The World’s Best Whiskey—According To The 2025 London Spirits Competition

The London Spirits Competition hasn’t been around for that long. This year marks its 8th edition; a veritable newcomer compared to some of the more established names in the booze contest space. Nevertheless, it’s already making waves in the industry and you can point to its unique mission statement as a big reason why.

As posted on its site, the LSC “[singles] out and shines the spotlight on those spirits brands that consumers really want to buy,” brands which “have a clear market value for trade buyers.” To do this, the revered panel of judges at its core don’t merely taste the liquids entered. They evaluate based upon look, value and marketability–in addition to the quality of the product itself.

Consequently, the brands that take home the top prize aren’t only of interest to the end consumer. It’s worth it for bars, restaurants and bottle shops to take note as well. Because these are the products that move rapidly through the marketplace. With this in mind, it’s hardly a surprise that the distinction of highest-rated spirit on earth went to something from the Buffalo Trace Distillery. Indeed, the pride and joy of Frankfort, Kentucky has been routinely deified–by consumers and critics, alike–for most of the 21st century.

And for much of that time, WL Weller Antique 107 has been widely received as one of its most consistently stellar offerings. The judges at this year’s London Spirits Competition obviously agree with the assessment. They just awarded it a whopping 99 out of 100 points–high enough of a score to make it not only the whiskey of the year, but the spirit of the year by overall quality.

This quintessential wheated bourbon is sometimes referred to simply as OWA (Old Weller Antique). As you can derive from the name, it hits the bottle at 107 proof. But what you wouldn’t know if you’d never tasted it before is how supremely balanced and complex of a whiskey it is. There’s a depth to the nose, girded by cassia bark and licorice. And though the palate is sweet with vanilla and brûléed sugars, saccharine notes evolve into herbaceous threads of tobacco leaf in a lengthy finish. Before it fades for good, a pinch of cherry fruit leather fans out across the back of the throat.

Put simply: OWA is a splendid, full-bodied sipper that can sometimes still even be acquired for $150 a bottle.

Though the whiskies Van Winkle and the Antique Collection are typically the Buffalo Trace-produced labels inciting the greatest fervor, no self-respecting bourbon geek is ever going to sleep on Weller. Indeed, they’ve long known that it’s made from the exact same mashbill as Pappy. It’s even named after William Larue Weller, the 19th century industry legend who first propelled “wheaters” into widespread production. He would eventually go on to hire Julian Proctor Van Winkle as his personal whiskey salesman, long before the world knew him as “Pappy.”

All this is to say, if there were a Mount Rushmore of bourbon, Weller’s visage would feature prominently on the monument. OWA is perhaps the most classic entry in the portfolio–a lineup which has seen one of the whiskey world’s greatest glowups, beginning with a tasteful re-design in 2016. None of this was lost on the discerning judges at the London Spirits Competition this year. Don’t let it be lost on you the next time you saunter past a bottle of Antique 107 on the shelf at retail. We should all be so lucky.