Australian Whiskies Have Just Won Two of the World’s Best Titles in a Single Year (2026)
In the past two years Australian whisky has stopped being the underdog and started beating the world’s best at their own game – not just here, in Australia, but globally. Here are the Australian whiskies shaking the foundations of world whisky.
held by Sullivans Cove
Australia won in 2026
medals won by Tasmania
2025 SF World Spirits
2026 WWA · 52 regions
Australian whisky has been building for decades but in the past two years – and especially in 2026 – it has arrived, fundamentally and emphatically, on the world stage. Between 2024 and 2026 Australian whiskies won two of the world’s top whisky titles in a single year, took a distillery-of-the-year crown in San Francisco, and rewrote the record books – one Tasmanian distillery has now been named World’s Best four times, more than any distillery anywhere.
What follows here is a reportage guide to every Australian whisky that has won something that mattered in that window: what it won, where, and why it counts. Every whisky is Australian; the awards are a mix of home-grown and international.
Australia’s major award winners
Fifteen results that defined the era, newest and highest honours first. Gold-marked rows are outright World’s Best titles.
| Honour | Whisky | Distillery | State | Competition |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ★World’s Best Single Cask Single MaltWORLD’S BEST | French Oak ex-White Wine TD0112 · 18yo | Sullivans Cove | TAS | WWA 2026 |
| ★World’s Best Single Cask Single RyeWORLD’S BEST | Rye Cask 027 | Greenbanks Tas. Whisky Co | TAS | WWA 2026 |
| Australia’s Best Single Malt | Amphora Single Malt | Callington Mill | TAS | WWA 2026 |
| Australia’s Best Single Malt | 21-Year-Old Peated Cask Finish | Hellyers Road | TAS | WWA 2025 |
| Best Australian Small Batch Single Malt · global top 5 | 20th Anniversary Pedro Ximénez | Overeem | TAS | WWA 2026 |
| Single Malt Whisky of the Year | Pedro Ximénez Single Malt | Callington Mill | TAS | London 2025 |
| Most Awarded International Distillery of the Year | – | Starward | VIC | SFWSC 2024 |
| Country & Category Winner · Blended Malt | Australian Malt Whisky | Archie Rose | NSW | WWA 2026 |
| Category Winner · Gold | Muscat Barrel Single Malt | Morris | VIC | WWA 2026 |
| Country & Category Winner · Pot Still | Snug | Transportation Whiskey | TAS | WWA 2026 |
| Best Blended Malt Whisky | Bird · with Bird in Hand | Fleurieu | SA | AISA 2026 |
| Category Winner · two years running | Waubs Original | Waubs Harbour | TAS | WWA 2025 |
| Best Australian Single Malt · finalist | Illawarra Plum Cask | Headlands | NSW | SFWSC 2025 |
| Gold | Upshot | Whipper Snapper | WA | WWA 2025 |
| Top whisky winner | Telemachus Single Malt | Fleurieu | SA | Tasting Aus. 2025 |
Two World’s Best titles in one year
The defining result of this new era of Australian whisky came at the 2026 World Whiskies Awards, where Australia won two of the global “World’s Best” category crowns outright – the very top of a competition that judged more than 9,000 whiskies blind, from over 50 producing regions.
Sullivans Cove — the record-breaker
Sullivans Cove’s French Oak ex-White Wine, Old & Rare TD0112 (18 Year Old) won the World’s Best Single Cask Single Malt. This was the Cambridge, Tasmania distillery’s fourth World’s Best title after 2014, 2018 and 2019. No other distillery in the world holds that record, which is why Sullivans Cove is routinely called the most decorated single malt producer on earth. The trade-off is scarcity: this whisky sells almost entirely by ballot and waitlist.
Greenbanks — the quiet shock
Greenbanks Tasmanian Whisky Co’s Rye Cask 027 took World’s Best Single Cask Single Rye. If ever there was a moment to prove that Australian rye has arrived, this was it. Greenbanks swept the rye field in 2026, with its Quadruple Cask Rye and a new-make also taking country-and-category golds.
“These awards prove our continued dominance isn’t luck.”President, Tasmanian Whisky & Spirits Association · on the 2026 results
Australia’s Best Single Malt
The World Whiskies Awards work like a tournament: first each country crowns its champion in a style, then each country’s national champion competes for the global ‘World’s Best’ title. Australia’s Best Single Malt is that national crown – the top Australian single malt of the year. The title went to a different distillery in 2026 than in 2025.
2026 — Callington Mill, Amphora Single Malt
Finished not in oak but in clay amphorae, which is an Australian first. It’s the clearest sign yet that the country’s newer, well-capitalised distilleries will genuinely experiment rather than imitate Scotland. Callington Mill (Pontville, Tasmania) also took Single Malt Whisky of the Year at the 2025 International London Spirits Competition for its Pedro Ximénez release.
