Dave Schmier is a serial brand founder. Perhaps his best-known endeavor was Redemption Whiskey, which he sold a decade ago in 2015. Not one to sit back and rest, he founded&nbsp;<a href="https://www.proofandwood.com/">Proof and Wood</a> that same year. Schmier&rsquo;s work in the world of sourced whiskeys often involves the former Seagram&rsquo;s distillery in Lawrenceburg, Indiana that is now known as Midwest Grain Products, or MGP. Today, MGP runs two different branded spirits operations&mdash;Lux Row, which it acquired in 2021, and Ross &amp; Squibb, under which it makes its in-house labels like George Remus Bourbon and Rossville Union Rye.
Schmier&rsquo;s Tumblin&rsquo; Dice brand, part of the Proof and wood portfolio, has won numerous World Whiskies Awards, including World&rsquo;s Best Single Cask Rye in 2024 and World&rsquo;s Best Single Cask Bourbon in 2023. We recently caught up with him to learn more about the journey that led him to this multiple award-winning spirits business, and how the perception of sourced whiskey has changed over the years.
The Unicorn Review: How did you first get into the spirits business?
Dave Schmier: I spent quite a bit of time working on the retail side, mainly on-premise, bars, restaurants, nightclubs on the marketing side. I thought, "I've seen a lot of on-premise promotions, I think I can do this better.&rdquo; So I founded a marketing agency to do just that.
Our first client was Absolut Vodka. We worked with Aliz&eacute;, Chivis Regal, Budweiser, and Fisher Brewery's, creating a lot of entertainment-based on-premise promotions for them. I learned a lot about the business and a lot about different spirits, which eventually led me to create my own vodka brand. But I was drinking a lot of whiskey, learning more about that as I was going along.&nbsp;
Why did you start with vodka?&nbsp;
That was the currency of the realm at the time, so it was more a business decision than anything else.&nbsp; My whiskey journey began while I was working with Absolut. They encouraged us to drink a lot of their products, so I started drinking Chivas and Bulleit and enjoying whiskey a lot more than vodka. I was fortunate enough to begin my lifelong association with rye while attending Gaz Reagan's Cocktails in the Country and having my first Manhattan with rye. That was kind of an epiphany, finding that extra dimension of flavor that came from rye. At that time, I think rye was maybe selling about 10,000 cases a year in the U.S.
What was the impetus to start a whiskey company? Did you notice a shift in the market where people were starting to look for something more flavorful than vodka?&nbsp;
In the early 2000s, people didn't care too much about whiskey. There was a lot of whiskey being sold, but it was mainly the bigger brands. There was a really small group of people who were collecting Hirsch and were excited about Pappy Van Winkle. But there was plenty of old American whiskey on the shelf. So it wasn't quite a thing yet.
A couple of things started happening. One was the resurgence of the craft cocktail&mdash;you had bartenders in Manhattan, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, and LA bringing back the drinks that your grandparents drank that were kind of done away with in the '70s. And you had the growth of craft distilling. Distilleries were opening up all around the country. That helped introduce more people to the idea of drinking whiskey and understanding how it was made and where it came from.
[My friend Mike Kanbar and I] started drinking a lot of whiskey and looking around for cool barrels that we could bottle ourselves. That's when we stumbled on the old Seagram's distillery in Indiana and tasted some of their rye and said, "Wow, we should put this in a bottle." We thought we could sell a few hundred cases of this a year.
I think we bought three barrels from LDI at the time, which became MGP. I don't think we ever used the word &ldquo;sourcing.&rdquo; It wasn't a thing, but it had been done for hundreds of years just under different names. But most people didn't know how the back end of the business worked. The assumption was all the different brands that Jim Beam and Heaven Hill put out came from their own distilleries.
When did consumer knowledge about sourcing come about? And what was the initial reaction to that discovery?
When we launched Redemption, we were always straightforward with our customers about what we were doing. Most of them thought it was pretty cool that we were able to find barrels and put them in a bottle as our own brand. More importantly, people liked the whiskey we were giving them at the price we were giving it to them. But you had a fair amount of brands who might have put on the facade that they were distilling whiskey when they weren't. And some distillers were selling sourced whiskey but kind of implying that they were distilling it and charging prices as if they were distilling it in really small batches.
People found that to be deceptive. Everyone was painted with the brush of, "You're not distilling, there's something wrong with that." And then out of that came the term &ldquo;NDP&rdquo;&mdash;non-distilling producer&mdash;which I always hated. To me, you're putting something negative there, like if you're not distilling then you're lesser than somebody who is distilling. I prefer the term &ldquo;independent bottler&rdquo; or even the old term &ldquo;rectifier.&rdquo;
When did you come up with the slogan &ldquo;sourcing is not a crime&rdquo;? Why put that on a t-shirt? Is that a conversation starter?&nbsp;
Sure, it's a self-serving conversation starter. But I was getting ticked off when I would talk about what we do and I would hear, "Oh, you just source.&rdquo; A lot of the work in putting something in a bottle comes from the blending, from making sure you're maturing it right. Not everyone who sources is really doing the same thing.
And there's nothing wrong with that. But we do things that are pretty resource-intensive and we wanted to have a counterpoint to the, "You're just sourcing" [mentality]. Sourcing takes on a lot of forms. We're in this for the long haul, and I don't like being lumped in with people who started a whiskey brand because it's a hot thing and they heard they can make a lot of money doing it.
There's a couple of ways we go about it. One is buying new make distillate. In the past, I would buy standard mashbills like 95% rye, 75% corn, and 60% corn from our friends in Indiana. In the last five years or so, we also started creating custom mashbills with some of our distilling partners. When you're laying the whiskey down, you're also determining what kind of barrel you're using, so you have a little bit more of a hand in what the final product is rather than just accepting what they're making and blending it to your specs.
Some people will buy aged whiskey today and bottle it tomorrow, which is fine, but it's a different approach, less resource-intensive. And sometimes we'll buy aged whiskey and either age it longer, age it and finish it, or a combination of those things.
I have long stated that you put MGP on the map. What are your thoughts on that?&nbsp;
There were a handful of us that were doing the same thing around the same time. I think you can't have that conversation without at least tipping your hat to the folks at Templeton, High West, Smooth Ambler, and to some extent, WhistlePig when they weren't bottling Canadian whisky. But I think we were the first to really talk about it overtly.
But you were the first person who was like, "Hey, this distillery's actually making really good whiskey and nobody's really paying attention to that fact." Would you agree with that?
It was like the lost distillery. There were a handful of people when we started Redemption who were incredibly excited that we were bottling Seagram's rye whiskey. And when I say a handful, I could literally count them on a hand. And then there was everyone else, including ourselves, that didn't know that this distillery existed.
Then you had that hurdle of, "Oh, this stuff is from Indiana. Shouldn't it be from Kentucky?" And, of course, with rye whiskey, I'm like, "Well, if you want to get technical, it should probably be from Maryland or Pennsylvania, but this is where some great rye whiskey was being made." We were fortunate enough to find it when we did.&nbsp;
Proof and Wood is well known for some interesting blends and some single barrels. What's coming up next that you're excited about?&nbsp;
The most exciting thing right now is we just launched an eight-year-old rye, which is an Indiana rye that was aged for seven years in Kentucky in its original charred oak barrel, and then spent an additional year in barrels that we got from Laird&rsquo;s distillery that were used to age apple brandy.
Transparency is really what you have become known for, and that's the reason why the &ldquo;sourcing is not a crime&rdquo; slogan has been so popular. You're saying, &ldquo;I'm going to give you all the information that I can possibly give you about this.&rdquo;
Transparency almost sounds like I'm doing somebody else a favor. But as a brand, I think we're doing ourselves a favor because the stuff that we're doing is interesting to the people who buy the product. 95 percent of the drinking public don&rsquo;t care about what we're putting on the label and aren&rsquo;t buying our product anyway. But I think people are coming from a place where they felt like maybe people were misleading them. By talking about things, it's good for our brand and it's good for the business in general.
For folks who have never heard of Proof and Wood, what's your elevator pitch for why they should try it?&nbsp;
For the most part, we do American whiskey, and we live by the motto of &ldquo;good whiskey at a fair price.&rdquo; Whether we're selling a $25 bottle of everyday bourbon or a 22-year-old Canadian rye whisky, they always know they're going to get high quality and something interesting in that bottle.

