It's the Saturday recap on The Cut Weekend. Franklin walks through a week of restart, risk, value, and access across four different producers, then lingers on Garrison Brothers' new pre-sale — a Hye Rye Bourbon locked at $99.99 that won't be ready to drink for two years. He closes with two still-reachable weekend options: Virginia's Blanton's lottery and the Old Fitzgerald Bottled-in-Bond decanter at Heaven Hill's Bourbon Heritage Center.

Old Elk put three 10-year bourbons on the shelf at once — a Straight Bourbon, a Wheated Bourbon, and a Straight Wheat Whiskey — all $69.99, all released July 29. Same distillery, same decade in the barrel, only the grain changes. It's the cleanest mash-bill comparison the category's offered in a while, no lottery required.

A Kentucky nonprofit, Commonwealth Causes, closes ticket sales tonight at 8 p.m. Eastern on a raffle whose grand prize is six bottles of Pappy Van Winkle. Tickets are $100 each, capped at 1,500. No allocation, no waitlist — just a ticket and a same-night drawing, with proceeds funding Kentucky charities.

Old Elk just shipped its first releases under new ownership: a straight bourbon, a straight wheat whiskey, and a wheated bourbon, all aged ten years, all priced at $69.99. That's $20 to $80 below what comparable 10-year bourbons usually run. Also today: a distributor's bankruptcy reshuffles shelves in 26 states, and a Texas rye pre-sale won't deliver until 2028.

Bardstown Bourbon Company launched its new Finishing Series this week, and the first bottle is a real swing: a blend of 10- and 11-year bourbon plus 11-year rye, finished 27 months in pineapple rum casks. Bottled at 106 proof, $139.99, under 350 nine-liter cases, Kentucky-exclusive. Disclosed base-whiskey ages make the long finish more credible than most.

Beam Suntory confirmed its Booker Noe plant is back to full seven-day production after an eight-month partial idle, and its Clermont site is restarting slower, at 60 percent capacity. Same mash bills, same yeast — just more bourbon, starting now. It's a bet that the years-long inventory glut has cleared enough to justify making more, with full output not expected until early 2027.

Franklin walks through the week ahead: a free Ohio lottery for Weller Antique 107 closing tonight, the pre-allocation window for Wild Turkey's Master's Keep Triumph closing Thursday, and the real story of the week — Old Forester Birthday Bourbon arriving at retail early, well before its usual September 2 release date. He traces the bottle's roots as a family birthday tribute and explains why this early window is a rare shot at buying it honestly, at retail.

Saturday's recap ties the week together around one idea: the honest bottle keeps winning. Franklin walks through a Heaven Hill supply squeeze, New Riff's first 8-year Bottled-in-Bond, an August price increase on Elijah Craig and Larceny, and the feature story — a blind tasting at The Sawyer in Louisville where a twenty-seven dollar Old Fitzgerald Bottled-in-Bond beat Weller in front of forty voters who walked in rooting for it. He closes with three bottles still pourable this weekend.

A Louisville bar ran a blind tasting of four wheated bourbons — Maker's Mark, Weller Special Reserve, Larceny Barrel Proof, and Old Fitzgerald Bottled-in-Bond. Forty drinkers submitted ranked ballots. The $27 Old Fitzgerald BiB won by more than double the next closest bottle, beating Weller, which trades for four times the price on secondary.

Virginia's free E.H. Taylor Jr. Small Batch lottery closes tonight at 11:59pm — 340 bottles, no purchase required, and better odds than the marquee lotteries everyone actually chases. John also covers a Wilderness Trail founder signing bottles in Danville, and a same-day walk-up, pre-order, and lottery all running at once — the three ways an allocated bottle actually reaches you.