The Boozemakers
Annual 2026
The Best 100 Bottles of 2026, the Year in Spirits, and What’s Coming Next.
Every November, we publish the Annual: our blind-tasted Best 100 bottles of the year (bourbon, whiskey, scotch, tequila, mezcal, rum, gin, cigars), a real year-in-review, the gift index segmented by recipient and budget, and the five bets we’re placing for next year.
Instant download · 80+ pages · code HALFOFF auto-applied
Inside the Annual
Four sections. One year of our work.
The Annual is the book we wished existed when we started this site. Specific bottles. Specific scores. The honest year-end view.
The Best 100 of 2026
Our blind-tasted, score-stamped 100 best bottles of the year, segmented by category — bourbon, whiskey, scotch, rye, tequila, mezcal, rum, gin, and the year's standout cigars. Score, MSRP at time of review, and where we bought it. Not a press-release recap.
The Year in Spirits
What actually happened in 2026 — the distillery openings and closures, the regulatory shifts (Kentucky's expanded barrel-tax repeal, Washington's allocation lottery rules), the scenes that broke through (Texas Hill Country, the Pacific Northwest peat experiment), and the launches that flopped.
The Annual Gift Index
A segmented gift directory by recipient and budget — under $50, $50–$100, $100–$200, $200+, and the splurge tier. The honest version: what your dad actually wants vs. what gift guides keep telling you to buy him.
The 2027 Bets
Five categories we think will move next year, three under-the-radar distilleries about to break, and the bottles we'd hold for two years. Plus: the marketing trend we expect every brand to copy by Q2.
The Best 100, Segmented
Every category gets a real chapter.
Not a 100-item ranked list jammed together. Each category has its own chapter with the methodology, the standouts, and the specific bottles that earned their score this year.
Why an Annual
A spirits book that’s actually about this year.
Most spirits books are time capsules — written in 2018, printed in 2020, telling you about bottles that left the shelf in 2022. Useless when you’re standing at a liquor store with $80 to spend tonight.
The Annual is the opposite. It’s the bottles on shelves right now, scored on the methodology we’ve refined for three years, with current MSRPs and current allocation realities. Worth reading in November — still useful next October.
And then we throw it out and write the next one.
The other paid flagships
- Drink Smarter — the universal tasting framework, the 50-bottle library. Read this first if you’re newer.
- Smoke Smarter — wrapper-to-ash anatomy, the 25-cigar humidor.
- The Host’s Playbook — 12-month entertaining calendar. Also waitlisting now.
Common Questions
The questions worth answering before you waitlist.
Is this just a roundup of stuff you already published?
No. The Best 100 is fresh blind tasting we do specifically for the Annual — many of these bottles never appear individually on the site. Year in Review and 2027 Bets are written from scratch in October and November.
Why $29 (or $14.50 with code) for a one-year book?
Because the alternative — Wine Spectator's annual print issue — is $34.95 and you have to wait for it to ship. Ours is a PDF you can search by name, score, or price tier. And HALFOFF makes it cheaper than a single mediocre bourbon pour at most bars.
When does it ship?
The 2026 edition launches in Q4 2026 (late November). Waitlist subscribers get the buy link the day it goes live, plus a discount that won't be advertised on the catalog page.
Will there be a 2027 edition?
Yes — every November. Waitlist for the 2026 edition gets first crack at the renewal window for 2027 at a returning-buyer rate.
The 2026 Annual is live now.
80+ pages, our blind-tasted Best 100 of the year, the gift index, and the 2027 bets. Code HALFOFF cuts it from $29 to $14.50 at checkout — instant PDF download.