“Sourcing Is Not A Crime”: Interview with Redemption Whiskey and Proof and Wood Founder Dave Schmier

What&rsquo;s happening in wine and whiskey this week:
<h3 dir="ltr">This Week&rsquo;s Unicorn Review Stories</h3>
🥃 We&nbsp;<a href="https://www.unicornauctions.com/unicorn-review/jim-gaffigan-interview-bourbon-set">spoke to Jim Gaffigan</a> about his new comedy special, The Bourbon Set, and his journey to becoming a true bourbon geek.
🍷 Interested in collecting wine as an investment? Expert Erik Segelbaum thinks you might be&nbsp;<a href="https://www.unicornauctions.com/unicorn-review/wine-realist-collecting">better off just enjoying drinking your bottles</a>.
<h3 dir="ltr">New Bottle Releases</h3>
Bardstown Bourbon Company Normandie Calvados Brandy Barrel Finish
Bardstown Bourbon Company&rsquo;s latest cask-finished release is the final Distillery Reserve expression of the year. It&rsquo;s a blend of bourbons aged between 12 and 13 years that was finished in Calvados barrels for 28 months, adding soft apple notes to the bourbon&rsquo;s core character. 104.2 proof; SRP $100 (375-ml bottle)
Booker&rsquo;s Batch 4, Phantom Pipes
This is the last batch of the year from Booker&rsquo;s, the barrel-proof member of the Jim Beam Small Batch Collection. This release was named after a series of pipes that Booker Noe installed in the distillery&rsquo;s ceiling that didn&rsquo;t actually lead anywhere. This new batch was aged for seven years, six months, and 15 days, and sits right in the mid range of Booker&rsquo;s bottling proof. 126.4 proof; SRP $100
Wheel Horse Barrel Master Select Rye
This is the first barrel-proof rye from Wheel Horse and the second release in the Barrel Master Select series. It was distilled in Owensboro, KY&nbsp; at Green River, and is a blend of nine rye barrels made from a mashbill of 95 percent rye/five percent malted barley that were aged between five and six years&mdash;first in Kentucky, then in Rhode Island. 120.4 proof; SRP $40
<h3 dir="ltr">Unicorn Whiskey Pick of the Week</h3>
Thursday x Leopold Brothers Single Barrel Maryland Style Rye
There have been fashion and whiskey collabs before, so that type of partnership is certainly nothing new. But what makes this latest one stand out is the quality of the whiskey and the reputation of the craft distillery involved (the fashion brand half is pretty good too, it should be noted). Thursday Boots launched a new rye in partnership with PM Spirits that was made at Leopold Bros. in Colorado. This distillery is known for using a recreation of a historic three chamber still to make its rye whiskey, and the result is a spirit that is a favorite of critics and fans alike.
<img src="https://directus-11-4sui.onrender.com/assets/6602cb5b-a4d8-40eb-a62d-46f38ba8563b.jpg?width=1200&amp;height=675" alt="Leopold Thursday">
This limited-edition whiskey is called Single Barrel Maryland Style Rye, a name that should clue you into what is going on here. It&rsquo;s made from a mashbill of 65% rye, 15%&nbsp;corn, and 20% in-house floor malt, a recipe that is close to what was typically used to make rye whiskey in the Old Line State, aged for an undisclosed amount of time in new charred oak barrels, and bottled as a single barrel expression at cask strength of 100 proof. That might seem a bit low for a barrel-proof whiskey, but it&rsquo;s a very tasty dram nonetheless. Look for notes of cinnamon, black pepper, cardamom, menthol, licorice, vanilla, and maple on the palate, making this a great sipper that also works well in cocktails.
The reason for the collab between these two brands is, according to Thursday, because they both embody the same scrappy spirit and respect for craftsmanship. And, indeed, both of these brands have made names for themselves over the years by selling high-quality products that don&rsquo;t necessarily put a huge dent in your wallet. Even if you're totally out of the loop when it comes to boots, this whiskey is quite good and is an example of a welcome but unexpected partnership that is being done right. While you can&rsquo;t purchase this whiskey directly from Thursday, you can find it being poured at events at the brand&rsquo;s NYC stores, and you can also purchase a bottle directly from <a href="https://bottlerocket.com/">Bottlerocket</a> (SRP $74). 
<h3 dir="ltr">Unicorn Wine Pick of the Week</h3>
Pax 2023 Sonoma Coast Alta Monte Gamay Noir
Sometimes you&rsquo;re walking around in an outdoor mall, killing time, minding your own business while your wife shops for scarves and wraps and woolen things. Except that sometimes you&rsquo;re doing this in Sebastopol, Sonoma County, so the outdoor mall in question includes not only clothing and food and kitchenware shops, but wineries as well. We&rsquo;re talking good wineries, legit wineries, making this the coolest outdoor mall this wine writer has ever encountered.
<img src="https://directus-11-4sui.onrender.com/assets/7498b1b9-6a6a-491a-8427-7e2f5a383499.jpg?width=1200&amp;height=675" alt="Pax Wine">
That&rsquo;s how, somewhat aimlessly, I ended up at Pax Mahle&rsquo;s tasting room at the Barlow and was able to try the exceptional Gamay Noir he calls Alta Monte. Gamay is the grape of Beaujolais, and many American producers do their best to approximate the charms of wines from there. This wine comes closer than most.&nbsp;
Pax makes this wine from a handful of cool, mountainous vineyards in Sonoma County. The fruit comes in crunchy and high in natural acidity. Mahle induces fermentations using indigenous yeasts, and employs 100% whole cluster. This means that the grapes ferment undetached from their stems in a closed tank where, in an anaerobic state, the berries soften, the fruit is amplified, the clusters give off a tealike perfume, and the whole thing becomes irrepressibly charming. The process is called carbonic maceration and many wines these days, including Beaujolais, employ it. Pressed off, it&rsquo;s aged in neutral barrels then bottled, mostly untouched. The finished product is wholly itself, nothing in the way of the adornment.
It is a wild wine. Village wines from Beaujolais can smell like a walk in the hills through windswept brush. This wine is somehow wilder still, with the addition of seaspray, exotic florals, fruited peppercorn, maybe a hint of smoldering herbs. The fruit is almost plummy dark, succulent, and chewy. It feels like it has an electric pulse coursing through it. The net effect is autumnal, a holiday wine for sure, but really anytime you open it, it&rsquo;ll give you pleasure. Chill slightly before you pour. SRP $38

