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.

The Week in Wine and Whiskey: November 7, 2025

Sydney Jones took an unconventional path to working at one of the largest distilleries in the United States. Her original plan was to become a social worker, but a summer job at M.B. Roland, a tiny distillery in southwestern Kentucky, changed the trajectory of her life. After working as a distiller in Florida at Manifest Distilling and Chicago at FEW Spirits, Jones is now back in Kentucky at the helm of the new Heaven Hill Springs Distillery in Bardstown, which opened this past September and was built to replace the old Heaven Hill Distillery that was destroyed by a fire in 1996. We spoke to Jones to find out more about her journey in the whiskey industry.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
The Unicorn Review: What is your current job at Heaven Hill?
Sydney Jones: My current title is lead distillery technician at&nbsp;<a href="https://heavenhillsprings.com/">Heaven Hill Springs</a>. I am in charge of one of our day shifts. My day-to-day responsibilities include running our beer still, executing our mashing program, and maintaining our fermentations. As our dry house comes online, I will be running that to produce our DDG (distillers&rsquo; dried grains). So it is very much a multifaceted role, and it covers all of Heaven Hill Springs operations.&nbsp;
You've been in the distilling industry for almost a decade now. Where did you get your start?
None of this was planned. This was all something that I serendipitously stumbled into, and I'm so thankful that I did. I moved to Kentucky with an ex-partner right after I got out of college. I wanted to go for my LCSW and be a social worker. There was a graduate program that I had my eyes on, and I was preparing to apply for it.
As you do when you move to Kentucky as a young adult for the first time, you visit distilleries, you do the Bourbon Trail. I fell deeply in love with it. I ordered every book that I could get my hands on. I read everything I could. I asked all the weird, dumb questions. And we were very conveniently located at the time, about 15 minutes away from <a href="https://mbroland.com/">M.B. Roland</a> in Pembroke, Kentucky, right outside of Clarksville, Tennessee.
I took a tour with the owners and operators, Paul and Mary Beth Tomaszewski, and they recognized that this was not just a mild obsession with me. They offered me a job as an assistant distiller, tour guide, and retail associate. M.B. Roland back then was small enough that you wore a lot of hats. Working for a small craft distillery, especially one that was truly doing everything by hand and grain-to-glass, was a light-bulb moment for me. I decided maybe this is what I'm supposed to do versus the psychology route that I was going down.&nbsp;
[Later] I went through a separation from my partner and was forced to move back to my home state of Florida. Conveniently enough, a craft distillery had just opened up in my hometown called <a href="https://www.manifestdistilling.com/">Manifest Distilling</a>. I showed up with a resume one day and told them to hire me, and they did. I was there for four years, producing gin and vodka and organic rye whiskey for them, as well as some other liqueurs. And that was my first &ldquo;big girl&rdquo; distilling role.
I also worked part-time in a bar, so I learned a lot about on-premise relationships, consumer trends, and mixology. That was a really helpful, informing experience for me. And then at the end of my four years there, I had just produced a gin and brought it to market, and I was feeling really confident. But I was also feeling like I had been four years in my hometown now, and that was not what I wanted for myself.
<a href="https://www.fewspirits.com/">FEW Spirits</a> in Chicago had posted a position that they were looking to hire a creative and artistic distiller. I blindly sent a resume to a general email, which unbeknownst to me went to Paul Hletko, the founder of FEW. He ended up offering me the role, and I put my dog and my cat in a U-Haul and drove 18 hours by myself and moved to Chicago out of the blue, post-COVID.
I was there for three years. That was an incredible experience. I have so much love for FEW, and I always will. I was promoted to head distiller, working with an extraordinary team. Around that time, FEW was acquired by Heaven Hill as part of the <a href="https://samsonandsurrey.com/">Samson and Surrey</a> acquisition. That is what led me here.
How did you end up in Bardstown?
I had been in the head distiller role at FEW for about a year. After about a month on the road, I was talking to my operations manager, Riley Henderson, and he's like, "Heads up&mdash;I received a call from someone at Heaven Hill asking about you. I think Connor wants to talk to you about something, so he's probably going to reach out and schedule a call."
A week or two later, Connor O&rsquo;Driscoll called and told me that Heaven Hill Springs was starting to look at staffing and that my name had been the first that had been brought up in the conversation, which fully knocked me on my ass. I was like, "But why? I'm a craft distiller girl. I huck bags of grain into a mashtun and I drive a forklift every day."
