Green River Wheated Bourbon takes home the Best In Show prize at NYWSC 2025.
Photo illustration: Brad Japhe
We’ve talked at length about the significance of the New York World Spirits Competition, and why you should care about its winners. Most recently we revealed what those judges anointed as the best tequila for 2025. It’s safe to say that many fans of the category were surprised. Today, we’re unveiling their bottle of “Best Overall Bourbon” from this year’s NYWSC and the selection might elicit a similar reaction.
Topping the list is Green River Wheated Bourbon, a 90-proof, non-age-stated expression out of Owensboro, Kentucky. The surprise factor isn’t that it’s a subpar product. Quite the contrary. This is a complex liquid holding all manner of stone fruit aromas and candied confection undertones. No, the shocking thing is that this is a widely available offering which you can easily find it on shelves for around $36 a bottle. And in this blind tasting it beat out some serious competition, including decanters of deeply allocated product that you’d have trouble finding for under $1000 a bottle.
Why were the judges so smitten with this particular pour? Let’s have a look at their official tasting notes:
“A warmly inviting and richly textured bourbon, opening with playful aromas of peppery spice and s’mores, followed by a palate of honeyed grains, oats, and creamy butterscotch layered with hints of oak and a lively barrel tang, all leading to a smooth, long finish where grain fades into soft honey, gentle spice, and warm barrel notes for a satisfying close.”
Country musician Dierks Bentley offers a toast at a release party for his Row 94 Full Proof bourbon at Green River Distillery in Owensboro, Ky., on Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2025. (Ryan C. Hermens/The Lexington Herald-Leader/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
TNS
That’s high praise. From my own sipping experience I would only add what I said before about the pronounced presence of stone fruit. Apricot and peach play a role in the aromas of this dram to a degree you don’t typically detect in a “wheater”–that is, a bourbon which relies on wheat rather than rye as its secondary ingredient behind corn. Green River is transparent with its mash bill, so we know that the exact recipe in question is 70% corn, 21% wheat and 9% malted barley.
It was crafted on the banks of the Ohio River, at a historic facility boasting some 140 years of heritage. The 10th oldest distillery in the Bluegrass State, Green River was raised from the dead back in 2014 and has been making a splash with modern craft fans ever since.
You can tour the facility’s visitors center to enjoy a fuller taste of its portfolio, which also includes a full proof bourbon and a Kentucky Straight Rye. The experience might help you make sense of why Green River today brands itself as “the whiskey without regrets.” Though after this year’s performance at New York World Spirits, it should be self-evident.
Other bourbon winners of note at the 2025 NYWSC include the following:
- Best Straight Bourbon – The Garden Reserve, The Spirit of New York Sports
- Best Small Batch Bourbon – Peg Leg Porker, Grey Label Tennessee Straight Bourbon
- Best Single Barrel Bourbon – Blanton’s, Gold Edition
New York City at Night; home to the NYWSC
Brad Japhe
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