The Week in Wine and Whiskey: November 28

"I was like, 'Maybe I should just do a set on bourbon,'" Jim Gaffigan told the Unicorn Review. "My manager and agent were like, 'That's a horrible idea. Don't you want to make money?'" Turns out Jim Gaffigan was onto something&mdash;his new Bourbon Set on YouTube has gotten over a million views, and is a funny and nerdy (in the best way) look at the whiskey community. We spoke to him to find out more about his love of bourbon, comedy, and collecting.
The Unicorn Review: I watched the Bourbon Set yesterday, and it was really funny. Obviously, I'm a target audience for this type of humor. But I wanted to ask, have you ever done something like this where you're making such a specific, themed set before? Is that harder to do than a special that covers a lot of different topics?
Jim Gaffigan: It's been a progression, topic-wise. A long time ago when I started, I had a bunch of jokes about the manatee. Then I had a bunch of jokes about Hot Pockets. Then I did a bunch of jokes about bacon. You develop these skill sets that you hopefully can apply to anything. When my wife had a brain tumor, I did this special where I focused maybe ten minutes on that. Stand-up is very much self assignment, so focusing on bourbon and the American whiskey world was&hellip; I mean, obviously, no one asked for it. But it's much easier to write about something you love, right?
I'm a pandemic bourbon guy. The pandemic really opened me up to whiskey. Then I started collecting, and I started Fathertime with Stu [Pollard]. I decided to do a mini tour called the Bourbon and Whiskey Tour through Kentucky and Tennessee. I did a show in Lexington where we invited a bunch of people from the whiskey world. I had probably eight or ten minutes [of material] at that point. I was like, &ldquo;Maybe I should just do a set on bourbon.&rdquo; My manager and agent were like, &ldquo;That's a horrible idea. Don't you want to make money?&rdquo;
<h2>"A love letter to bourbon"</h2>
You really hit upon all the things that people in the bourbon world are constantly thinking about and obsessing over. While I was watching, I wondered if there were Brown-Forman executives standing on the sidelines who were nervous about some of the things that you were talking about, like the health effects of alcohol, alcoholics, and making fun of liquor store employees. Did you have free reign to do whatever you wanted?
Obviously, this is a love letter to bourbon. So when I decided to do it as a Bourbon Set, I knew it would be a YouTube thing. I knew that I wanted to get a partner to pay for production because I didn't want to lose money on this. I also knew that I wanted to do it in a distillery or in a rickhouse, but there's flammable stuff there. When I tour around doing stand-up, I have the opportunity to invite craft distilleries in the area to my shows. I get to hang out and talk to these inspiring, ambitious people, everyone from an NDP to someone like Highwire, where they resurrected red corn.&nbsp;
I knew I wanted it to be in Kentucky. Initially I thought I&rsquo;d go to a big brand or a mid-sized brand. I went to the big ones, the big six, and I laid out the idea. Some of them just have such a corporate bureaucracy, understandably. They would contemplate the idea, but they're like, &ldquo;You can't mention any other brand. You can't say this or that.&rdquo; But Brown-Forman and Old Forester got it. Campbell Brown came to the Lexington set, and most importantly, he gave me bottles of President's Choice and Jack Daniel's 14 Year Old. So I knew that I loved this guy.
<h2 dir="ltr">"The hatred towards people who love Blanton's is bizarre"</h2>
You have a history of donating special experiences to Unicorn to raise money for charity. I was looking at the single barrel picks that you did as part of that. What is that like for you, going to distilleries and doing single barrel picks? Does it ever get old for you or is it fun each time you're doing that?
For the Old Forester pick, I was sitting with Chris Morris and Campbell and Caleb [Trigo], who's now the assistant master distiller. People get excited to meet Brad Pitt, I get excited to meet Chris Morris. It was Stu Pollard's idea, where we could put these up for different auctions. So we did the Blackhawk one [for Unicorn]. There is such a level of generosity that exists in the whiskey world that is displayed in the fundraising auctions. It&rsquo;s like how brands stepped up to help Heaven Hill [after the fire] that was just like&hellip; you wouldn't see that in any other American business.
What are the most annoying and most endearing things about nerdy bourbon collectors?
I think the best thing is that you can talk to a fellow bourbon geek for an hour and never discuss your career, your socioeconomic situation, or anything that could divide people. It's this incredible, unifying thing that people can be enthusiastic and opinionated about. People can be like, &ldquo;I'm a Wild Turkey guy,&rdquo; and someone else is like, &ldquo;I like Dickel and I don't care what you say.&rdquo;
There is something about the collecting thing, where collecting and not consuming is frowned upon. It&rsquo;s a little bit of a lightning rod. I totally appreciate [that whiskey is] meant to be consumed and you're not creating a museum. But the collector spirit, there's something fun about it that is independent of the juice.
I'm always looking for two bottles&mdash;one to drink and one to keep. I've never been the type that would show off what I've got anyway. There are comedians that show pictures of them getting on a private jet, but I would never do that. Some of these collections are truly beautiful and the curation of them is artistic. I'm not saying I have that. I don't have any super expensive bottles. But I don't think it's bad that some people treat it as an investment.
I think the hatred towards people who love Blanton's is bizarre. I wanted to make that a joke, just because it's like, whatever gets someone into the [whiskey] passion is good. We all know that it's tater bait, and of course I'd rather have Straight from the Barrel than some 96 or 84 proof Blanton's. But I don't care. Whenever I've offered bourbon to someone in my house, they always want Blanton&rsquo;s, and I'm not going to make them feel like shit about that.
<h2 dir="ltr">"Hazmats are fun, but I would like to be able to read the next day"</h2>
You touch on celebrity-backed spirits in the Bourbon Set, but you actually appear to be someone who knows his shit and and collects and is interested and goes to distilleries and meets people. In the world of celebrity-backed spirits, does it actually matter if you have knowledge and interest, or ultimately does it not matter to the public?
I think authenticity is what's so great about the bourbon world. Some of it's authenticity, some of it&rsquo;s science, some of it's storytelling, some of it's just bullshit. But I think the perception of celebrity spirits being a money grab is well founded. We've all tried plenty of celebrity spirits where you're like, &ldquo;I can't believe how bad this is. You're one of the best athletes or actors, how could it be this bad?&rdquo; With Fathertime, Stu and I are aware that the stigma does exist, and authenticity has to be earned.
I'm just following my passion. But have to balance your passion with not going so far as to give it up. These master distillers, the last thing that can happen is for them to have to go to AA, right? It's kind of like a torn ACL in the NBA. You're just done.
How do you feel about hazmat whiskey?&nbsp;
I'm a proof whore, so I am seduced by the hazmat thing. But I know it's a craze. I went to an amazing whiskey bar in Houston called Reserve 101. The owner was there, and we were drinking some hazmat Garrison Brothers. It was 151 proof. Look, it wasn't as smooth as King of Kentucky, but it's an experience. Hazmats are fun, but I would like to be able to read the next day.
By the second release of Fathertime, I was already on my high-proof run, which we call Empty Nester Strength. I like to drink two cask-strength bourbons a night. But if I'm in a situation where I get a third one, it's messing me up the next day. It's fun to drink hazmat bourbon, but then you try something like a Birthday Bourbon, and you're like, &ldquo;Oh my God, this is so much better.&rdquo;
<h2 dir="ltr">"George Remus was a terrible person"</h2>
In the Bourbon Set, you talk about how comedy is similar to bourbon in that the stories behind each don't have to be true. Are there any bourbon stories in particular that stand out as BS to you?
Part of me is like, don't hate the player, hate the game. I think that the Jefferson&rsquo;s Ocean thing is a great example of that. Jefferson's is obviously a great brand, and I think that Jefferson&rsquo;s Ocean was a cool story. But now it's kind of run its course. In other words, the integrity behind the story is not sustainable. I don&rsquo;t blame it, though, it's a good story.
I love the good and the bad. Like George Remus, he was a terrible person. But there probably was a moment where people were like, &ldquo;George Remus, fuck yeah!&rdquo; The stories behind whiskey, similar to the entertainment industry, there's going to be an arc to them. Some of them have an aftertaste. In comedy, we all have friends that are really funny, but they're bitchy and mean. And so you laugh, but then you feel bad. You're like, &ldquo;I wish I didn't laugh at that.&rdquo;  And that's the same with some of these bourbon stories.
People are drinking less for various reasons. Are you seeing a dip in how people are consuming and getting interested in whiskey? Or do you think that within the bourbon community, the interest is still just as high?&nbsp;
I'm certainly not an expert, but maybe I'm an optimist. I understand that consumption is down, and it probably has to be down compared to my parents' generation or grandparents&rsquo;, the way they consumed alcohol. But I do think there's something social about alcohol, and specifically whiskey. I was a beer guy, and you can throw back five or six beers and still kind of be coherent. I think that quality whiskey is always going to have an appeal because once people get to try a quality whiskey, it's just like, &ldquo;Oh, I didn't know it tastes like this. I was used to Rumple Minze.&rdquo;
Pot is great if you want to just disappear, but if you're going to hang out with friends, alcohol can lubricate a social setting. That's my optimistic take. But it's not great for you. I don't really smoke cigars, but I think the way someone consumes a cigar, like they're with their buddies after they play a round of golf, I don't think that's going to kill them. It probably lowers their blood pressure to have this ritual of sharing a cigar with a friend.&nbsp;
<h2 dir="ltr">"I like bourbon flavored bourbon"</h2>
I have a question for you. What are your favorite bourbons of the year?&nbsp;
I really like Redemption 18. It's getting up there in age for bourbon, but I thought they just just did a fantastic job. I liked Knob Creek 21. I kind of liked it better than the 18, but not as much as the 15. And I'm not a chaser of high age statements at all.
I'm just worried because Knob Creek 21 is only 100 proof, right? I always think if you're going to do the age, give me the proof.
What about you? Do you have any favorites of the year so far?&nbsp;
I'm still having my &ldquo;a-ha&rdquo; moments. The Al Young [Four Roses] was amazing. I like Michter&rsquo;s 20, I get the enthusiasm for it. I don't want to say anything negative about a specific brand, but sometimes I kind of expect more. And then there's ones where I'll try it with the distiller, and I'll be like, &ldquo;That's great.&rdquo; And then I'll try it later on and I'll be like, &ldquo;Maybe I was in a really good mood because it's just okay.&rdquo;
I did this veterans event, and there was an Old Line sherry cask single malt. I've never been a single malt guy, but it was great. I'm also getting into dusty stuff, which is a whole other kind of endeavor. A Willett Purple Top is just next level of shit for me, too. I'm always blown away by a Peerless or a New Riff. I'm wondering when the bourbon hype is going to explode these brands. I look at New Riff and Peerless and I'm like, I can't believe that the hype train hasn't propelled this to another level.&nbsp;
I'm not a rye guy. I keep waiting for that step in maturity to occur. But I also think that Bardstown Bourbon Company is always consistently good.  There was I think a sherry cask finish that was just unbelievable that Dan had given me.&nbsp;
During the Bourbon Set, there were jokes that I could really only do in Kentucky, right? I've never been a huge barrel finish guy. I had this joke and I did it during, I think, two of the Bourbon Sets (there were four shows). I'm sure there's a good version of it, but I've never had an amburana cask finish that I&rsquo;ve liked. I'm like, &ldquo;Are we that bored?&rdquo; The whole finishing thing is tricky. Sometimes it's repairing the juice and sometimes you want to experiment. But I like bourbon flavored bourbon.