Connor was like, "You've worked with so many people. You've worked with so many things. You've built a really great team here at FEW. You've established a great reputation. I can teach you everything that you need to know, but I can't teach the things that you already have. I think that's why you would be a good fit.&rdquo; I don't think I would have sought out the position for myself if Connor had not pushed me, and I'm so thankful that he did. Now it's something that I'm trying to do for people that I'm mentoring or working with. He's a fount of knowledge, and I count myself lucky to be under his leadership.
What are some of the major differences in your day-to-day life between FEW, which is in a tiny little garage, and Heaven Hill Springs, which is very, very big?
I get that question a lot from my craft distiller friends. What gives me a lot of comfort is, regardless of the scale that you make whiskey on, you still have to follow the same essential steps. The science does not change. We still have to grind grain, mash in, ferment. We still follow the same basic principles of boiling points and physics. That does not change, regardless of whether you're running a small 15-gallon pot still or you're running a still that can produce 500 barrels a day like I am here.
The biggest difference is I'm mostly sitting in a control room now. I'm working from a computer system. So I'm not necessarily in the field as much anymore turning manual valves, manually adjusting steam, grabbing 50-pound bags of grain, and pouring them into a mash. I have equipment that does all of that for me now.&nbsp;
Some have wondered, does that take the human element out of it? I don't think it does. The systems that we work with are highly automated, but they still require a lot of attention. Like any technology, it can go off the track.
You went from a city that has a distillery in it to Bardstown, which is a town built around distilling. How different is it?
It&rsquo;s really cool also to be in a town that is so connected to the thing that I love, which is whiskey. I step out my front door in the morning, and I can already smell mash down the street coming from Barton's. That's a really cool thing. It feels very comforting, it feels like I'm at home. I'll be having dinner one night, and I'll see people across the bar that I know from the industry. It's a town of distillers. We're this little colony that occupies it.
Do you have a particular style of whiskey that you like making or a particular grain that you like to work with?&nbsp;
I love grains that are really big drivers of flavor, [like]&nbsp;<a href="https://www.unicornauctions.com/unicorn-review/heirloom-grain-packs-rye-whiskey-full-of-flavor">rye whiskey</a>. I made a lot of rye in my career. From a production standpoint, it can sometimes be a bit tricky because it foams and it turns to concrete. But I love the flavor possibilities with rye.&nbsp;
When I was at FEW, I did a 100% rye before I left, which from a production standpoint was tricky. It did not want to mash. We used a lot of exogenous enzymes to make it work. But I used a POF negative yeast strain instead of a POF positive. And the result was a distillate that tasted like peach rings coming off the still. It was fascinating.
If you really get down to the nitty-gritty of science and play around with your fermentation and play around with your grain and understand all of these other drivers of flavor, you can produce some really unexpected, extraordinary stuff. The barrel gets so much attention, and it should, but if any of your fermentation or mashing or distillation fails, a barrel isn&rsquo;t going to rectify that.&nbsp;
Do you have any passion projects that you hope to be able to work on in this role?&nbsp;
As of right now, the passion project is just getting it up and running. The dry house is still coming online, the yeast system that we're going to be doing here is also something that is going to be finely tuned in the coming year or so. Right now, my full focus is on making sure that the plant runs the way that it was designed to, and that's been taking a lot of my time and energy.&nbsp;
I still feel really passionate about craft distilleries, and Heaven Hill has several craft distilleries in their portfolio from the Samson and Surrey acquisition, so I still do a lot of work with the <a href="https://americancraftspirits.org/">American Craft Spirits Association</a>. I still feel really strongly that great whiskey can be made at every single tier of production. When large distilleries like Heaven Hill succeed, small distilleries succeed as well, and vice versa. Rising tides, I truly believe, raise all ships.
I've also been doing a lot of work with the <a href="https://stepupinternship.org/">StepUp Foundation</a>, which is a huge passion project of mine. It gives fully paid internships to underrepresented populations in the distilling industry.&nbsp; Now that I've stepped into this incredible role, I've been working with a really talented woman this past year and mentoring her. I realized that I was given a lot of chances very early on in my career, and I want to pass those opportunities along to other people that come from similar alternative backgrounds. Anyone can learn the science, I don't think it just needs to be chemical engineers. I am trying very hard to invest in people the way that I was early in my career.

