Costco’s Kirkland Signature range has built a reputation on bottles that outperform their price. In our recent survey The Whiskey Wash readers confirmed their Costco favorites; Bourbon took four of the top five places, and the 12-year-old blended Scotch beat both of Costco’s single malts.
However, one bottle finished last on every single measure we recorded, which no other whiskey in the range managed. The Kirkland Signature Tennessee Whiskey took 875 points, fewer than a third of the winner’s total, and only 109 readers out of 2,724 named it as their favorite.
It is not a bad whiskey, and the voting shows most readers have owned it at some point. It is simply outgunned by what sits alongside it.
Why Kirkland Signature Tennessee Whiskey Finished Last
The voting pattern is more revealing than the placing. The Tennessee whiskey collected 268 third-place votes, more than its first and second places combined, and appeared on 517 ballots in total, or 19 percent. Readers know the bottle and many of them own it. Almost nobody rates it above anything else in the cart.
Tennessee Distilling Ltd. produces it in Columbia, ages it for four years and puts it through the Lincoln County Process, the sugar maple charcoal filtration that legally separates Tennessee whiskey from Kentucky bourbon. It sits stylistically between the state’s two giants, drier than Jack Daniel’s Old No. 7 and with more body than George Dickel, and it carries decent notes of leather, walnut, caramel and maple syrup.
The problem is the strength, as at only 80 proof it disappears into anything more assertive than cola, and it lacks the weight to reward drinking neat. At $22 to $37 for 1.75 liters it is cheap, but Costco’s own shelves now hold better ways to spend the same money.
What to Buy at Costco Instead
The most direct swap is the Kirkland Signature Kentucky Straight Bourbon, which arrived in warehouses in May 2026 and finished fifth in our survey on its first outing. It matches the Tennessee whiskey on format and roughly on price, at 1.75 liters for a tracked average of $27.30, and improves on it everywhere else. It runs at 92 proof, comes non-chill filtered, and took a gold medal and 92 points from Tastings.com in April.
If you want the best bottle in the range rather than the best value by volume, the Kirkland Bottled-in-Bond bourbon costs around $25 for a liter and drew more first-place votes than any other Kirkland whiskey. Barton 1792 distills it, the federal Bottled-in-Bond standard guarantees the age and the 100 proof, and it holds its shape in a cocktail in a way the Tennessee whiskey never quite manages.
Award-Winning Tennessee Whiskeys Under $60
If you specifically want Tennessee whiskey rather than bourbon, the category has produced some genuinely cheap medal winners over the past two years.
Jack Daniel’s Bonded, $27.
Named World’s Best Tennessee Whiskey in the no age statement category at the World Whiskies Awards America 2026. It is bottled in bond at 100 proof, aged a minimum of four years, and charcoal mellowed through sugar maple in the usual Lynchburg way. Expect seared corn, caramel, butterscotch, toasted marshmallow and maple. A 750ml bottle costs roughly what Costco charges for 1.75 liters of the Kirkland, so you are paying for strength and structure rather than volume.
Bib & Tucker 6 Year Old, $45.
A silver medal winner at the World Whiskies Awards 2025, sourced rather than distilled in house, and aged at least six years in new American white oak. At 92 proof it delivers pecan pie, warm baking spice and chestnut, with a silky finish that drinks well above the price.
Uncle Nearest Cognac Cask, Barrel 006, $54.99.
Tennessee Whiskey of the Year at the London Spirits Competition 2026, with a gold medal and 92 points. The distillery honors Nathan “Nearest” Green, the first known African American master distiller and the man who taught Jack Daniel, and this release is blended by his great-great-granddaughter, Victoria Eady Butler. Aged in charred oak and finished in French cognac casks at 100 proof, it brings dark cherry, salted caramel and dark chocolate over the maple charcoal base.
The pattern across every alternative here is the same. Each one is bottled at 92 proof or higher, and each one costs more per bottle than the Kirkland. Strength is what the Tennessee whiskey is short of, and it is the one thing you cannot get cheaply by buying in volume.
Read the full article at Is Kirkland Tennessee Whiskey Really Costco’s Worst Whiskey?