Jim Gaffigan Likes Bourbon Flavored Bourbon—A Conversation About His New "Bourbon Set" and Whiskey Geekdom

What&rsquo;s happening in wine and whiskey this week:
<h3 dir="ltr">News of the Week</h3>
🦃 Try pairing these <a href="https://www.unicornauctions.com/unicorn-review/thanksgiving-wines">fantastic wines with your Thanksgiving meal</a> this year.
🍗 Don&rsquo;t know what to drink this Thanksgiving? <a href="https://www.unicornauctions.com/unicorn-review/thanksgiving-spirits-cocktails">These experts have some cocktail and whiskey recommendations</a>.
🌵 New Mexico is a wine region that is <a href="https://www.foodandwine.com/american-wine-new-mexico-11852636">about to have a moment</a>.
🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Diageo is&nbsp;<a href="https://robbreport.com/food-drink/spirits/diageo-pausing-production-maltings-site-1237366579/">closing down one of its malting facilities</a> until June 2926.
🏨 What does it take to have a <a href="https://www.insidehook.com/cocktails/side-hustle-bar-leo-robitschek">successful hotel bar</a>?
<h3 dir="ltr">New Bottle Releases</h3>
Little Book The Infinite: Edition II
Eighth-generation Beam distiller Freddie Noe created his Little Book series of blended whiskeys back in 2017, and each release since has varied in terms of the component whiskeys involved. Last year he launched the first Infinite version of this whiskey, sort of a riff on an infinity barrel concept. Edition II arrived this year, a blend of bourbon aged from 7 to 22 years and bottled at cask strength. 120.8 proof; SRP $200
New Riff Sherry Finish Malted Rye
Who says sherry cask maturation is just for scotch whisky? Kentucky distillery New Riff just released a barrel-strength rye made from a mashbill of 100 percent malted rye that was finished in Oloroso and Pedro Ximenez sherry casks and bottled without chill filtration. This is the latest edition of this whiskey, which was first released in 2022. 111.9 proof; SRP $70
The Glenlivet 12 Year Old Jamaica Edition
This is a U.S. exclusive from Speyside distillery the Glenlivet, one of the world&rsquo;s best-selling single malt scotch whisky brands. It&rsquo;s a 12-year-old whisky that was finished in Jamaican rum barrels to give it notes of tropical fruit, brown sugar, and molasses, amplifying the classic Speyside character of the whisky. 80 proof; SRP $55
<h3 dir="ltr">Unicorn Pick of the Week</h3>
The Macallan - A Night on Earth: The First Light
Generally speaking, the Macallan is a distillery known for doing one thing very well&mdash;making single malt scotch whisky that is matured in sherry-seasoned oak casks. And that is, in fact, mostly what it does, sourcing European and American oak barrels from bodegas in Spain that were previously used to mature sherry and then having them shipped to Scotland to infuse the whisky with rich flavors as it ages. But the distillery also has many bourbon barrels in its aging arsenal as well, which might not be discussed as much but sometimes play an important role.
<img src="https://directus-11-4sui.onrender.com/assets/cddd6cfa-ca11-4218-8e12-36d7e7dcf1c7.jpg?width=1200&amp;height=675" alt="Mac 2025 Anoe Bottle Inside Box 16x9 Jpeg 300dpi"> 
Actually, another thing the Macallan is known for is dropping a lot of special releases each year (and breaking records at auctions for its extremely old whiskies). The latest to fall into the special release category is a single malt that was aged in sherry and bourbon casks, and while the use of the latter type of barrel comprised only a small percentage of the entire maturation makeup, it still had a profound impact on the whisky.
The Night on Earth series kicked off in 2021 with A Night on Earth Scotland, and then traveled to Spain last year before landing in New Zealand for this release. The point of the series is to highlight New Year&rsquo;s traditions around the world, so the First Light edition is a reference to New Zealand being one of the first countries to enter the new year. The whisky is bottled with natural color, as are all of the Macallan&rsquo;s whiskies, and was aged in a small amount of bourbon barrels along with the usual sherry-seasoned oak. That has resulted in a fantastic single malt with a bright burst of vanilla and citrus, along with the expected flavors like dried fruit, baking spice, molasses, honey, and baked apple.
While not unheard of for the Macallan, this whisky does stand out for that slightly atypical maturation process&mdash;and it also stands out as just being a very good single malt. This is one that completist fans of the Macallan should look out for, as well as whisky aficionados looking to try something a little bit different from one of the best-known names in scotch whisky.