Heaven Hill's Sydney Jones on Her Path From Craft Whiskey to Bardstown

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-wine">The Languedoc</a> is an important but under-appreciated French wine region.
🥃 The founder of one of Nashville&rsquo;s major hospitality groups&nbsp;<a href="https://www.unicornauctions.com/unicorn-review/collectors-corner-max-goldberg">has great whiskey collecting tips</a>.
🍷 This sommelier always has these&nbsp;<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/best-wines-to-serve-guests-certified-sommelier-keeps-on-hand-2025-10">five wines to serve to guests at home</a>.
🍾 These are some of the most&nbsp;<a href="https://vinepair.com/articles/wa-somms-most-underrated-napa-wine-2025/">under-rated Napa Valley wines</a>.
🧊 This single malt whisky is the&nbsp;<a href="https://robbreport.com/food-drink/spirits/la-alazana-distillery-antarctica-whisky-1237316983/">first to ever be aged in Antarctica</a>.
<h3 dir="ltr">New Bottle Releases</h3>
Jack Daniel&rsquo;s Single Barrel Special Release Tanyard Hill Rye
Jack Daniel&rsquo;s latest Single Barrel Special Release is a barrel-proof rye whiskey that clocks in, depending on the cask it came from, at between 130.2 and 148.8 proof. To put that in layman's terms, that's really, really strong, reaching hazmat levels once it goes beyond 140 proof. The whiskey was aged in the Tanyard Hill rickhouses, which are next to the Coy Hill rickhouses that previously yielded very strong whiskey. 130.2-148.8 proof; SRP $80
Middle West Dark Pumpernickel Rye
Ohio distillery Middle West just released a new Pumpernickel Rye, a first of its kind that is made from a four-grain mashbill of dark pumpernickel rye, non-GMO open-pollinated yellow corn, soft red winter wheat, and 2-row barley, and aged for a minimum of three years in new charred barrels. The whiskey is a deep and complex rye, with notes of cinnamon, black pepper, vanilla, ginger, and maple on the palate, and it's an interesting take on the category from this well-regarded craft distillery. 96 proof; SRP $47
2025 Remus Gatsby Reserve
MGP is known for releasing truly fantastic rye and bourbon, much of which is contract distilled or sourced to other brands. But the distillery also has its own in-house labels, and the premier expression is the Remus Gatsby Reserve lineup. The 2025 version is a 15-year-old bourbon made from the distillery&rsquo;s 21-percent rye mashbill. That provides a nice bit of spice on the palate, which is augmented by notes of cherry, raisin, molasses, and some pipe tobacco and a hint of Armagnac. 102.8 proof; SRP $200 
<h3 dir="ltr">The Week in Wine: The World of Pinot Noir Comes to LA</h3>
Last weekend, the World of Pinot Noir arrived in Los Angeles at the posh Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood. That's a long way from its home base at the Ritz Carlton in Santa Barbara, where it&rsquo;s been celebrated for more than a decade (before that it was held in Pismo Beach, overlooking the Pacific).
When it was launched in 2000, WOPN was a not so subtle homage (some would say carbon copy) to one of the most successful wine festivals in the U.S., the International Pinot Noir Celebration in the Willamette Valley, Oregon. Like that conference, WOPN was international in scope, with guests from all over the world attending, but especially from Burgundy. Like IPNC, the conference put a spotlight on the host region, California&rsquo;s Central Coastal appellations.
Keep in mind that this was five years before the juggernaut known as Sideways created an explosion of interest in both Pinot Noir and the Central Coast, something the WOPN festival greatly benefitted from.
In recent years, however, especially in the wake of the pandemic, glitzy wine festivals have lost a bit of their polish. Ticket sales have dipped as costs have soared, resulting in package deals that few can afford beyond the well-heeled and one-percenters. Then last year, IPNC ended its 39-year run (the consensus being, for most, &ldquo;Mission Accomplished&rdquo;). For the organizers of WOPN, it seemed like time to bring the party to the people.
And what a party. Sponsored by the local wine retail and restaurant group Wally&rsquo;s, the event drew close to 400 people tasting through Pinots (and Chardonnays) from all over the world, slurping and spitting (and not spitting) on a lovely fall afternoon.
