The glasses are polished, the corkscrews poised and the ice, naturally, crystal clear. Introducing the 2026 Gentleman’s Journal Drinks Awards, our annual celebration of the bottles that deserve a place in your home bar, your cellar and, of course, your hand. This year’s awards were photographed at The Capston at Embassy Gardens, providing a suitably stylish setting for the slick sippers that made the cut.

From champagne that brims with old-world elegance to English sparkling wines giving the French a run for their money, we’ve sampled, swirled and scrutinised the year’s finest fizzes.

Wines aside, judging the harder stuff is harder still. We’ve got single malts with a dozen years of wisdom, American whiskies with a few tricks up their sleeves, and agave spirits worth every last peso. Add crisp lagers, feather-light vodkas and rums punching well above their weight, and you’ve got quite the drinks cabinet. So raise a glass — and read on…

Let’s pop the cork up top, and kick off with the king of the Drinks Awards: champagne. This year, we’ve got three huge houses in contention for the title, brimming over with bubbling notes including aniseed and bergamot.

1st place: Billecart-Salmon Champagne Le Sous Bois

Vinified entirely in oak barrels, there’s a malty, woody heart to our winning champagne that feels almost of another era. Think melted butter and milk rolls, fine bubbles and fresh bread with just a sprig of bergamot. This is old-world champagne, best sipped in black tie.

2nd place: Louis Roederer Brut Vintage

If the Billecart-Salmon calls to mind the bread bin, our runner-up is more biscuit barrel. Beautifully balanced, with notes of nuts, subtle spices and ripe pears, there’s a touch of blossom honey and the creamiest, moussiest mouthfeel in the category.

3rd place: Moët & Chandon Grand Vintage 2016

The product of masterful winemaking and six years resting in the cellars, this ten-year-old champagne is an emerging elder statesman. 2016 may have been a temperamental year for weather, but the hazelnut, gingerbread — and just a whisper of aniseed — of this extra brut can always be relied upon.

With every passing year, the British Isles fizzes more fiercely with its wine-making know-how — as evidenced by our best English bubbly brands, all honing their craft in the Home Counties and making a compelling case as alternatives to champagne itself.

1st place: Nyetimber Blanc de Blancs 2018

Nyetimber has consistently led the English sparkling pack, and this — their newest vintage — extends the lead. There’s more citrus than you might expect, orange and pink grapefruit, but these tarter top notes are tempered by warm pastry, vanilla and rich nougat. It’s that complexity that swings it for us.

2nd place: Gusbourne Blanc de Blancs

There’s much to love about this Kent-based vineyard. The mineral, almost saline finish of its Blanc de Blancs is refreshing, and it may be the most handsome bottle in the category. But it’s the way this wine captures the English countryside that puts it in our top three: think green apple, pears and a nutty, flinty edge.

3rd place: Harrow & Hope Blanc de Blancs 2020

From Buckinghamshire, the Harrow & Hope Blanc de Blancs does quite the opposite — brimming with notes of clementines and nectarines, Mirabelle plums and juicy Jaffas, it’s a vibrant, persistently fruity fluteful, bubbling up Mediterranean moments in every sip. For extra intrigue, there’s even a gentle ginger twang.

It’s back across the Channel for our final wine category of the year: rosé. We’ve gone for complexity in 2026, looking for pink wines with unexpected flavours, bone-dry profiles and a predestined place at the dinner table.

1st place: Domaines Ott Clos Mireille Rosé 2025

Sometimes, more is more. That’s presumably why, summer after summer, we find ourselves captivated by the complexity of this medium-bodied rosé. Grenache, Cinsault and Rolle come together to conjure sun-drenched, but somewhat unexpected notes of crushed chalk, cardamom and green pineapple.

2nd place: Château d’Esclans Garrus Rosé 2024

Are there two words more appetising or intriguing than ‘gastronomic rosé’? From Château d’Esclans, this is a wine best paired with the longest of summer lunches — its dense, concentrated flavours of figs, nutmeg and botanical herbs making it the perfect tablemate for everything from parsley-crusted pork to sole meunière.

3rd place: Quatre Vin QV Rosé

Our winner and runner-up may offer up a few extra-seasonal surprises in the realm of rosé, but Quatre Vin strikes right at the heart of summer. At under £20 a bottle, this is everything you could want from that pinkest of drinks: fresh, almost perfumed florals, sweetly ripe stone fruits and a whole bushel of berries in the glass. Classic.

Back to Britain as we move into our spirits categories, and our first pour is gin. This year, we’ve got a couple of classics, sandwiched (cucumber, if they know what’s good for them) around a dazzling, inventively distilled new player.