The Week in Wine and Whiskey: November 21 

Thanksgiving is a holiday meal that usually involves some clearly defined roles. If we&rsquo;re gathering with friends and family, someone is in charge of cooking the turkey, someone else might be responsible for the sweet potatoes, and more often than not the person who has some type of bar or cocktail experience gets tapped to create the drinks menu.
There are those who really enjoy this task, as it gives them a chance to share their profession (or hobby) with friends and family. But others are completely paralyzed by the complexity of the ask&mdash;don&rsquo;t people understand the painstaking preparation that takes place in a craft cocktail bar?
For me, Thanksgiving is a time to embrace simplicity when it comes to drinks. A cranberry ginger ale or cranberry lemon-lime soda mixes amazingly well with whiskey, vodka, gin, rum, and tequila&mdash;remember, the humble highball is your friend! There are also many options for ready-to-drink cocktails out there, including&nbsp;<a href="https://www.2centsinc.com/audacitea">Audacitea</a> (tea-lemonade with vodka), <a href="https://www.skrewballwhiskey.com/en/">Skrewball</a>&rsquo;s Peanut Butter Whiskey Eggnog, <a href="https://lexingtonbrewingco.com/other-beverages/bourbonola">Town Branch</a>&rsquo;s Bourbonola (cherry cola with bourbon), <a href="https://www.otrcocktails.com/">On The Rocks</a> variety of cocktails, and others.
On the other hand, whiskey geeks often view special occasions as the perfect time to bring out rare and hard-to-find spirits to share with their loved ones. No matter your Thanksgiving style or the beverage you prefer, Thanksgiving is a great time to enjoy your best drinks. I asked several beverage experts how they like to handle spirits for Thanksgiving, and their answers might surprise you.
<h3 dir="ltr">Holiday Cocktails</h3>
<a href="https://michters.com/">Michter&rsquo;s</a> <a href="https://resy.com/cities/louisville-ky/venues/michters-the-bar-at-fort-nelson?seats=2&amp;date=2025-11-13">The Bar at Fort Nelson</a> bartender Dallas White likes to stick to spirits at Thanksgiving, but has some suggestions for making holiday cocktails. &ldquo;Most people stick to baking spices and pumpkin and things like that,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;Irish coffee type drinks with a little bit of extra baking spices in them is a good way to go. I've [seen] people doing marshmallow fluff toppings on drinks instead of whipped cream, and they may even toast it. One that I liked from previous years was like a sour, something that was shaken and light and refreshing, with a little bit of an aperitif in it and a spice syrup. It has a bit of bitterness, some spices, and bright flavors, but it doesn't really land too heavy or rich.&rdquo;
That being said, bartenders usually aren&rsquo;t the ones you want to tap to make the drinks for the family holiday function. After all, this is their time off and they deserve a break. &ldquo;I work for a wonderful spirit producer,&rdquo; White says. &ldquo;But usually, I don't share cocktails with friends and family unless it's in that setting, mostly because I take it too seriously. It's like taking my work home with me.&rdquo;
The reality is that most families prefer something simple that they can enjoy together rather than an array of complex cocktails. &ldquo;I think that it really comes down to what inspires you or what your family enjoys,&rdquo; White says. &ldquo;At my family gatherings, we typically just stick to spirits. We like to bring fun stuff we collected over the year and share it with everybody. I just always enjoy a spirit a lot more when I get to share it with other people who appreciate it.&rdquo;
Pairing specific spirits, cocktails, or wine with Thanksgiving dishes can be a fun way to enhance holiday dining. &ldquo;My favorite pairing isn&rsquo;t a specific bourbon&mdash;it&rsquo;s a cocktail I love to sip with pie,&rdquo; says <a href="https://www.cocktailcontessa.com/">Heather Wibbels</a>, author of Bourbon is my Comfort Food. &ldquo;I only eat pumpkin pie once a year at Thanksgiving, and I like it with a maple old fashioned that&rsquo;s high proof, light on maple, and heavy on bitters. Last year, I mixed two ounces of <a href="https://heavenhilldistillery.com/pikesville-straight-rye.php">Pikesville Rye</a>, &frac14; ounce maple syrup, two dashes Angostura, and three dashes <a href="https://hellacocktail.co/">Hella</a> Ginger Bitters. The rye cranked up the pie&rsquo;s spice, and the bitters deepened its baking-spice backbone. It was glorious!&rdquo; She also recommends whiskeys like Old Forester 1920, Michter&rsquo;s Single Barrel Rye, and <a href="https://www.buzzardsroostwhiskey.com/">Buzzard&rsquo;s Roost</a> Single Barrel to enjoy with your Thanksgiving meal.
<h3 dir="ltr">Bring Out the Bottles</h3>
If cocktails are too complicated for your low-key Thanksgiving holiday, there are some other great whiskeys to pair with traditional holiday dishes. &ldquo;My favorite Thanksgiving food pairings would have to feature some of the more toasty and decadent whiskeys, given the food my family makes on the holiday,&rdquo; says bartender and Council of Whisky Masters Master of Bourbon&nbsp;<a href="https://www.instagram.com/bourbon_beth/">Bethne Stewart</a>. &ldquo;<a href="https://widowjane.com/">Widow Jane</a>&rsquo;s Decadence with some pumpkin pie, <a href="https://www.angelsenvy.com/us/en/">Angel&rsquo;s Envy</a> Rye with my grandma&rsquo;s ginger cookies, or my personal favorite, <a href="https://www.oldforester.com/">Old Forester</a> 1924, neat with ham and sweet potatoes.&rdquo;
Happy Thanksgiving from The Unicorn Review!
<h3 dir="ltr">Cocktail Recipes</h3>
Ruinite Negroni
This cocktail is easy to make&mdash;it has only three ingredients and balances sweet and sour flavors with a nice fall citrus note. Plus, the Lambrusco alone is one of my favorite things to pair with Thanksgiving turkey.
2 oz of <a href="https://www.riunite.com/">Riunite Lambrusco</a> 1 oz Campari 1 oz of sweet vermouth Garnish: orange slice
Add all ingredients into a mixing glass with ice. Stir and strain into a rocks glass with ice. Garnish with an orange slice.
Sagamore Spirit Hot Toddy
If make-ahead ingredients are your jam, whip up this honey simple syrup and simmer some water with a cinnamon stick in it. Your house will smell amazing for the holidays!
1.5 oz <a href="https://sagamorespirit.com/">Sagamore Spirit</a> Small Batch Rye Whiskey 3 oz boiling water .5 oz lemon juice .75 oz honey simple syrup* 1 cinnamon stick Garnish: lemon wedge
Boil the water with the cinnamon stick in it. Pour boiling water, rye whiskey, lemon juice and honey syrup into a mug. Mix and garnish with lemon wedge.
*Honey Simple Syrup: Combine 1 cup honey and 1 cup water in a small pot. Cook over low heat until honey dissolves. Chill overnight and strain.
Chicken Cock Thanksgiving: Skip the Turkey
Who doesn&rsquo;t love bubbles and cranberries for Thanksgiving?
2 oz <a href="https://chickencockwhiskey.com/">Chicken Cock</a> Kentucky Straight Bourbon 1 oz orange juice .75 oz Demerara syrup .5 oz cranberry juice sparkling wine Garnish: fresh cranberry and rosemary sprig
Stir all ingredients into a mixing glass with ice. Pour into chilled stemmed glassware. Top with sparkling wine, a cranberry pick, and sprig of rosemary.&nbsp;