WOPN (and IPNC) have always been an opportunity to take the pulse of the variety in all its forms, and the good news is that the World of Pinot Noir is in very good form. While there are plenty of fruit-forward, powerful wines out there (from the likes of OLG, Sea Smoke, and Alma Rosa), a great many are as restrained as any have been for years. Wines of restraint and balance from Presqu&rsquo;ile, Center of Effort, and Sandhi give the sense that the World, as we know it, is still expanding.
<h3 dir="ltr">Unicorn Pick of the Week</h3>
Barrell Craft Spirits 12-Year Bourbon Finished in French Oak Casks
Louisville&rsquo;s Barrell Craft Spirits has become one of America&rsquo;s premier whiskey blenders over the past decade. The company releases multiple batches of bourbon every year that are compiled from barrels sourced from different distilleries in different states, all of which are bottled at barrel strength (usually ranging between 110 and 120 proof). But it also has a series of fantastic cask-finished blends of bourbons (and other whiskeys) in its portfolio, and the latest edition is a 12-year-old expression that was finished in French oak barrels.
<img src="https://directus-11-4sui.onrender.com/assets/3336c046-9a17-4c21-8274-d4cb10be0647.png?width=1200&amp;height=800" alt="12 Yr Bourbon French Oak Lifestyle">
The components of this whiskey are bourbons sourced from Indiana, Kentucky, Wyoming, and Tennessee. While the distilleries are not named, you can guess at the origins&mdash;likely suspects might be MGP, Dickel, and Wyoming Whiskey, but these are not confirmed. French oak, which is more commonly used to mature wine and cognac, is known to impart subtle toasty notes of spice to a bourbon, something that BCS founder Joe Beatrice recognizes. &ldquo;French oak offers a more refined subtle contribution compared to heavily toasted American oak barrels used for initial maturation or heavy charring,&rdquo; he said in a statement, &ldquo;adding layers of flavor without overpowering the bourbon itself.&rdquo;
Indeed, this 108.5-proof bourbon is full of flavor, with the core bourbon&rsquo;s character nicely augmented by the finish. There are notes of tannin, cinnamon, toasted nuts, and grain, along with dried fruit, fresh apple, vanilla, and caramel. The French oak influence can be found in soft leather and toasted wood flavors, with a bit of spice and sweetness on the lingering finish that doesn&rsquo;t overpower at this relatively low cask strength. Whether you&rsquo;re a longtime BCS fan or new to this Kentucky blending house, give this new expression a try.

The Week in Wine and Whiskey: October 31, 2025

If you own restaurants and bars, it&rsquo;s inevitable that work will sometimes bleed over into your personal life&mdash;which can end up being hugely beneficial when the work involves whiskey. Max Goldberg, co-owner and managing partner of Strategic Hospitality Group in Nashville, Tennessee, has taken advantage of the perks of the job to self-educate on all things whiskey, learning from professionals behind the bar and discovering his own palate and preferences along the way.
Goldberg could enjoy any number of pours from the likes of<a href="https://www.bastionnashville.com/"> Bastion</a>,<a href="https://www.thepattersonnashville.com/"> The Patterson House</a>,<a href="https://www.friendsbarnashville.com/"> Friends in Low Places</a>, and Strategic&rsquo;s other venues. But his home collection is enviably vast, totaling around 6,000 bottles of which he estimates 10 percent are currently open. Still, he&rsquo;s willing to pop the cork on almost anything.&nbsp;
&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t have whiskey to have it; I have it to share it,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;My buddy and I could go open a bottle of bourbon, each have a drink or two from it, and then we can go back to it in a few months and share that same bourbon, and again in ten years. I love that you can have a shared bottle that&rsquo;s a bit timeless, as long as you preserve the temperature and make sure there&rsquo;s no sunlight on it. You can share whiskey with people for years and years and years.&rdquo;
There&rsquo;s just one bottle that Goldberg is saving for the future. &ldquo;Everything else, I think that it should be enjoyed,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;As we get older, we realize how precious every day is. As my mom might say, &lsquo;Eat dessert first because, after all, life is uncertain.&rsquo; I feel that way about whiskey too.&rdquo;
Keep reading to find out the identity of that special bottle, which wheater is Goldberg&rsquo;s everyday drinker, and what advice he has for people who are new to whiskey collecting.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
<img src="https://directus-11-4sui.onrender.com/assets/69e99c42-23cf-4c2d-a28b-0fcad5d4cb2a.png?width=2000&amp;height=1333" alt="3">
The Unicorn Review: What got you started in the world of whiskey, and how did you shift into collecting?
