This Classic Brand Is The Best-Selling American Whiskey, And It's Not Jack Daniel's

It's not for nothing that Jack Daniel's is often considered by laypeople to be the quintessential American whiskey. Its branding is ubiquitous, and it's tied closely to the Yank rockstar lifestyle; even Frank Sinatra was buried with a bottle in his coffin. And, yet, in a poll of leading American bars, Drinks International found a different winner, at least in the arena of bartender-reported bestselling whiskey at drinking establishments. Michter's not only took the top spot for bestselling spirit, but it was also dubbed the top trending whiskey, implying that more and more people are taking an interest. In fact, Jack Daniel's was all the way down in the number 6 spot for best-selling whiskies and 7 for trending, being bested by other big names like Bulleit, Woodford Reserve, and Maker's Mark.

For those who are experienced sippers, it's not hard to tell different whiskies apart. Michter's is known for being one of the oldest American distilleries, born as Shenk's Distillery in Pennsylvania before the Revolutionary War. As the story goes, George Washington himself purchased whiskey from Shenk's to help his men weather the freezing winter when they were quartered in Valley Forge. Shenk's changed names and hands over the ensuing centuries, surviving Prohibition and shifting tastes in spirits. In the 1950s, Michter's got its current name when the then-owner christened it with a portmanteau of his two sons' names: Michael and Peter. The Michter's company lost prestige in the latter half of the 20th century but had a dramatic change of fortune in the 2000s, fueled by a focus on limited, high-quality releases.

It's important to note that the Drinks International poll of American bars is not the only organization to try and establish a hierarchy of American whiskey, and different sources place different names on top of the heap. The Spirits Business, for instance, determined Jim Beam to be the most popular American whiskey of 2026, based on nine-liter case sales (via VinePair). Michter's, notably, didn't place in the Top 10 on that list. Different parameters often equal different results. 

Should it matter to you which whiskey is "most popular?" Probably not. Whether you sip whiskey neat or on ice, your personal taste is what really counts. Besides, some social media users on Reddit have mixed reviews of Michter's American whiskey, furthering our belief that all the hoopla over ranking spirits may be just so much meaningless noise. Here, one Reddit reviewer damned it with faint praise and a middling rating: "I didn't absolutely hate it and I actually really enjoyed the nose, but the sip overall was subpar and the finish specifically was short, boring, and slightly off putting." 

Yet another Redditor really liked the whiskey but hypothesized that all the acclaim hasn't been great for loyal drinkers of Michter's: "Their mainline core is probably the most solid in the bourbon world [...] My real problem with them is they definately [sic] got high on their own hype and charge INSANE prices for their allocation." What have we learned here? Michter's is definitely popular, but popularity shouldn't be the only metric for determining what to drink, because everyone has different criteria for worthiness.