How to Pair Cocktails and Spirits With Your Thanksgiving Meal

What&rsquo;s happening in wine and whiskey this week:
<h3 dir="ltr">News of the Week</h3>
🍷 Cleveland, Ohio has a <a href="https://www.unicornauctions.com/unicorn-review/cleveland-wine-scene">thriving wine and food scene</a> that is worth checking out.
🥃 The <a href="https://www.unicornauctions.com/unicorn-review/seagrams-american-whiskey">impact of Seagram&rsquo;s</a> can still be felt on modern American whiskey.
🇮🇹 Autumn is the perfect time to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/food/2025/nov/13/piedmont-wine-autumn-hannah-crosbie">drink Italian wine</a>.
🦃 Here are <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/13/dining/drinks/thanksgiving-wines.html">11 wines to consider</a> for your Thanksgiving meal.
🇳🇿 The Macallan&rsquo;s new whisky, <a href="https://robbreport.com/food-drink/spirits/macallan-night-on-earth-first-light-1237360397/">a tribute to New Zealand</a>, was partially aged in bourbon barrels.
<h3 dir="ltr">New Bottle Releases</h3>
Old Overholt Extra Aged Cask Strength 12YR
Old Overholt has long been one of Jim Beam&rsquo;s bottom-shelf rye whiskeys, but one that is beloved by bartenders and whiskey enthusiasts alike. Over the past few years, the brand has gotten some major upgrades, including a run of cask-strength age statement expressions. The latest of those is a new 12-year-old whiskey bottled at 117 proof, a significant improvement on the original that is worth checking out. 117 proof; SRP $110
Lost Lantern American Vatted Malt Remix
Lost Lantern is the rare American independent bottler, a business model much more common in the scotch whisky world. One of the latest releases from the brand is American Vatted Malt Remix, a new version of its Vatted Malt that was released to celebrate its fifth anniversary. This is a blend of 11 whiskeys from distilleries in eight states, including Andalusia (Texas), McCarthy&rsquo;s (Oregon), Virginia Distilling Co. (Virginia), and Westland (Washington). 110.7 proof; SRP $100
Frey Ranch Harvester Series: Second Harvest&nbsp;
Nevada distillery Frey Ranch makes fantastic grain-to-glass bourbon and rye whiskey, but there are some special releases also worth checking out. The latest is Second Harvest, the new edition in the Harvester Series. This is a non-age statement blend of whiskeys aged between four and nine years that is made up of the following components: 100 percent wheat whiskey, four-grain bourbon, unmalted barley whiskey, malted barley whiskey, and 100 percent barley whiskey that is half malted and half unmalted. 122.44 proof; SRP $250 (375-ml bottle) 
<h3 dir="ltr">Unicorn Pick of the Week</h3>
The Laddie Rye
Bruichladdich is a scotch distillery located on Islay that produces two types of whisky&mdash;peated and unpeated. The Classic Laddie, its core expression, is the prime example of the latter, while the Port Charlotte range and particularly the annual Octomore releases contain some of the most heavily peated whisky you can find. The distillery is always toying with different experiments in terms of terroir and grains, and the latest example comes in the form of a new rye scotch whisky, which is unusual for the category.
<img src="https://directus-11-4sui.onrender.com/assets/0df3f631-0966-44a4-b448-8558e2ffb511.jpg?width=1200&amp;height=675" alt="The Laddie Rye"> 
Bruichladdich originally released a rye whisky made from a mashbill of 55 percent Islay rye and 45 percent Islay barley a few years ago as part of its Regenerative Project (so named for the regenerative effects planting rye has on the soil). That was a very limited release, but the new Laddie Rye is much more widely available. It was aged for seven years in American oak (ex-bourbon and toasted and uncharred virgin oak) and bottled at 100 proof with no chill filtration and natural color.
There&rsquo;s no mistaking this whisky for American rye, but that&rsquo;s not the point&mdash;this is Scottish rye and the character is completely different. There&rsquo;s a nice hit of spice as you sip, undercut by big floral notes along with flavors lilke grass, vanilla, citrus, and some caramel. So what to do with this whisky? Sip it neat for sure, but go ahead and try it in a cocktail&mdash;it just might make your next Rob Roy more Manhattan-like.