2025 — Hellyers Road, 21-Year-Old Peated Cask Finish
A deeply aged, peated Tasmanian malt. Hellyers Road’s edge is stock: it is one of very few Australian distilleries releasing 20-plus-year-old whisky, and it out-medalled every other Australian producer at the 2026 awards, with four category wins and 18 medals.
Where the medals went — and how one distillery made history
Tasmania’s share of the 2026 haul
Sullivans Cove — four World’s Best titles
The only Australian whisky to win World’s Best Single Malt (2014), and the sole distillery to take a World’s Best crown four times.
The most-decorated distilleries of the era
A handful of names recur across every winners’ list. For a shelf of proven medallists, these are the anchors.
Sullivans Cove (TAS) – beyond the world title, its American Oak Second-Fill single casks (TD0033 in 2025, HH0010 in 2026) are serial category winners; it is the Australian benchmark. Hellyers Road (TAS) – the aged-single-malt specialist, top of the 2026 national medal table. Overeem (TAS) – a study in consistency, with 10 awards across all seven whiskies it entered in 2026, led by a global top-five 20th Anniversary Pedro Ximénez. Callington Mill (TAS) – the ambitious newcomer now holds both the 2026 national crown and a 2025 London trophy. Greenbanks (TAS) – the 2026 rye breakout.
Transportation Whiskey (TAS) repeats in pot still and cask-strength categories; Waubs Harbour (TAS), on the ocean’s edge at Bicheno, was a category winner two years running. On the mainland, Morris (VIC) turned Rutherglen’s fortified-wine heritage into a 2026 category gold; Archie Rose (NSW) is the mainland’s most consistent performer; and Whipper Snapper (WA) took golds across Upshot, Wheat and Single Malt. Amber Lane (NSW), Iniquity (SA), Lark (TAS) and Limeburners (WA) all landed 2024–2026 golds too – a reminder the medals are not a Tasmanian monopoly.
Beyond the World Whiskies Awards
San Francisco World Spirits Competition – the oldest and largest in the world. Starward (Melbourne) was named its Most Awarded International Distillery of the Year in 2024, a landmark for a mainland, wine-cask whisky. In 2025, Australian distillers took 18 Double Golds, and the Best Australian Single Malt finalists ranged from Archie Rose and Starward to Callington Mill and, most unusually, Headlands Distilling Co.’s Illawarra Plum Cask – a NSW world-first matured in casks seasoned with a native fruit.
Melbourne Royal Australian International Spirits Awards 2026 – Bird, a blended malt from the Fleurieu Distillery and the Bird in Hand winery, won Best Blended Malt Whisky; St Agnes (SA) was named Champion Large Australian Distiller. Tasting Australia Spirit Awards 2025 – Fleurieu (SA) was again among the top whisky winners with its Telemachus Single Malt, underlining South Australia’s coastal single malt as a quiet success story.
Australian whisky awards, answered
What is the most awarded Australian whisky?
Sullivans Cove holds the record, with four World’s Best titles at the World Whiskies Awards – 2014, 2018, 2019 and 2026 – more than any distillery in the awards’ history.
Which Australian whisky has won World’s Best?
Sullivans Cove has won four times. In 2026, Australia took two World’s Best titles in one year: Sullivans Cove (Single Cask Single Malt) and Greenbanks Tasmanian Whisky Co (Single Cask Single Rye).
What is Australia’s best single malt right now?
At the 2026 World Whiskies Awards, Callington Mill’s amphora-finished single malt was named Australia’s Best Single Malt. In 2025 the title went to Hellyers Road’s 21-Year-Old Peated Cask Finish.
Is Australian whisky as good as Scotch?
On the evidence of recent blind competition, Australian whisky now wins World’s Best titles outright against Scotch and every other whisky nation – Australian whisky is no longer a novelty, but a benchmark producer, particularly out of Tasmania.
Where is the best Australian whisky made?
Tasmania dominates the medal tables – it won 94 of Australia’s 133 medals at the 2026 World Whiskies Awards – but Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia and Western Australia are all winning too.
Not all “awards” are equal. This guide weights the World Whiskies Awards (the category’s most-watched global program, judged blind in staged rounds), the San Francisco World Spirits Competition and International London Spirits Competition (large, respected international shows), and Australia’s leading domestic programs – the Melbourne Royal Australian International Spirits Awards and the Tasting Australia Spirit Awards. “World’s Best” and “Country/Category Winner” titles outrank straight gold medals, which in turn outrank silver and bronze. All results cited fall within 2024–2026.