Buffalo Trace’s Cheap Chris Stapleton Whiskey Just Won Two Major Awards

Traveller Whiskey was already a bargain, but now it’s got the street cred to back up its shelf-sleeper status.

a bottle of buffalo trace traveller whiskey on some rocks

By Johnny Brayson

Published August 6, 2024

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Updated August 8, 2024

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When I first tried Traveller Whiskey ahead of its release earlier this year, I was surprised at how much I liked it.

Maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised. After all, the bottle is a collab between Buffalo Trace Distillery, an operation that rarely misses, and country music superstar Chris Stapleton, a man who has been shown to have both good taste and high standards.

Traveller Whiskey

$33 at Caskers

Still, celebrity-endorsed products rarely live up to the hype — and often are nothing more than cash grabs. Traveller is also a blend with no transparency about what’s in it and no age statement. What’s more, this is Buffalo Trace juice that is both affordable and readily available, two potential red flags when dealing with America’s hottest distillery.

How could it possibly be good?

But once I took a sip, all those worries seemed meaningless. Traveller still ranks among my favorite new whiskeys I’ve tried this year. It’s easy-drinking, it’s pleasant, it isn’t pretentious. It’s just good.

chris stapleton noses a glass of whiskey — Don’t let the extensive history of bad celebrity-endorsed products dissuade you: Chris Stapleton made a damn good whiskey.

For a while, it seemed like maybe I was alone in my judgment, as plenty of other professional and whiskey reviewers loudly declared they did not like Traveller. (One particularly melodramatic Reddit reviewer even took to dumping his bottle down the sink on his way to a 1/10 rating.)

But now, my palate has been redeemed, as Traveller has just picked up not one but two prestigious whiskey awards.

Gold & Double Platinum

Like several of Stapleton’s albums, Traveller now has both Gold and Double Platinum honors to its name.

First up is the Spirits Business American Whiskey Masters 2024 competition, where the bottle picked up a Gold medal. That’s the second-highest rating from the competition, with the highest being the Master medal that was awarded to just nine whiskeys across 19 categories.

Traveller finds itself in good company with its Gold medal win, too. 1792 Full Proof Bourbon, which just won the Best Bourbon title at the Singapore World Spirits Awards, earned the same ranking.

A whiskey from Buffalo Trace’s venerated Antique Collection also earned Gold in Thomas H. Handy Straight Rye, along with acclaimed bottles from some of BT’s other top labels, including Weller and E.H. Taylor.

whiskey bottle on traintracks — Traveller is no longer just a good cheap whiskey; it’s now a multiple award-winning good cheap whiskey.

In addition to its Gold medal, Traveller also picked up an impressive honor at the 2024 Ascot Awards, the global competition founded by famed bourbon expert Fred Minnick.

Traveller faced a lot more competition here since the Ascot Awards has far more entries than the comparatively small American Whiskey Masters, but it didn’t matter much. The blended whiskey still earned a Double Platinum rating. Ranking above Gold and Platinum ratings, it’s the highest rank given out by the Ascot Awards short of earning a Best in Show award.

All in all, it’s not a bad showing for a $40 blended whiskey making its first lap around the awards circuit.

And the best part? Traveller is still totally hype-free and readily available. You can even find it for less than SRP pretty easily. How many award-winning Buffalo Trace whiskeys can you say that about?