Chasing the Unicorn: Bourbon & American Whiskey

Old Forester replaced Birthday Bourbon's overnight line with a sweepstakes — a computer draws winners, but every one of them must still show up in person with ID to collect the bottle. We ask whether that's fairer or just the same test moved somewhere else. We also dig into Maker's Mark's decision to print the exact age blend on its newest release, and ask whether an easy-to-order, French-oak-finished bourbon can be worth chasing without a lottery attached.

The retail detail — the where, the when and the numbers — isn't in this episode. Platform rules for alcohol content don't allow it here. All of it is in the American Whiskey Industry Brief, free every morning at chasingtheunicornpodcast.com.

Today's Cut runs three arguments cold. First: does it matter who signs the distribution check, now that Morales Beverage Group has moved on RNDC's bankrupt Indiana business? Second: does a sourced-whiskey brand's credibility survive if the person behind it never touched a still — the case of a former Sagamore Spirit CEO's new label. Third: does a free lottery actually level the field, or do the same hunters win anyway.

The retail detail — the where, the when and the numbers — isn't in this episode. Platform rules for alcohol content don't allow it here. All of it is in the American Whiskey Industry Brief, free every morning at chasingtheunicornpodcast.com.

It's Sunday planning on The Cut Weekend, and Franklin spends the whole hour on one question: when a company's own founding family publicly calls leadership's direction stark and undeniable, does that pressure actually change how the business runs, or does the board just let the letter fade? He works both sides — the case that nothing moves without a vote or a resignation, and the case that a family's public break from leadership is impossible to absorb quietly — then names the specific things worth watching in the weeks ahead. He closes with his own call, on the record, and points listeners to the American Whiskey Industry Brief for the full story on Maker's Mark's oldest bourbon release yet.

The retail detail — the where, the when and the numbers — isn't in this episode. Platform rules for alcohol content don't allow it here. All of it is in the American Whiskey Industry Brief, free every morning at chasingtheunicornpodcast.com.

This week's news ran from a bankruptcy-auction plant sale to a record Willett barrel, a blind-tasting upset, and four different ways companies decide who gets the bottle. Franklin revisits the week's calls — what held, what's still open, and the one that didn't hold up — and lands on the real question underneath all of it: is a story about the whiskey, or about who gets to buy it.

The retail detail — the where, the when and the numbers — isn't in this episode. Platform rules for alcohol content don't allow it here. All of it is in the American Whiskey Industry Brief, free every morning at chasingtheunicornpodcast.com.

Today's Cut argues three questions cold: whether a bottled, ready-to-pour Manhattan is beneath a serious rye distillery or a fix for the one thing that ruins most people's cocktail — stale vermouth. Then whether a distillery pouring allocated bottles for free on a hotel-ballroom tasting tour helps drinkers or just proves scarcity is a dial someone turns. Then whether a bourbon finished in leftover honey barrels is a real experiment worth selling or an undefined word buying a producer the benefit of the doubt.

The retail detail — the where, the when and the numbers — isn't in this episode. Platform rules for alcohol content don't allow it here. All of it is in the American Whiskey Industry Brief, free every morning at chasingtheunicornpodcast.com.

Today's Cut argues three questions cold: whether committing to a year of unseen bottle-club releases is the honest version of the chase or a whiskey timeshare, whether Jack Daniel's taking American Single Malt national validates the category or flattens it under one house style, and whether a fourth straight "World's Most Admired Whiskey" award means anything to someone standing in a shop.

The retail detail — the where, the when and the numbers — isn't in this episode. Platform rules for alcohol content don't allow it here. All of it is in the American Whiskey Industry Brief, free every morning at chasingtheunicornpodcast.com.

Today's Cut argues three questions cold: whether a bottle's price says anything about what's inside it after Ampersand Aureus beat Eagle Rare 17 and Stagg blind, whether a record Willett auction sale means the secondary correction is over or just concentrated at the very top, and whether a distillery-only release rewards showing up or just tolls the people who can't get there.

The retail detail — the where, the when and the numbers — isn't in this episode. Platform rules for alcohol content don't allow it here. All of it is in the American Whiskey Industry Brief, free every morning at chasingtheunicornpodcast.com.

Today's Cut argues three questions cold: who really pays when a tariff hits a liquor shelf, whether a four-whiskey blend from Redwood Empire is genuine innovation or a way to move leftover barrels, and whether a Brown-Forman family letter means anything without the votes to back it.

The retail detail — the where, the when and the numbers — isn't in this episode. Platform rules for alcohol content don't allow it here. All of it is in the American Whiskey Industry Brief, free every morning at chasingtheunicornpodcast.com.

A Kentucky distillery that opened in 2024 was bankrupt by 2026, and Sazerac bought it out of a court-ordered auction for $20 million. Today's Cut argues whether that's good for drinkers or bad, then asks whether Texas-grown barrel oak actually changes flavor, and closes on a medal-winning rye worth grabbing over one worth chasing.

The retail detail — the where, the when and the numbers — isn't in this episode. Platform rules for alcohol content don't allow it here. All of it is in the American Whiskey Industry Brief, free every morning at chasingtheunicornpodcast.com.

On this Sunday look-ahead edition of The Cut Weekend, Franklin previews a light but meaningful week ahead. Maker's Mark Cellar Aged arrives nationwide September 1st with a record eighteen percent fourteen-year-old whiskey in the blend, cask strength. Then he spends real time on The Malted Mummy — Filmland Spirits' new American single malt, beer-barrel finished and Kentucky-matured, debuting at BrewzleFest on August 29th ahead of a nineteen-state rollout at $74.99.