The Week in Wine and Whiskey: November 14

When Prohibition ended in 1933, most American distilleries were left scrambling to rebuild. One major exception was Seagram&rsquo;s&mdash;based in Canada, it never stopped producing. The company took advantage of this void by flooding the U.S. market with aged whiskey, building new distilleries across Kentucky and Indiana, and quickly becoming the largest spirits company in the world. For decades, it operated like a de facto distillers&rsquo; university, training generations of whiskey makers, codifying best practices in dense technical manuals, and setting standards that shape the industry today.
That culture of rigor was immediately apparent to the young distillers who entered its proverbial gates. Jim Rutledge, who joined Seagram&rsquo;s Calvert Distillery in Louisville in 1966, still remembers the intensity of quality control. &ldquo;[It] had to be perfect,&rdquo; he recalls. &ldquo;We had inspectors on every bottling line. Any bottle with a slightly crooked label or a wrinkle was pulled off and redone.&rdquo;
For Larry Ebersold, who joined in 1972 and spent most of his career at Seagram&rsquo;s Lawrenceburg, Indiana plant, the lessons were equally formative. &ldquo;My very first distiller was a real hard-ass, a stickler for details,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I picked that up from him and became a stickler myself. [The next distiller] was more laid back, but the expectation was the same&mdash;follow the processes&hellip; and make good whiskey.&rdquo;
That expectation carries forward into the present. &ldquo;Seagram&rsquo;s literally wrote the books on beverage alcohol production,&rdquo; says Ian Stirsman, master distiller at <a href="https://rossandsquibb.com">Ross &amp; Squibb Distillery</a>, which is part of <a href="https://www.mgpingredients.com">MGP</a> and produces whiskey for a variety of clients along with in-house brands like Rossville Union Rye Whiskey and George Remus Bourbon. &ldquo;We still use those manuals for training new employees, we reference them all the time. The engineering drawings, the trial documentation&mdash;it&rsquo;s all so detailed that we still rely on it today.&rdquo;
Noah Rothbaum, author of <a href="https://www.unicornauctions.com/unicorn-review/noah-rothbaum-whiskey-bible" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Whiskey Bible</a>, puts it in broader perspective: &ldquo;They were the training program for the industry. Distillers everywhere learned from Seagram&rsquo;s, whether they realized it or not. Their manuals and labs set the standard for quality control.&rdquo;
That relentless focus on training and detail wasn&rsquo;t just about people&mdash;it was about the whiskey itself. Seagram&rsquo;s believed that quality and consistency were inseparable, and it built entire systems to make sure every bottle tasted the same. The irony is that the very tools Seagram&rsquo;s developed to eliminate variation in things like yeast strains, mashbills, and blending protocols would later become the foundation for today&rsquo;s explosion of variety in American whiskey.
When Seagram&rsquo;s began shuttering its Kentucky distilleries in the 1960s and &rsquo;70s, the company faced a problem&mdash;how to maintain the same flavor profiles with fewer plants. Components of <a href="https://www.fourrosesbourbon.com">Four Roses Bourbon</a> were at one time made at five different facilities, including Calvert in Louisville and what is now known as MGP. Over the years, all but the current distillery operating today in Lawrenceburg, KY were shuttered. To compensate, they developed multiple proprietary yeast strains that could mimic the character of the closed facilities. Those yeast strains, paired with two mashbills, gave the distillery ten distinct recipes to work with.
When Jim Rutledge took over as master distiller at Four Roses in the 1990s, he began to rethink how those recipes could be used. Instead of just blending all ten to hit a single flavor target, Rutledge used individual yeast and mashbill combinations to create variety. That shift led to products like Single Barrel and Small Batch, each built from a subset of the ten recipes.&nbsp;
&ldquo;We still use the recipes to maintain consistency,&rdquo; says Brent Elliott, the current master distiller at Four Roses. &ldquo;But we branched out to create originality among our products.&rdquo;
Ebersold saw the same dynamic at play in Indiana at a facility that is now part of <a href="https://www.mgpingredients.com">MGP</a>. When Seagram&rsquo;s closed its smaller Kentucky plants, the company had to recreate those lost flavor profiles. &ldquo;They started making up recipes that could substitute for those flavors,&rdquo; he recalls. That drive for consistency led to the development of the now‑famous 95/5 rye mashbill&ndash;a recipe that became a cornerstone of modern rye whiskey and is used by many brands.
At MGP, Stirsman continues to balance consistency and innovation. &ldquo;The bulk of our production is our core mashbills that we&rsquo;ve been doing for a very long time,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;But we try to sprinkle in some new things and some innovative stuff. It&rsquo;s a guessing game, because you&rsquo;re putting things in the barrel today that aren&rsquo;t going to be used for another decade.&rdquo;
The irony is clear&mdash;Seagram&rsquo;s obsession with consistency created the toolkit for today&rsquo;s diverse whiskey landscape. Under Rutledge&rsquo;s leadership, Four Roses proved that the same yeast and mashbill system designed to eliminate variation could also be used to celebrate it, a philosophy that continues to ripple across American whiskey.
<h3 dir="ltr">The Books of All Knowledge</h3>
If Seagram&rsquo;s trained the people, its manuals continue to educate the industry. The company&rsquo;s internal guides&mdash;dense, technical volumes never intended for public sale&mdash;became the de facto textbooks of American whiskey.
David Perkins, founder of <a href="https://highwest.com">High West Distillery in Utah</a>, first encountered them through Rutledge. &ldquo;Jim let me borrow his books when I was putting together my business plan,&rdquo; he recalls. &ldquo;They were invaluable for writing recipes. I hated to send them back, so I tracked down my own copies before the firestorm of people getting into distilling. They were scientific books&mdash;tweak one variable at a time and understand its impact on flavor. It was like the Book of All Knowledge.&rdquo;
Todd Leopold, co‑founder of Colorado's <a href="https://www.leopoldbros.com">Leopold Bros.</a>, describes them with similar reverence. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s the only document where you get this marriage of practical and science‑based spirits production,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;If you&rsquo;re trying to design a plant or put together a quality control program, it&rsquo;s a wonderful book. They literally spell out how to sort grain, how to check for contaminants, how to design a still. It&rsquo;s basically a blueprint for good manufacturing practice.&rdquo;
At MGP, those manuals are still in use. &ldquo;We still use those books for training new employees, and we reference them all the time,&rdquo; Stirsman says. &ldquo;The engineering drawings, the trial documentation&mdash;it&rsquo;s all so detailed that we&rsquo;re still relying on it today.&rdquo;
Rothbaum notes that the manuals were more than technical documents; they were a cultural artifact. &ldquo;Most distillers have those books at their fingertips,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re sought after, collected, cherished by journalists, distillers, blenders&mdash;anyone in whiskey production. Even if people don&rsquo;t realize it, much of the education they&rsquo;re getting traces back to Seagram&rsquo;s.&rdquo;
<h3 dir="ltr">Blending</h3>
If consistency was Seagram&rsquo;s obsession, blending was its secret weapon.&nbsp;
Rothbaum points out that Seagram&rsquo;s blending model reshaped American whiskey after Prohibition. &ldquo;Most Canadian whiskey is a blend,&rdquo; he explains. &ldquo;They take a corn or wheat whisky made in a column still and flavor it with straight rye, [bourbon-style whiskey], or single malt. That approach influenced what Americans thought whiskey should taste like, because after Prohibition, nobody really remembered.&rdquo;
Seagram&rsquo;s made both carefully calibrated blends of straight whiskeys and neutral spirit-heavy blended American whiskeys&mdash;Four Roses' reputation was tarnished domestically during the decades when it was sold as the latter rather than the straight bourbon it is now. Today&rsquo;s craft blenders are reviving the first practice, using blends of straights to build flavor with transparency (or as much as possible, given the prevalence of NDAs).
Perkins remembers how Rutledge encouraged him to embrace blending when he was starting out. &ldquo;Jim said, &lsquo;If you can get some different whiskeys and blend them, that&rsquo;ll help you differentiate yourself,&rsquo;&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;He certainly was an inspiration for that, and I know it came from his tenure at Seagram&rsquo;s.&rdquo;
Perkins took the advice to heart, but with a twist. &ldquo;We were really the first in the modern day to talk about blends of straights [whiskeys]. Everybody had been doing it, but nobody talked about it. The real innovation was telling the truth. We said, blends aren&rsquo;t a bad thing, and by the way, we&rsquo;re blending two heavy things, not two light things.&rdquo;
<h3 dir="ltr">Legacy</h3>
Seagram&rsquo;s is long gone, although the name lingers on bottles of gin, flavored malt beverages, and the ubiquitous 7 Crown Blended Whiskey. The Bronfman family sold the company in 2000, and by the end of 2001 the once‑dominant distiller had been dismantled, its brands scattered across global conglomerates. Yet the question lingers&mdash;what if Seagram&rsquo;s had survived intact?
Rutledge often wonders how different the industry might look. &ldquo;When Seagram went out of business, they had over 3,300 proprietary yeast strains in their library,&rdquo; he recalls. &ldquo;Imagine what could have been done with that kind of resource if it had kept evolving.&rdquo;
Perkins takes a different thought path, framing the counterfactual in terms of innovation. &ldquo;Maybe the unanswered questions would have been around grain,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;Could you have a more flavorful whiskey if you used this type of rye or that type of corn? They were after economical production, but they were certainly after quality. I think they would have eventually studied heirloom grains.&rdquo;
Leopold imagines a company that would have continued to publish research and refine best practices. &ldquo;Once you get that sort of culture, it persists,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d like to think they&rsquo;d be adding to the knowledge base as much as possible. Can you imagine another 7070 years of research?&rdquo;
For Ian Stirsman, the question is more practical. &ldquo;It&rsquo;d be interesting to see how their product mix would have changed with premiumization,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;Toward the end, a lot of their big movers were value products. How would they have adapted to today&rsquo;s environment?&rdquo;
Seagram&rsquo;s collapse reshaped the global spirits landscape, Rothbaum notes. &ldquo;When they sold off their spirits business, those brands turned Pernod Ricard into the modern behemoth it is,&rdquo; he notes. &ldquo;Chivas Regal, Glenlivet, all of that came from Seagram&rsquo;s.&rdquo;
Seagram&rsquo;s may have vanished from the corporate map, but its influence is impossible to escape. The yeast strains once devised to preserve consistency now fuel variety at Four Roses, the rye mashbills created to bolster blends have become the backbone of America&rsquo;s rye renaissance, and the manuals&mdash;those dense binders of charts and formulas&mdash;still sit on distillers&rsquo; shelves, quietly guiding decisions decades after the company&rsquo;s demise.&nbsp;
&ldquo;Quality was everything,&rdquo; Jim Rutledge says simply. That mantra, drilled into generations of employees, is a legacy still tasted in glasses today.