1st place: Sipsmith London Dry Gin

While the Chiswick-based brand knows how to innovate (Banana Bread Gin, anyone?), its original London Dry remains the best. It’s a category-defining thing, impossibly aromatic for something so versatile. It doesn’t so much sing as hum, mellifluously and mouthwateringly bringing its subtle notes of apple, pine and peppermint to serves from a Bramble to a Bee’s Knees — and everything in between.

2nd place: Aureus Vita Fibonacci Dry Gin

Second to Sipsmith may seem unfair, given the rule-bending lengths Aureus Vita’s distillers go to (crafting the spirit in the world’s only patent-pending Fibonacci still). But this punchy 61.8% gin is still a remarkable achievement. It comes to life in Cornwall, slicking together botanicals including coriander, coffee and blackcurrant leaf in one of the silkiest gins we sipped all year.

3rd place: No.3 Organic London Dry Gin

The go-to gin of maestro Alessandro Palazzi for his dream-weaving Duke’s martinis. What more needs saying? That key-adorned bottle looks the part on a backlit bar, we suppose. But our love affair with Berry Bros. & Rudd’s award-winning bottle persists mostly for its lingering finish: angelica root, woody notes and a peppery spice that stick around longer than any other.

It’s tricky to pick a top three in any category, but tequila makes the decision particularly thorny. We’ve plumped for luxury offerings and, as such, have amassed a trio of the most warming, sweet and mouth-coating agave spirits money (and more money) can buy.

1st place: Don Julio 1942 Tequila

There’s obviously a fairly hefty price tag attached, but Don Julio’s premium bottling is a benchmark for a reason. And, expensive by price, it’s also rich by nature — notes of caramel, cinnamon, butterscotch and dark chocolate, with more than two years in American oak making for the toastiest, roastiest of spirits. It’s a delight, like agave in disguise as a top-shelf scotch.

2nd place: Patrón Añejo

Aged for slightly less time (12 to 15 months), Patrón’s ultra-premium expression is equally intense. There’s possibly more fruit in this one, with raisins, lemons and oranges putting the subtle honey and almond accents in the back seat. But it’s got another of those long, lingering finishes we’re so taken by — this one with a smoky-sweet, black-pepper sting in its tail.

3rd place: Casamigos Tequila Añejo

The bottle that bucked the celebrity-spirit curse, Casamigos has come a long way since Clooney sold up. But its best tequila, this sweet Añejo, remains firmly and deservedly on our tequila podium. The dark chocolate is so present you can almost hear the crack of a bar, and the dense toffee-penny sweetness turns this tobacco-tinged offering into dessert in a ‘caballito’.

Clean and crisp. That’s all we’re looking for. And, going beyond the burn, our three vodka finalists delivered beautiful, glassy sips. Britain, with two podium places, has once more come up roses — and other notes, including lemon zest, black pepper and coconut.

1st place: Belvedere 10

That beautiful, angular bottle might have you expecting a vodka crisper and sharper than an iceberg, but Belvedere 10 cracks the top spot in our vodka category for two very good reasons — both of which explain its name. Firstly, it takes inspiration from the techniques used in 1910, when the distillery was first established. Secondly, it’s rested for exactly ten months to meld notes of cacao, coconut and vanilla into that velvet mouthfeel. A joy.

2nd place: Sapling Vodka

Rooted in Britain, Sapling could earn its second-place spot from its commendable climate-positive credentials alone. Happily, it’s also a cracking vodka — a silky mouthfeel thanks to organic winter wheat, a lemon-zested, herbaceous edge and an almost dairy-like dash of butter on the finish. And you can add a clear head to your clear conscience: this one’s a hangover-dodger.

3rd place: Ramsbury Single Estate Vodka

Third place makes this the first time we’ve had a British majority in the vodka category. But Ramsbury’s flagship spirit more than earns its bronze. Created using chalk-filtered water local to the Wiltshire distillery, there’s a minerality here, softened by creamy caramel and dark chocolate notes. On the finish? A welcome punch of pepper.

Ah, the unsung heroes of the cocktail cabinet. Whether soda, cola or tonic, mixers promise to bulk out and boost the flavours of any spirit you can think to pair them with. Some keep it simple, some are as brave and bold with their botanicals as the gins above. These are our favourites.

1st place: Three Cents Pink Grapefruit Soda

There’s some serious experimentation going on over at Three Cents — and every tiny bottle is worth your time and tastebuds. Pickle Soda? Fig Leaf Soda? Mandarin and Bergamot Soda? All excellent. But the cheek-tightening tang on this Pink Grapefruit Soda is nothing short of remarkable. It makes a mean Paloma, obviously, but so pleasantly piquant is its bitterness that we’ve taken to drinking it straight from the bottle.

