Sabbatical Bourbon Wins Double Gold Awards at the 2025 San Francisco World Spirits Competition
Sabbatical Single Barrel Select Straight Bourbon Earns Highest Honors + 97 Points Judges’ Rating
NEWS! Victoria Island, Stockton // San Francisco, CA - May 8, 2025
Announced today, the Bay Area’s own Sabbatical Distillery takes home the highest award for its Single Barrel Select Straight Bourbon Whiskey and received a judges’ score of . This year’s top win builds on Double Gold and Gold Medal wins in the 2024 competition adding to the distillery’s growing collection of awards from the largest and most prestigious spirits competition in the world.
Sabbatical’s Single Barrel Select Straight Bourbon received the highest designation of a Double Gold Medal and earned a judges’ score of 97 points. According to the expert reviewers at the SFWSC: “The Double Gold designation is awarded to the very few entries that receive Gold medal ratings by all members of the judging panel. These are among the finest products in the world.”
“For this year’s competition, we selected just a single new product to submit which was fittingly, our exclusive Single Barrel Bourbon selection, bottled one barrel at a time and at barrel strength,” said Sabbatical co-founder Danny Leonard. “We are so proud to receive this new Double Gold Medal recognition for our hand-selected single barrel program. We recently launched this style exclusively for our Club members, and quickly sold out, as a way to say thank you for their support. Now we have the hardware to back up our gratitude and can’t wait to release the next barrel!”
Sabbatical’s Single Barrel Select Bourbon program is available to Club Sabbatical members and at select retail partners in the Bay Area when exclusive Barrel selections are available. The distillery plans to release more barrels across both networks in the coming months.
In less than 4 years in the market, Sabbatical has received an impressive array of top honors from the most important global competition in the industry. Other San Francisco World Spirits Competition distinctions for its portfolio include: Blended Whiskey – Table Blend No. 1 (Double Gold 2024), Sabado Gin by Sabbatical (Double Gold, 2022), Straight Bourbon Finished in Port Casks (Gold, 2024), Straight Bourbon Barrel Reserve (Gold, 2023), Blended American Whiskey Finished in Cognac Casks (Gold, 2022), Cognac Cask Finished American Single Malt Whiskey (Silver, 2023) and its farm-grown California Lemon Vodka (Bronze, 2024).
The San Francisco World Spirits Competition (SFWSC) stands as the most prestigious competition in the world, setting the industry standard for excellence. Recognizing both globally renowned distilleries and rising small-batch producers, SFWSC medal winners earn widespread recognition and respect. The 2025 competition results are now officially live, celebrating medalists who exemplify quality, craftsmanship, and distinction in the spirits industry.
See full list of 2025 results, here: https://thetastingalliance.com/events/san-francisco-world-spirits-competition
Join our Spirits Club to get the next Single Barrel Select release!