Max Goldberg: I'm fortunate to be in the hospitality industry, surrounded by some of the most talented chefs and bartenders in the world. Sixteen years ago, talking with the bartenders, I asked them what they were excited about and they would kind of coach me and educate me. I found myself, with the little free time and very little extra disposable income I had, going into different distilleries and liquor stores and just trying new products.
Then we started doing some barrel picks for the restaurants&mdash;going and seeing the distilleries and learning about what they were doing and just developing a passion for it.
I'd always buy two bottles of whatever I was trying&mdash;one to enjoy and to share, and then one to keep for a later date.
Sixteen years later, I've accidentally grown the collection to over 6,000 bottles and love sharing whiskey more than anything. I love that it creates a vehicle for conversation, and for me it's just something I really enjoy. There's no way I'll ever be able to drink the amount of whiskey I have. So to be able to share it with loved ones is awesome. It's one of my favorite things to do.
Does your collection have a focus or is it a little bit of everything?
It's mostly bourbon and whiskey. I've got probably 400 or 500 bottles of scotch. I've got a bunch of different mezcals and tequilas and different gins&mdash;a good collection of spirits.
But the bulk of it is definitely bourbon and whiskey. There's some really interesting things from Taiwan and Japan and different markets. There's a lot of great Buffalo Trace products, a lot of great early Uncle Nearest products, and a lot of Willett. Drew [Kulsveen] from Willett is one of my favorite human beings on the planet.
My wife and I have done two barrel picks of Willett, and each time we did it we were in the process of trying to get pregnant. We did a barrel pick the first time and one week later, we found out that she was pregnant. So we affectionately named the barrel pick that we did &ldquo;The One&rdquo; because it was our first child. This past year we decided we wanted to grow our family and we tried to get pregnant, and sure enough it timed out. We're doing a barrel pick, and the week after that we found out that we were pregnant again. So as my wife likes to joke, babies by Willett&mdash;it's a very real thing for us.
Some people see their collection as an investment, while others let their passions direct them. Do you have a collecting philosophy?
If you look at it as an investment, it's been phenomenal. But as my wife reminds me, it's only an investment if you're willing to sell it. I've never sold a bottle and I never will. For me, it's really just been a fun collecting process. I enjoy finding products I like and then getting different barrel picks or making sure there's different years [from the brand]. I love building verticals, I love tasting years against each other. I love that process.
But in terms of any type of strategy, no, it's really just what's out there that's interesting that people are excited about.
<img src="https://directus-11-4sui.onrender.com/assets/49b5a506-3169-4a03-a872-6cc1a789c66b.png?width=2000&amp;height=1333" alt="4">
What&rsquo;s the most valuable bottle in your collection?
I&rsquo;d rather not say. It&rsquo;s a bourbon. My insurance people told me not to talk about specifics.
How about the least valuable bottle? Do you have anything run-of-the-mill?
There&rsquo;s some that are maybe more accessible, but I wouldn't say least valuable. I'm a proud Tennessee Squire (a member of the Jack Daniel&rsquo;s Society), and I've got some really fun vintage Jack Daniel&rsquo;s and special one-offs they did. A bottle of Jack Daniel&rsquo;s, you can find in any bar or liquor store in the world. I'd say that that's a very accessible bottle, and I'll always have a bottle of Jack Daniel&rsquo;s.
What&rsquo;s your favorite bottle in the collection?
To quote Tom Brady, the next one. No, I think that the one I'm most excited about is one which was actually a gift from Drew from Willett. [It&rsquo;s] a very special bottle. My wife and I got married, and we decided that we're going to save that bottle, and that'll be the first bottle that I open to share a drink with my son. And I've got another boy on the way. So that'll be a really special bottle that becomes part of our family's history, because that'll be the first drink we all have together.
Are there any bottles that are off-limits to guests?
What's on the table and open, I'm happy to share. If there's something that someone wants to try, they usually will just ask permission to open it. And depending on the evening, we'll see how it goes. But typically I'll open anything for a good friend.
With such a huge collection, do you ever get decision fatigue, where you can&rsquo;t figure out what whiskey you want to drink?
No. If I'm going to have a drink, just me and my wife, and it's just an easy evening, it's hard to beat Weller 12. Weller 12 is definitely an old standby, just one of my absolute favorites that instantly delivers and is always a go-to for me.
