Chasing the Unicorn: Bourbon & American Whiskey

Franklin closes the week with a look back at bourbon's cheap seats outperforming — Redemption's new bottled-in-bond, a 99-point score for a forty-dollar Maker's Mark 46, and Bardstown Bourbon Company pricing two very different finishes the same. He sits with Very Olde St. Nick Immaculata, a thirteen-barrel blend drawn from three hundred casks. And he points to two bottles worth pouring this weekend without chasing anything: Woodinville's Single Barrel Rye and a Weller Special Reserve restock in Southwest Ohio.

Koopers Whiskey finished an 8-year MGP bourbon in barrels built by Standard Cooperage, Texas's first cooperage, bottling 360 bottles at 114.8 proof. Presale opens Saturday, August 22, at 11 a.m. for $70 a bottle, online and at Koopers' Ledbetter tasting room, shipping around September 1. It's a real supply-chain first, not just another scarcity drop.

A Kentucky charity raffle is offering five allocated-bourbon prize packages — including a six-bottle Pappy Van Winkle set, a Buffalo Trace Double Eagle Very Rare, a Weller vertical, and a Blanton's letter set — for a $100 ticket. Only 130 of 1,500 tickets have sold. The drawing is August 27. Proceeds benefit the Lexington Sporting Club Foundation. This week's Cut also covers Maker's Mark's oldest cask-strength cellar release yet and a same-price Bardstown Bourbon comparison.

Bardstown Bourbon Company confirmed identical $139.99 pricing on two very different fall releases landing August 21: Lochs of Jura Barrel Finish, a 104-proof blend finished 32 months in Scotch casks from Islay's Isle of Jura that scored 99 points at a major competition, and 2026 Discovery, a hotter 112.8-proof bourbon finished just four months in Oregon Garryana oak. Same price, same week, two different bets.

Maker's Mark 46 just earned a 99-out-of-100 Double Gold at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition, adding to an earlier World's Best Finished Bourbon win. The bottle is 94 proof, about $40, and sitting on shelves nationwide — no lottery, no allocation. Two competitions, two panels, same bottle landing near the top both times. Price and quality rarely line up this cleanly.

Redemption's first bottled-in-bond bourbon, Single Barrel Bonded, clears the federal four-year minimum by two full years while staying at the mandatory 100 proof — and it's priced at $49.99. Distilled at MGP's Ross & Squibb Distillery in Indiana, bottled by Redemption in Frankfort, Kentucky. It joins the brand's ongoing Higher Marques Collection, with national rollout starting in September.

Sunday's look-ahead: the Hanger Foundation's charity raffle draws live September 16, $100 a ticket for a shot at a Pappy Van Winkle vertical, a Buffalo Trace Antique Collection set, and a Weller Rainbow set among 71 bottles — with no cap on tickets per buyer. Franklin lays out the real math behind that unlimited-ticket detail before you decide how many to buy. Also on the calendar: Hard Truth's Dark Roast Rye preview pours (August 21 in Nashville, Indiana; August 28 in Indianapolis) and Garrison Brothers' Cowboy Bourbon walk-up and online release windows.

It's Saturday, so Franklin slows down and looks back at what the week in bourbon actually added up to. The throughline was brands proving what's theirs — from a new Lexington distillery for Never Say Die to Garrison Brothers publishing its entire Cowboy Bourbon plan. The centerpiece is Chattanooga Whiskey's rare Moldovan ice wine cask finish, plus a look at what's actually grabbable this weekend in Wyoming and beyond.

Terry Bradshaw's whiskey brand launched a four-drink cocktail menu today across five bars in Las Vegas, Pittsburgh, and Texas, with every drink named for a real moment in his playing career — the "Immaculate Refreshment," "The Blond Bomber." Priced $12–$22. The same week, Beyoncé bought LVMH's stake in SirDavis, reversing the usual celebrity-brand deal. Two athlete/celebrity whiskeys, opposite directions, same 48 hours.

Fifteen months after Middle West Spirits took over Old Elk Distillery, the brand answered the only question anyone was asking. On August 12, three 10-year whiskeys — a straight bourbon, a straight wheat whiskey, and a wheated bourbon — landed nationwide, all at $69.99, all 105 proof. Same decade in the barrel, three different grain recipes, no lottery required.