Whiskey Roundup — Week of October 4–10, 2026
October 4, 2026
Whiskey Roundup — Week of October 4–10, 2026
Your weekly dispatch from the Backyard Whiskey Club.
Fall allocation season is at its peak. This is the week Four Roses drops the 19th edition of its Limited Edition Small Batch, King of Kentucky returns in a 14-year form, Garrison Brothers’ Cowboy Bourbon fans out nationwide, and the Buffalo Trace Antique Collection is sitting just over the horizon. If you were ever going to get serious about chasing bottles this year, now is the moment.
This Week’s Headlines
- Four Roses 2026 Limited Edition Small Batch drops October 10 — 16,800 bottles, 109.2 proof, blending 14- to 23-year stocks, $249 SRP
- King of Kentucky returns as a 14-year single barrel, 125–135 proof, from 99 hand-selected barrels at Brown-Forman
- Garrison Brothers 2026 Cowboy Bourbon went nationwide October 1 — 141 proof, 16,000 bottles, $249.99 SRP
- Parker’s Heritage Collection 20th Edition on shelves now — a 14-year rye-backset bourbon at 118 proof, $199.99, benefiting the ALS Association
New & Notable Releases
Bourbon
Four Roses 2026 Limited Edition Small Batch goes on sale Saturday, October 10 — this one is the week’s main event for allocation hunters. The 19th annual edition blends four batches aged 14 to 23 years, bottled at 109.2 proof with about 16,800 bottles at $249 SRP. Master Distiller Brent Elliott’s annual small-batch releases are consistently among the best-reviewed limited bourbons of each year; even if the bottle gets ahead of its sticker on the secondary, it is a legitimately exceptional pour.
King of Kentucky is back. Brown-Forman’s hyper-allocated release returns as a 14-year-old single barrel selected from 99 barrels that spent all 14 years at the Brown-Forman Distillery, bottled at a punishing 125–135 proof depending on the specific barrel. This one is lottery-and-connections territory — if you see it anywhere near MSRP, buy it; the secondary premium starts in the hundreds and climbs from there.
Parker’s Heritage Collection 20th Edition — Heaven Hill’s milestone 20th installment of the tribute series — is a 14-year Kentucky straight bourbon made with rye backset, drawn from 100 barrels distilled between October 2011 and January 2012. It uses Heaven Hill’s traditional 78% corn / 10% rye / 12% malted barley bourbon mashbill, comes in at 118.0 proof non-chill-filtered, and retails for $199.99. As with every Parker’s edition, a portion of proceeds goes to the ALS Association in honor of the late Parker Beam.
Rye
Copperworks Craft Malt Month 2026 American Single Malt is technically a rye-cask whiskey, not a rye-mash whiskey, but it earns the rye-section mention: Copperworks’ first-ever use of a previously used rye whiskey cask, finishing an American single malt distilled from Baronesse barley grown in Colfax, Washington for five years and nine months before being bottled at 63.2% ABV (126.4 proof) from a single cask. Limited to 700ml bottles at $89.99, with $10 per bottle going to craft maltsters.
Hard Truth Dark Roast Rye — the third 2026 Master Distiller’s Reserve release, featured at the Harvest Festival on September 26 — is now in wider circulation at Hard Truth’s distribution footprint. The chocolate-and-caramel malt rye profile has been one of the year’s more distinctive craft rye statements.
Scotch
Ardbeg Trudernish is the big news from Islay: the first new permanent 15-year expression added to Ardbeg’s core range in years, matured in a combination of bourbon casks, new charred oak, and Oloroso sherry casks. Historically Ardbeg has used the 15-year slot for one-off bottlings (the Dugald Johnston-honoring 33-year came earlier this year); making Trudernish permanent is a real statement about where the house wants to live between the entry-level Ten and the premium tier.
The Glenlivet 12 Year Old Provence Edition (Speyside) is a limited release finished in previously unused French sweet wine casks and Provence Cru Classé wine casks — a departure from Glenlivet’s usual sherry-and-bourbon stable, and a sign the brand is willing to experiment at the entry-premium level.
