Bourbon News: 1792 Breaks New Ground and Sazerac Sweeps the Awards

Barton 1792 spent the week doing two things it had never done in nearly 150 years: bottling a rye and releasing a cask-strength 15-year-old. The 2026 International Whisky Competition results landed, and one company took home essentially everything. In Washington, a new bill aims a federal trade investigation at Canada's provincial liquor bans. And in Kentucky, the Bourbon Trail got bigger while a Louisville craft producer went under.

The Week in Six Bullets

• Barton 1792 launched its first-ever straight rye ($39.99, 100 proof, available now) and 1792 XV, a 15-year cask-strength bourbon sold only in airport travel retail¹
• Sazerac swept the 2026 International Whisky Competition, with A. Smith Bowman Cask Strength Batch #5 taking three bourbon titles²
• The Kentucky Bourbon Hall of Fame announced its 2026 class, including Wilderness Trail's founders and writer Fred Minnick³
• The CANADA Act was introduced in Congress, seeking a Section 301 investigation into Canadian provincial bans on American alcohol⁴
• Goodwood Brewing & Spirits filed for Chapter 7 liquidation, the latest mid-sized craft casualty of the downturn⁵
• Garrison Brothers set August 8 for Laguna Madre, adding a first-ever 135.4-proof single-barrel version at $409.99⁶

The Story of the Week: 1792 Steps Outside Its Lane

Barton 1792 is the oldest continuously operating distillery in Bardstown, and its release calendar has been predictable for years: Small Batch, Full Proof, Single Barrel, the occasional Aged Twelve Years. On July 7 it announced two departures at once¹.

The first is 1792 Kentucky Straight Rye, the brand's first rye whiskey, period. Master Distiller Ross Cornelissen fermented it with the house bourbon yeast rather than a neutral strain, and the grain bill blends rye from Canada, Europe, and the northern United States. It lands at 100 proof for $39.99 and is on shelves now in select markets. Rye from a bourbon house this established, at this price, is the kind of release that quietly becomes a bar staple.

The second is 1792 XV, a 15-year-old bourbon bottled uncut and unfiltered at 124.2 proof. It is both the oldest age statement and the first cask-strength release in the portfolio. The catch is real: XV sells only through global travel retail, at airports including LAX, SFO, and Seoul's Incheon, in a 1-liter bottle at $249.99. Unless a layover puts you in the right duty-free shop, you will read about this bourbon more than you will pour it.

Sazerac Owns the Trophy Case

The 2026 International Whisky Competition results arrived July 7, and the bourbon categories read like a Sazerac inventory sheet². A. Smith Bowman Cask Strength Batch #5, from the company's Fredericksburg, Virginia distillery, won three titles and posted the highest score of any American whiskey in the field. William Larue Weller took Best Wheated. Eagle Rare 17 won the 10-years-and-older category. John J. Bowman claimed Best Single Barrel.

The result that matters for your wallet is Early Times Bottled in Bond winning its category. It costs about $22 for a full liter, and it beat far more expensive competition. If value is your angle, our complete bourbon buying guide sorts the field by budget.

Two days after the IWC results, the Kentucky Bourbon Hall of Fame named its 2026 class: Wilderness Trail founders Shane Baker and Dr. Pat Heist, the late W.L. Lyons Brown Sr. and George Garvin Brown II of Brown-Forman, KDA president Eric Gregory, State Senator John Schickel, and writer Fred Minnick³. Baker and Heist built Wilderness Trail on fermentation science and sold it to Campari for over half a billion dollars. That is a fitting resume for the industry's current mood: technical rigor, then consolidation.

Washington Picks a Fight Over Canadian Shelves

Since early 2025, most Canadian provincial liquor boards have pulled American whiskey from their shelves in retaliation for US tariffs. The CANADA Act, introduced July 7 by Representative Claudia Tenney, would force the US Trade Representative to open a Section 301 investigation into those bans within 30 days of enactment⁴. Section 301 findings can trigger new tariffs or import restrictions, which is how trade disputes escalate rather than end.

The damage the bill responds to is not hypothetical. Brown-Forman has reported Canadian sales down roughly 60% since the bans took hold⁷. Canada was a $100-million-a-year market for American whiskey before this fight started. On July 9, the American Whiskey Association joined the World Spirits Alliance to press the industry's case internationally⁸. The nearer deadline is Europe's: the EU's suspended retaliatory tariff comes back on the table August 6.

Domestically, the squeeze keeps claiming producers. Goodwood Brewing & Spirits, the Louisville brewer-distiller, filed for Chapter 7 liquidation on July 11 after months of taproom closures and lawsuits⁵. A bipartisan bill called the SPIRIT Act, also introduced this week, would give small distillers a tax credit of up to $2.35 per proof gallon for using US-grown grain. Relief that arrives through Congress tends to arrive slowly.