2nd place: Fever-Tree Mexican Lime Soda

Following in Three Cents’ zippy, zesty footsteps comes Fever-Tree’s Mexican Lime Soda. Though cranking up the sourness, somehow this remains a smooth sipper — even with its generous burst of bubbles. Ideal for putting a bit of pep into your vodka soda, we’ve found this one works best with a tequila, balancing out those strong agave flavours.

3rd place: Schweppes Dry Ginger Ale

Some brands are household names for a reason. Artisanal, small-batch mixers have their place, undoubtedly, but Schweppes is a stalwart because it has all but perfected both its tonic water and ginger ale recipes. The latter makes the podium for us, simply due to its less-syrupy, less-cloying taste, crisp bubbles and subtle ginger warmth. A classic.

And so we come to the whiskies — the beating, single-malt heart of the annual Gentleman’s Journal Drinks Awards. Each year, we split our awards into age-statement categories, beginning with this: drams a dozen years young.

1st place: Glenmorangie The Original 12 Years Old

It’s been four years since Glenmorangie rebranded its core range, and we still smile every time we reach for this one on our home bar. It just feels right. That orange colour captures every note and nuance, from the tinned peach punch to the maple syrup sweetness. There are almonds, tangerines, cinnamon. It really is the perfect 12.

2nd place: The GlenDronach 12 Year Old

When Gentleman’s Journal visited The GlenDronach several years ago, we discovered the sherry-sweet secret to this whisky’s alchemy: the ‘saxophone’ shape of the copper stills, each featuring a ‘belly’ that helps to develop the spirit’s character and tease out flavours of berries and fruits — notes also found in the sherry casks in which this 12-Year ages.

3rd place: Glen Scotia 12 Year Old Single Malt

To round out this triumphant trio of ‘Glens’, we head from the Highlands to Campbeltown. And, just as the orange tone of Glenmorangie’s bottling belies its warmth, the bold blue of Glen Scotia’s whisky, distilled on the Kintyre Peninsula, offers a clue to its coastal, wind-whipped salinity. It’s a brisk seaside walk in a bottle: all ocean air, olive brine and oily, mouth-coating texture.

A couple of years older, now. The 15-Year category may fall between the cocktail-friendly 12-Year and slow-sipping 18, but if anything, that makes it more impressive when distillers balance both sides of the single malt coin. This year, Speyside reigns.

1st place: The Macallan Double Cask 15 Years Old

Matured in both European and American oak — both seasoned with sherry — The Macallan is as harmonious as its diplomatic casks would suggest. This one always reminds us of baking, dusted as it is with autumn spices and dried fruits, with a hint of browned apples. For a neat, after-dinner dram, there really are few better options.

2nd place: The Glenrothes 15 Year Old

This one almost swung the top spot. But there’s just a hint more edge to the complexity in these amber depths, which means it takes a bit more brainpower to wrap your tastebuds around. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, however. And if you’ve got time to sit with The Glenrothes 15 — to sort the cracked leather from the ginger marmalade, the praline from the persimmons — it’ll pay dividends.

3rd place: The Singleton 15 Year Old Single Malt

As mentioned, it’s a Speyside sweep in our 15-year category this year, but how could we leave The Singleton out of our top three? It’s got that ripe, autumn-fruit sweetness that put The Macallan on top, but also throws some uncharacteristic curveballs into the mix, à la The Glenrothes. With this one, look for chestnut, linseed oil and other unexpected cereal surprises. A tastebud treasure hunt.

This year, we were most impressed not simply by depth of flavour, but by how accurately distilleries are capturing certain specific scents and taste profiles. Often, we’re left wondering where the marketing teams pick up ‘brown paper towels’ or ‘roofing tar’, but these higher-end bottlings nail every note.

1st place: The Dalmore Cigar Malt Signature Reserve

What defines a ‘cigar malt’? There’s no legal definition, but the broad strokes are a whisky with enough personality to stand up to a stogie. From The Dalmore, this is definitely that. You’ve got your dried figs and sticky dates swirled into its smoke-defying depths, but also notes that dip into the embers themselves, like smoky oud. A real indulgence.

2nd place: Loch Lomond 18 Year Old Single Malt

It’s bold to put your tasting notes up front, but the Loch Lomond 18’s box proudly and squarely bears the words ‘Caramelised Apple and Wood Smoke’. Thankfully, so does the spirit in the bottle. It’s almost uncannily accurate, but delicious nonetheless. It’s also a real year-rounder, welcoming springtime honeysuckle and wintry toffee notes into its summery apple and gooseberry heart.

