This Mysterious Bourbon Is Suddenly Set to Be One of the Most Hunted Bottles of 2025

A bourbon few know anything about from a craft distiller in Covington, KY, just earned a major award for one of the hottest whiskey production trends.

By Ben Bowers

Published February 19, 2025

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Updated February 19, 2025

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The prestigious World Whiskies Awards just unveiled the first phase of their 2025 awards process on Valentine’s Day. The World Whiskies Awards USA round selects the best American-made whiskies across several niche categories. The bottles chosen as ‘World’s Best’ in this process then compete for the global title typically awarded sometime in March.

While all six ‘World’s Best’ whiskey selections for the USA round are notable for various reasons, one bottling stands out for its unique provenance and surprising dirth of public information.

Winning Whiskey’s Trendiest Category

Three different bottles of Wenzel Whisky shown sitting on a distilery floor in front of a whiskey barrel. One bottle label is maroon, another is dark green, and another is gold. All bottles are backlit with sunlight, casting shadows in front of them. — Information on Wenzel Distillery’s new award-winning finished bourbon is currently very hard to come by online. This single image of the bottle (shown in the middle) appeared on the brand’s Instagram page on Valentine’s Day 2025 with the caption mentioning the brand would be attending the World Whiskies Awards and was hoping to earn a trophy.

Wenzel Distillery’s straight bourbon whiskey finished in sherry casks was just named the World Whiskies Awards’ Best Finished Bourbon for 2025.

Winning any World Whiskies Award is a massive feather in the cap for a distillery. But earning the top prize in the hottest trending category in whiskey production is especially impressive given how uber-competitive the segment has become.

In case you’re unfamiliar with the term, finishing refers to transferring a whiskey initially aged in one type of cask into another to impart a distinctive flavor not commonly tasted in non-finished versions of the spirit.

Wenzel Distillery’s straight bourbon whiskey finished in sherry casks was just named the World Whiskies Awards’ Best Finished Bourbon for 2025.

In most cases, the finishing cask has been previously used to make other forms of alcohol (think Sherry, Rum, Port, etc.) or is made with a distinctive type of wood not commonly employed in whiskey barrels (think Chestnut, Mizunara, Cherry, etc.).

While the technique isn’t necessarily new or complicated, it’s recently become the single most significant production trend in whiskey for understandable reasons.

In the wake of whiskey’s surging popularity since the early 2000s and increased competition, distilleries worldwide have leaned on finishing to produce intriguing new bottles that stand out from the crowd and fuel consumer interest.

A Brand Born From a Unique Whiskey Fan Experience

A bottle of Wenzel Whiskey being held in the hands of a man wearing a watch and bracelets. The bottle label is white with green labeling with gold labeling.

Wenzel Whiskey is a newcomer to the bourbon scene that even die-hard fans might not know.

The Northern Kentucky-based outfit emerged in 2022 as an experience destination for whiskey fans. At its location, right across the Ohio River from Cincinnati, visitors can taste and blend their own whiskey from existing stock sourced from Kentucky, Indiana, and Louisiana distilleries. They can then buy up to 100 bottles of their unique blend if they like what they make (The Bourbon Review offers a comprehensive overview of the experience for anyone curious.)

In 2023, the business also officially joined the Kentucky Distillers Association at the Craft level, which, in the association’s own words, is reserved for “licensed distillers or rectifiers in Kentucky that maintain an inventory below 10,000 barrels (or barrel equivalents) of distilled beverage each year.”

Men sitting around a table filled with whiskey glasses and pipettes blending whiskies together — Wenzel Whiskey first came onto the American Whiskey scene as a unique destination where whiskey fans could try blending bourbon. The brand later joined the Kentucky Distillers Association as a Craft Distiller and started releasing its own whiskey.

The brand’s first releases were blends made from whiskey sourced from other distilleries.

The company also acquired a significant amount of distillery equipment and Bourbon barrels made from Ghost Coast Distillery in Savannah, GA, which ceased spirit production at the end of 2022.

According to a news report from the Savannah Business Journal, the distillery relisted its assets for sale in February 2023. These assets included equipment and 478 bourbon and rum barrels aged between 6 months and 6 years.

Despite its youth, Wenzel Whiskey had already gained notoriety before its 2025 World Whiskies Award Win. In 2024, the brand took home Gold and Silver awards at another prestigious industry event, the San Francisco Spirits Awards.

A Bottle Still in Stealth Mode

The front label of Wenzel Whiskey Straight Bourbon Whiskey Finished in Sherry Casks on a grey background.

Despite its impressive new claim to fame, very little is known about Wenzel Whiskey’s straight bourbon whiskey finished in sherry casks, at least at the time of publication.

The bottle isn’t mentioned anywhere yet on Wenzel Whiskey’s website yet. The only image of the bottle we could find beyond the one submitted to the World Whiskies Awards appeared in a vague and somewhat teasing Instagram post from the brand ahead of the awards show on Valentine’s Day 2025.

Another image of the bottle’s front and rear labels has also popped up on Jake Kiper’s Coming Whiskey Facebook page, where he shares photos and details of upcoming new whiskey releases.

If the label photos are legitimate, the bourbon appears to be bottled at 100 proof and aged for seven years. The label also states that the bourbon was aged for the first four years in traditional charred oak casks before spending an extra three years aging in Sherry casks.

That last bit of info is an unusual bit of transparency in the bourbon world. Distillers often don’t specify how long a whiskey has aged in a finishing barrel.

As of this publication, the whiskey’s price, mashbill, release date, availability, and provenance are still unknown. That said, given the timelines, it’s not a stretch to think this original bourbon might’ve been distilled by Ghost Coast Distillery and then transferred to sherry casks for finishing by Wenzel.

We’re guessing Wenzel Whiskey will soon share more official details about the release to celebrate its new achievement shortly.