Chasing the Unicorn: Bourbon & American Whiskey

It's the Sunday look-ahead: one real deadline, a couple of things to keep half an eye on, and one bottle worth planning a trip around. Garrison Brothers' first-ever Hye Rye Bourbon pre-sale closes August 10th — four bottles per customer, under a hundred dollars, but a two-year wait before it ships. Franklin also flags a coming Canadian whisky tariff and a Heaven Hill distributor shift, then closes on Bardstown Bourbon Company's Victoria Pineapple release from their new Finishing Series.

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.