rosen rye sourced from the Kline Family Farm (a heritage farm dating to 1741) and 20% malted rye. It’s rooted in pre-Prohibition tradition in the best possible way, and at $70 per bottle it’s a compelling buy for rye enthusiasts. The distillery’s standard Pennsylvania Rye recently scored a 94 from Wine Enthusiast — highest ever for a Pennsylvania whiskey in that publication.
Scotch
Lagavulin 11 Year Old Sweet Peat is the big Scotch story of the month. Aged in first-fill American oak ex-bourbon casks, this new permanent addition to the lineup leans into the sweeter side of Islay peat — toffee apple, vanilla, and gentle smoke rather than the full medicinal wallop of the 16. For those who love Lagavulin but have found the 8 a touch young and the 16 priced out of weekly rotation, this 11-year may be the sweet spot.
Ardbeg 10 Year Old Cask Strength releases to Ardbeg Committee members on February 24, bottled at a fierce 61.7% ABV. If you’re a Committee member, you already know what to do.
Irish & Japanese
Japan continues its ascent with Kanosuke Hioki Pot Still Whisky — an Irish-style pot still expression made at the Kanosuke Distillery using malted and unmalted grain, drawing on fourth-generation shōchū traditions. VinePair named it the best Japanese whisky to drink in 2026, and the crossover craftsmanship between Irish tradition and Japanese precision is genuinely worth seeking out.
On the Irish side, High N’ Wicked “Rose Tattoo” Single Malt is earning serious praise for its use of ex-Amarone casks that — surprisingly — don’t overwhelm the underlying spirit. It’s a deft balancing act and a strong argument that Irish single malt deserves more attention than it typically gets.
Craft & Limited Editions
Southern Star Paragon Bourbon Finished in Zinfandel Casks hit shelves at North Carolina’s Southern Distilling Company on February 21 — distillery exclusive at $49.95, bottled at 116.1 proof after more than a year in used Zinfandel wine casks. Wine-finished bourbons can go sideways fast, but Southern Distilling has a track record with the Paragon Collection worth trusting.
Buzzard’s Roost Four Grain Double Oak Bourbon launched earlier this month: a 5-year-old, 100-proof expression featuring a wheat-forward four-grain mash bill that underwent a secondary maturation in precision-toasted oak. At $79.99, it’s competing in a crowded bracket, but the proprietary finishing process gives it a point of difference.
Texas Distillery Spotlight
Shiner’s K. Spoetzl Brewery & Distillery — Texas Legend Straight Rye Whiskey
Most people know Shiner for the Bock. Fewer realize that the legendary K. Spoetzl Brewery in Shiner, Texas has quietly been building a whiskey program — and this month, they made a statement.
Released February 16, Texas Legend Straight Rye Whiskey is the product of exactly three barrels from Shiner’s very first rye distillation. The mash bill — malted rye, yellow dent corn, and two-row barley — was double copper-pot distilled and aged in heavy-toast, level-1-char barrels in a single-story open-air warehouse, where the unforgiving Texas climate did what it does best: accelerated maturation and built character.
The result is a cask-strength rye at 125.4 proof (62.7% ABV), non-chill filtered, with notes of cinnamon, clove, and citrus layered over toffee, vanilla, and warm spice. It’s bottled at $199 and available only at the distillery in Shiner — so if a road trip to the Hill Country is on your spring calendar, this is reason enough to go. Only three barrels exist. When they’re gone, they’re gone.
It’s the kind of release that captures everything compelling about the Texas whiskey scene: agricultural roots, patient craft, and an unapologetic sense of place.
What We’re Pouring This Week
If there’s one bottle worth hunting right now, it’s the Traveller Full Proof. At $39.99 for a 121-proof Buffalo Trace product, it’s the rare crossover between accessibility and serious whiskey credibility — worth keeping on the shelf for weeknight pours. For something with more history in the glass, the Stoll & Wolfe Pure Rye is quietly one of the most interesting American releases of the month: a direct line to pre-Prohibition Pennsylvania heritage, made with integrity. And if you’re an Ardbeg Committee member, your February 24 plans are already set.
On the Horizon
Compass Box Hedonism 2026 — featuring artwork by Emma Hack and a 30-year-old Strathclyde at its core — releases February 24 with just 13,126 bottles worldwide at £90. The Aberargie Distillery in Perthshire debuts its first-ever single malt in March, a landmark moment for independent Scotch. And keep an eye on how the industry digests Jim Beam’s production pause at Clermont — with 16 million barrels already aging across Kentucky, the ripple effects on future allocations may be more interesting than any single release this year.
“Omnia, Lucili, aliena sunt, tempus tantum nostrum est.” Time alone is ours, Seneca reminds us — and in whiskey, time is everything. The years spent quietly inside oak can’t be rushed, bought back, or replicated. When you finally open a bottle that waited longer than most relationships, take a moment before the first pour. The patience wasn’t yours — but the reward is.