3rd place: Highland Park 18 Year Old Single Malt

Perhaps the most Scottish of the whiskies to make our list this year. And not just because it wears its whisky-making region on its bottle, or has lashings of Orkney sea-salt spray on its finish, but because of some of its forward notes. From heather honey to wild raspberry jam, by way of bracken and brine, it’s a true Scottish spirit; an exemplary export.

Although Gentleman’s Journal is based in Britain, we’ve always had a soft spot for an American whiskey, whether bourbon or rye. Both appear in this year’s top three, with all bottles hailing from Bourbon Country itself: Kentucky.

1st place: Maker’s Mark 46 French Oaked Bourbon

Practice makes perfect. And although the number 46 is on the label, the distillery team actually went through more than 120 extra stave experiments to perfect this exceptional bourbon. Those French oak staves, plunged into an already top-flight bourbon, really elevate this whiskey, ushering in new notes of clove, bright caramel and toasted macadamia. A must-have.

2nd place: Sazerac Straight Rye Whiskey

Produced at the HQ of the bourbon big boys — Buffalo Trace — it’s no wonder this rye is a winner. With a mash bill balancing a rye majority with a thwack of corn and a soupçon of malted barley, it only misses out on the top spot because it works best in cocktails. But with notes of black tea, liquorice, star anise and (bear with us here) a Dr Pepper-y, root beer-y tang, it’ll be the leading man in any cocktail you care to mix.

3rd place: Elijah Craig Toasted Barrel

The man with his name on the bottle was known as the “Father of Bourbon”. This whiskey takes the label’s Small Batch bourbon and gives it a second lease of life in a toasted oak barrel — perhaps making it the wayward, twice-removed brother-in-law of Craig’s family. But, boy, is it delicious. Think notes of cedar, jasmine and brown sugar, with a peachy piquancy. Well worth your money.

There’s a beautiful category cross-pollination in this year’s rum shortlist, with other drinks categories — from wine and sherry to bourbon — influencing our top three. With excellent flavour profiles and brilliant bottles, this could be the most exciting of this year’s podiums.

1st place: Brugal 1888

We appreciate a spirit that isn’t afraid to borrow from other sectors. Take our top rum, for example: distilled in the Dominican Republic, it’s double-aged in casks that have previously nurtured celebrated bourbons and sherries. Through this teamwork, those flavours come through, bringing brown sugar, oak spice and even hints of clove to your tastebuds. A straight sipper, and one to savour.

2nd place: Don Papa Single Island Rum

We love almost all of Don Papa’s rums, from its unfiltered ‘Rare Cask’ to its tropical-tinged ‘Baroko’ bottling. However, we’re yet to have a better Rum Old Fashioned than one mixed with the brand’s original offering, a spirit aged in ex-Rioja casks and dripping with ripe orchard fruit and vanilla cream. It’s a revelation.

3rd place: Eminente Gran Reserva

They may say don’t judge a rum by its bottle (they don’t), but we’re glad we were reeled in by this crocodile-textured design. Who knew that dulce de leche, toasted almonds and tobacco would be rolling around inside, waiting to take our tastebuds by surprise? So yes, we were led by our eyes on this one, but you don’t get into the GJ top three without having the taste to back up your bottle.

As with many of our categories, ‘beer’ is broad. That’s why we’ve focused on lighter lagers rather than your bitters or bocks. And, even then, there are almost too many to choose from. As always, however, our judging panel whittled them down by putting in the work — after all, someone’s got to do it.

1st place: Monte Carlo Beer Bière Spéciale Lager

Like the rosés above, this is a transportive tipple. Riviera-fresh, it’s got a pale gold colour like summer sunshine and as crisp and refreshing a first sip as you could hope for. French Triskel hops give it some fruity depth, but not so much as to overwhelm the delicate floral top notes. Pairs best with a pair of swim shorts and a calm ocean view.

2nd place: Côte Citron Lager

Joining Monte Carlo in the cabana is Côte Citron, a radler-style beer made with real lemons from the Côte d’Azur. At 3.4%, it’s eminently crushable (as are its bold blue-and-yellow cans), and manages to fold the zing of its Mediterranean zest into a light continental lager with all the precision and panache — or should that be panaché? — of a terry-cotton beach towel.

3rd place: NOAM Lager

While it may be slightly too bubbly for some, this lager’s blend of Hallertauer Tradition and Smaragd hops adds enough malty sweetness and herby, citrus-forward notes to keep its lively foam from fizzing over into overbearing. There’s even a touch of chamomile swirling around in those fine fluted bottles. It’s a luxury lifestyle beer, then; a Bavarian statement sipper.

Want more drinks insights? Here’s the Gentleman’s Journal A-Z of Cocktails…

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