Once the World’s Largest Spirits Company, Seagram’s Legacy Still Guides American Whiskey

What&rsquo;s happening in wine and whiskey this week:
<h3 dir="ltr">News of the Week</h3>
🇫🇷&nbsp;<a href="https://www.unicornauctions.com/unicorn-review/collectors-guide-languedoc">The Languedoc&rsquo;s different appellations</a> produce some fantastic wines that are worth checking out.
🥃 Heaven Hill&rsquo;s Sydney Jones took a path through craft whiskey&nbsp;<a href="https://www.unicornauctions.com/unicorn-review/sydney-jones-heaven-hill">before winding up in Bardstown</a>.
🍷 Check out these&nbsp;<a href="https://www.foodandwine.com/bargain-holiday-wine-11815522">affordable wines that drink beyond</a> their price point.
🚧 A 5,000-year-old wine press was&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ancient-winepress-evidence-of-cult-unearthed-israel/">discovered during highway construction</a>.
🇮🇪 Irish whiskey&nbsp;<a href="https://www.thespiritsbusiness.com/2025/11/irish-whiskey-boosts-global-spirits-volumes-in-h1/">sales are up</a>.
<h3 dir="ltr">New Bottle Releases</h3>
Michter&rsquo;s 20 Year
Michter&rsquo;s 20-year-old bourbon is back for 2025. Last year&rsquo;s release was the first in two years, but it seems like things are back on track for this to continue to be an annual release. And that&rsquo;s a good thing, because this bourbon is usually fantastic, despite having an age statement that pushes the boundaries of bourbon maturation (and a steep price tag to match). 114.2 proof; SRP $1,200
Willett Family Estate Small Batch Bourbon
Willett announced the release of this new bourbon just a few days ago. It&rsquo;s a blend of two mashbills&mdash;72 percent corn, 13 percent rye, and 15 percent barley (70 percent of the blend); and 52 percent corn, 38 percent rye, and 10 percent barley (30 percent of the blend). Each batch will consist of about 50 barrels of differing ages, and will be bottled at cask strength. Proof varies; price unknown
Town Branch 16-Year Bottled-in-Bond Kentucky Single Malt Whiskey | Archive Series Volume 2
This is one of the older American single malts currently on the market. It's a bottled-in-bond, single barrel expression with no chill filtration, aged for 16 years at Town Branch in Kentucky. This is an expensive whiskey, but fans of the burgeoning American single malt category will want to check this out. 100 proof; SRP $400
<h3 dir="ltr">Unicorn Pick of the Week</h3>
Very Very Old Fitzgerald Blackhawk 15 Year 121 Proof
The history of this whiskey, or at least an older version of it, is pretty astounding as far as its auction sales go. The 18-year-old sold at Unicorn in 2024 for $80,000, and then again just a few weeks ago for $85,000&mdash;the latter was to raise money for the Chicago Blackhawks Foundation. It also recently sold at Sotheby&rsquo;s for $80,000, and a younger 12-year-old expression went for nearly $48,000. In other words, this is an extremely coveted bourbon.
<img src="https://directus-11-4sui.onrender.com/assets/0e35138d-b7fb-46ab-a5bb-ed22d2e98541.jpg?width=1200&amp;height=675" alt="Vvf Blackhawks">
And now the 15-year-old version will be up for auction starting this Sunday, the very first time that this particular expression has been available for sale publicly. A bit of background on this release&mdash;this is a private bottling that was created for the Wirtz family, the owners of the Chicago Blackhawks NHL team. It was distilled in 1950 at the famed Stitzel-Weller Distillery in Kentucky and bottled in 1966, making it a true &ldquo;unicorn&rdquo; dusty of the whiskey world, and it clocks in at barrel proof of 121. It comes in its original box and bag with tissue paper, and has never before been sold, shipped, or changed owners. In other words, this is a true piece of Kentucky bourbon history.
There will be some other fantastic bottles up for auction alongside this one, including a &ldquo;standard&rdquo; Very Very Old Fitzgerald 18-year-old (only the second time it&rsquo;s appeared at Unicorn), and for the very first time a late-production VVOF 15-year-old with black/red neck foil, as well as a few other age-statement Very Old Fitzgeralds. These are all worth pursuing, but keep your eyes on the Blackhawks edition because this extremely valuable whiskey will likely go fast.

Interview

“Sourcing Is Not A Crime”: Interview with Redemption Whiskey and Proof and Wood Founder Dave Schmier

Interview

“Sourcing Is Not A Crime”: Interview with Redemption Whiskey and Proof and Wood Founder Dave Schmier

Week in Wine & Whiskey

The Week in Wine and Whiskey: November 28

Week in Wine & Whiskey

The Week in Wine and Whiskey: November 28

Great Reads

Jim Gaffigan Likes Bourbon Flavored Bourbon—A Conversation About His New "Bourbon Set" and Whiskey Geekdom

Great Reads

Jim Gaffigan Likes Bourbon Flavored Bourbon—A Conversation About His New "Bourbon Set" and Whiskey Geekdom

Week in Wine & Whiskey

The Week in Wine and Whiskey: November 21

Week in Wine & Whiskey

The Week in Wine and Whiskey: November 21

How to drink it

How to Pair Cocktails and Spirits With Your Thanksgiving Meal

How to drink it

How to Pair Cocktails and Spirits With Your Thanksgiving Meal

Bourbon

The Week in Wine and Whiskey: November 14

Bourbon

The Week in Wine and Whiskey: November 14

Whiskey

Once the World’s Largest Spirits Company, Seagram’s Legacy Still Guides American Whiskey

Whiskey

Once the World’s Largest Spirits Company, Seagram’s Legacy Still Guides American Whiskey

Week in Wine & Whiskey

The Week in Wine and Whiskey: November 7, 2025

Week in Wine & Whiskey

The Week in Wine and Whiskey: November 7, 2025

The modern platform
for spirits & wine

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Interview

“Sourcing Is Not A Crime”: Interview with Redemption Whiskey and Proof and Wood Founder Dave Schmier

Interview

“Sourcing Is Not A Crime”: Interview with Redemption Whiskey and Proof and Wood Founder Dave Schmier

Week in Wine & Whiskey

The Week in Wine and Whiskey: November 28

Week in Wine & Whiskey

The Week in Wine and Whiskey: November 28

Great Reads

Jim Gaffigan Likes Bourbon Flavored Bourbon—A Conversation About His New "Bourbon Set" and Whiskey Geekdom

Great Reads

Jim Gaffigan Likes Bourbon Flavored Bourbon—A Conversation About His New "Bourbon Set" and Whiskey Geekdom

Week in Wine & Whiskey

The Week in Wine and Whiskey: November 21

Week in Wine & Whiskey

The Week in Wine and Whiskey: November 21

How to drink it

How to Pair Cocktails and Spirits With Your Thanksgiving Meal

How to drink it

How to Pair Cocktails and Spirits With Your Thanksgiving Meal

Bourbon

The Week in Wine and Whiskey: November 14

Bourbon

The Week in Wine and Whiskey: November 14

Whiskey

Once the World’s Largest Spirits Company, Seagram’s Legacy Still Guides American Whiskey

Whiskey

Once the World’s Largest Spirits Company, Seagram’s Legacy Still Guides American Whiskey

Week in Wine & Whiskey

The Week in Wine and Whiskey: November 7, 2025

Week in Wine & Whiskey

The Week in Wine and Whiskey: November 7, 2025

The modern platformfor spirits & wine

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The modern platform
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