The Macallan 18 Year Old Sherry Oak (2026 Release) continues the perennial — matured a minimum of 18 years on the Macallan Estate in Speyside, aged exclusively in hand-picked sherry-seasoned European oak. Expensive, inevitable, excellent.
Irish & Japanese
Chichibu launched four UK-exclusive single malts on October 1: Ichiro’s Malt Chichibu Distillery II Hint of Sherry, Chichibu Double Distilleries, The Peated 2026, and The London Edition 2026. Chichibu bottles move fast enough that the UK exclusives tend to show up in the US on secondary within weeks — worth watching.
Hibiki Japanese Harmony 2026 Limited Edition Chiso Collaboration also landed October 1 — the annual Chiso (fashion-house) design collaboration on a 70cl, 43% ABV bottle. Collector play as much as drinker play, but Hibiki Harmony itself is still a benchmark Japanese blend.
Teeling Small Batch Santa Teresa is Teeling’s new partnership with Venezuelan rum producer Santa Teresa — Irish whiskey finished in Santa Teresa rum casks. Net proceeds from the first 100 sets support earthquake relief in Venezuela, which puts a nice point on an already-interesting cask-finish story.
Craft & Limited Editions
Highland Park’s “Between You and I” Series Second Edition collaborates with Egyptian-American artist Laila Gohar, aged in new American oak casks — part of Highland Park’s ongoing effort to pair its whisky-making with artist-led storytelling. Collector-focused, limited.
Texas Distillery Spotlight
Garrison Brothers Distillery — Hye, Texas. The 2026 Cowboy Bourbon rollout is the Texas story of the moment. After the September 12 distillery event, Cowboy went nationwide October 1 at select bars, restaurants, and retailers, bottled at 141 proof (hazmat strength for the second year running), 16,000 bottles produced, $249.99 SRP. If you can find it at that number anywhere in Texas, grab it — Cowboy is Garrison’s unfiltered, uncut, flagship-statement release, and this year’s barrel selection has been getting strong early reviews.
Not done yet, though. On October 16, Garrison releases their 2026 Cask Strength PX & Oloroso — the uncut, unfiltered expressions of their sherry-cask-finished series, which the standard-strength versions have been quietly building a following for all summer. Expect distillery-only distribution and a fast sell-through.
Also worth putting on your calendar: Briggs Distilling Co. celebrates its grand opening on October 17 in Driftwood — new entrant to the Hill Country distillery landscape, worth a visit to form your own opinion of what their house style is going to be.
What We’re Pouring This Week
With Cowboy Bourbon finally in national distribution and Parker’s Heritage 20th on actual retail shelves — not just hype threads — this is a legitimately great week to pour a serious bourbon. If Cowboy is sold out everywhere you look (it will be), Garrison’s Small Batch or Balmorhea both hit well above their price class and are routinely available. On the Scotch side, if you can get to a bar with Ardbeg Trudernish on the back bar, order the pour before the bottle disappears into collector territory. And for the ones chasing a bargain-adjacent gem: New Riff Bottled-in-Bond, named World’s Best Bourbon at the 2026 World Whiskies Awards, is still on shelves in all 50 states at $40 — the receipt-to-glass ratio nobody else is touching right now.
On the Horizon
The next two weeks bring the fall calendar’s crescendo: Buffalo Trace Antique Collection 2026 release, Garrison Brothers’ Cask Strength Sherry on October 16, Briggs Distilling’s grand opening October 17, and whisper confirmations on Old Forester Birthday Bourbon 2026 and Wild Turkey Master’s Keep 2026. Pappy season follows close behind.
“Receive without conceit, release without struggle.” — Marcus Aurelius. The allocation calendar rewards patience far more than it rewards urgency; the bottles you miss this fall will be back next fall, and some version of them will be on your shelf tonight.