Releases Worth Tracking

Sagamore Spirit announced a national release of its High Rye Straight Bourbon on July 12, a 6-year bourbon that leans into the Maryland distillery's rye expertise at around $50⁹. Sagamore built its reputation on rye, so a bourbon with a heavy rye grain bill is the brand playing to its strength in a bigger category.

Garrison Brothers confirmed August 8 for the seventh annual Laguna Madre release: 3,000 bottles of the 8-year Texas bourbon finished four years in French Limousin oak, at $349.99⁶. New this year is a Cask Strength Single Barrel version at 135.4 proof, $409.99, sold only at the distillery in Hye. The first 1,000 bottles go to whoever shows up at the gates that Saturday morning. E-commerce sales for the remainder open August 14.

Indiana's Hard Truth Distilling will debut two new whiskeys at its Bourbon & BBQ Festival on July 18, announced this week alongside the festival's return¹⁰. Details on the bottles are being held for the event itself.

Bourbon Tourism Doubles Down

The Kentucky Bourbon Trail added four stops on July 7, reaching a record 74 destinations¹¹. If a trip is taking shape, our distillery guides cover the producers worth building a route around. The notable addition is Pursuit Spirits on Louisville's Whiskey Row, founded by the hosts of the Bourbon Pursuit podcast. Eleven years ago they interviewed the Kentucky Distillers' Association about the Trail on episode 8. Now they are on it, running a barrel-thief bottling experience that skips the standard distillery tour script.

Buffalo Trace went further into experience territory with Camp Buffalo Trace, an adults-only summer camp on the Frankfort campus August 29 and September 5¹². Campers craft muddlers from barrel staves, race in bung-driving relays, and take blind-tasting challenges. Attendance is by sweepstakes: 200 day passes across both dates, plus 10 winners who stay overnight in air-conditioned luxury tents on distillery grounds. Maker's Mark played the same game at higher altitude, running a one-night pop-up bar at the top of Aspen Mountain with a nitro-draft cocktail engineered for 11,212 feet¹³. The Summit Sour is a stunt; the technique behind it is ordinary bourbon craft, the kind our bourbon cocktail guide walks through.

Distilleries are selling scarcity of experience now, not just scarcity of liquid. A sweepstakes tent stay costs Buffalo Trace almost nothing against the media it generates, and unlike an allocated bottle, nobody can flip it.

What to Watch

• Four Roses Experimental Series No. 001, the Mizunara-finished 375ml at $55, goes on sale July 30. Still the anniversary-season bottle most people can actually afford to open.
• The EU tariff suspension expires August 6. Watch for either an extension or a scramble; there is no quiet outcome.
• Laguna Madre, August 8 in Hye, Texas. If you want the 135.4-proof single barrel, you are driving to the distillery.
• Camp Buffalo Trace sweepstakes entries are open online now for the August 29 and September 5 dates.

Keep Reading

Footnotes

1. Breaking Bourbon, "Barton 1792 Distillery Adds Two Landmark Expressions to its Whiskey Lineup," July 7, 2026 ↩ ↩²

2. The Whiskey Wash, "The World's Best Bourbons According to the International Whisky Competition 2026," July 2026 ↩ ↩²

3. Bourbon Obsessed, "2026 Kentucky Bourbon Hall of Fame Inductees Announced," July 2026 ↩ ↩²

4. Rep. Claudia Tenney, "Congresswoman Tenney Introduces CANADA Act," July 2026 ↩ ↩²

5. Bourbon Obsessed, "Bourbon and Distillery News for July 11, 2026," July 11, 2026 ↩ ↩²

6. Fred Minnick, "Garrison Brothers Announces Laguna Madre Release Date: Aug. 8," July 7, 2026 ↩ ↩²

7. The Spirits Business, "US to investigate Canada ban on American alcohol," July 2026 ↩

8. American Whiskey Association, "AWA Joins World Spirits Alliance," July 2026 ↩

9. One More Dram, "Sagamore Spirit Announces National Release of High Rye Straight Bourbon Whiskey," July 12, 2026 ↩

10. Breaking Bourbon, "Bourbon & BBQ Festival Returns to Indiana's Hard Truth Distilling Co. for Second Year," July 7, 2026 ↩

11. Breaking Bourbon, "Pursuit Spirits Transforms Whiskey Row and Joins the Kentucky Bourbon Trail," July 7, 2026 ↩

12. Breaking Bourbon, "Buffalo Trace Distillery Announces 'Camp Buffalo Trace,'" July 8, 2026 ↩

13. Bourbon Obsessed, "Maker's Mark Perfectly Unreasonable Bar Debuts in Aspen," July 2026 ↩