Dewar's 19 Year Old Champion's Edition Is the Pour the 126th US Open Deserves

The Dewar’s 19 Year Old Champion’s Edition arrives this Father’s Day weekend as the official Scotch whisky of the 126th U.S. Open Championship, and the bottle tells you everything about where you are. Championship golf returns to Shinnecock Hills Golf Club in Southampton, New York on June 18–21, and Dewar’s has met the moment with a limited-edition release finished in Cabernet Franc red wine casks sourced from Wölffer Estate — the storied Hamptons winery in Sagaponack, Long Island, just miles from the course.

It is an elegant piece of geography. Shinnecock Hills sits between Peconic Bay and the Atlantic, a links-style layout shaped by glacial terrain, fescue, and wind that has humbled the game’s best players since 1896. Wölffer Estate, founded in 1988, occupies the same maritime landscape — and its Cabernet Franc, raised on that same coastal terroir, now gives this whisky its defining character.

How the Dewar’s 19 Year Old Champion’s Edition Is Crafted

Each year’s Champion’s Edition is finished in casks connected to the host region — a practice that grounds the series in place rather than novelty. Six-time Master Blender Stephanie Macleod selected Wölffer Estate’s Cabernet Franc casks for the 2026 expression, bringing a wine-forward complexity that is rare in blended Scotch. The whisky itself carries a 19-year maturation, bottled at 43% ABV, with the Cabernet Franc finish added as a final layer of refinement rather than a gimmick.

Wölffer’s Cabernet Franc is no afterthought either. The estate’s reds have drawn scores above 90 from Robert Parker, and the variety’s characteristic red-berry structure and violet aromatics translate directly into the whisky’s profile. This is a collaboration between two producers who take their craft seriously — and it reads that way in the glass.

Dewar’s 19 Year Old Champion’s Edition Tasting Profile

On the nose, the Dewar’s 19 Year Old Champion’s Edition opens with elegant floral violet notes followed immediately by the vibrant fruitiness of ripe blackcurrants — an aromatic signature that announces the Cabernet Franc influence before the first sip. The palate settles into golden honey and a medley of syrupy red berries, with warm cinnamon arriving on the finish to pull everything into balance.

It is a whisky built for the celebratory pour — layered enough for a slow, considered dram, approachable enough to anchor a round of drinks among people who may not be regular Scotch drinkers. The 19-year maturation provides the depth; the Cabernet Franc finish provides the intrigue. At $79.99 for a 750ml, this is a limited edition that drinks well above its price.

The Dewar’s Champion’s Edition Series and What Makes 2026 Different

Dewar’s has built the Champion’s Edition into one of the more thoughtful limited-edition series in the spirits world — each bottle a time-stamped record of where the Open was played and what the surrounding landscape produces. The 2025 edition honored Oakmont with a Calvados apple brandy cask finish, connecting the whisky to Pennsylvania’s centuries-old apple brandy tradition. The 2026 Wölffer Estate Cabernet Franc finish carries the same logic, but the Hamptons setting lends it a particular elegance that fits the series at its best.

Shinnecock Hills is the only course to have hosted the U.S. Open across three different centuries, and Father’s Day Sunday falls on the final round this year. The Champion’s Edition has always been designed for the post-round toast — a ritual that dates back to the game’s origins. This edition earns that occasion.

The Dewar’s Lemon Wedge: The Champion’s Edition Cocktail for Father’s Day

Dewar’s signature cocktail at the 2026 U.S. Open is the Lemon Wedge — a bright, low-fuss serve built on Dewar’s 12 Year Old that translates well from the clubhouse to the living room. It is the kind of drink you can put together in thirty seconds while the broadcast’s final round coverage runs in the background, and hand to your father without explanation. He will understand immediately.

The Dewar’s Lemon Wedge
1½ oz Dewar’s 12 Year Old
2 oz fresh lemonade
3 oz club soda
Combine over ice, stir gently for desired dilution, garnish with a lemon wedge.

Save the Champion’s Edition for the serious pours. The Lemon Wedge is for the afternoon.

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