Has your experience running a major hospitality group informed your collecting, or vice-versa?
I've never taken a bottle out of the business. But sometimes through my private collection, I'm able to get things that I can share with some of the team. If we realize something is really special and we want to get it for the business, the business would make an investment into a special or rare bottle. So that's been great.
And really getting to know the different distilleries and different people making it through the scale of what we're doing in the businesses has been such a joy personally. Getting to meet those folks and doing barrel picks for the businesses has certainly impacted how I collect. I think how I collect has impacted how we're doing some of these barrel picks. It's just been a beautiful cycle.
Do you have any advice for someone who wants to get into collecting whiskey?
Whiskey, to me, is very similar to art. What you like is what you should like, and you shouldn't be influenced or impacted by what you read or hear. You can certainly listen to the experts, but if you're getting into it, just go try what you like and then lean into that and really try to find the people who are doing things with a lot of integrity.
Obviously you have some of the bigger houses that will forever be great, but for some of these newer brands like an O.H. Ingram or what Pablo [Moix] is doing at Rare Character [or other limited releases], go deep on those and go seek those things out. It&rsquo;s an interesting time in bourbon in general right now.
One of the saddest stories I heard was this guy who loved whiskey, but would never open it because it was just too precious. He came home one day and the shelf had collapsed and the majority of his collection had broken. He was devastated that his collection was broken, but he was also devastated that he kept it and never tried it. So my advice for any collector is get the bottle and open the bottle.

Collector’s Corner: Max Goldberg

What&rsquo;s happening in wine and whiskey this week:
<h3 dir="ltr">News of the Week</h3>
🍷 Old wineries are&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wineenthusiast.com/culture/industry-news/historic-wineries-new-labels/">attempting to bring in younger drinkers</a>.
💸 Want to spend a bit less? Some&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-10-21/wine-bars-are-booming-due-to-casual-dining-trends-tough-economy">wine bars have budget in mind</a>.
📋 It&rsquo;s time for restaurants to simplify their&nbsp;<a href="https://nypost.com/2025/10/20/lifestyle/restaurant-wine-lists-have-gotten-ridiculously-confusing-and-pretentious/">pretentious wine lists</a>.&nbsp;
💣 Tamdhu&rsquo;s new 21-year-old whisky is a&nbsp;<a href="https://robbreport.com/food-drink/spirits/whiskey-review-tamdhu-21-single-malt-scotch-whisky-1237256310/">sherry bomb for Macallan lovers</a>.
🩷 It&rsquo;s time to embrace the<a href="https://www.insidehook.com/wine/pink-chardonnay-just-got-bit-more-official"> joys of pink Chardonnay</a>.
<h3 dir="ltr">New Bottle Releases</h3>
Pinhook Vertical Series 10 Year Old
This is the seventh entry in Pinhook&rsquo;s Vertical Series, which tracks the progression of its bourbon as it gets older with each release (the first was four years old). The 10-year-old expression is a blend of 75 barrels bottled at cask strength of 115.9 proof. The whiskey was distilled at MGP in Indiana and then matured at Castle &amp; Key in Kentucky, and this would be a fun one to compare with previous releases if you can find those bottles as well. 115.9 proof; SRP $100
2XO Oak Series: White Oak Rye
For many years Dixon Dedman was the man behind Kentucky Owl , but he left that brand around the time it was sold to Stoli Group (which went bankrupt last year). His latest endeavor is 2XO, which stands for &ldquo;two times oak,&rdquo; or whiskey that is double-barreled. This brand has focused on bourbon until the launch of this new White Oak Rye, which follows the same path of double maturation. Look for notes of mint, spice, vanilla, and maple. 92 proof; SRP $50
Aberfeldy 15 Year Old Bolgheri Red Wine Cask Finish
Aberfeldy is the core whisky used in the Dewar&rsquo;s blend, but the distillery also has its own range of excellent single malt expressions. Master blender Stephanie Macleod created this new release, a 15-year-old single malt aged in refill casks before spending two years in Bolgheri red wine barrels from Tuscany. This is the latest in Aberfeldy&rsquo;s wine-finishing series, and has notes of ripe berries, leather, vanilla, chocolate, and baking spice on the palate. 92 proof; SRP $85
<h3 dir="ltr">Unicorn Pick of the Week</h3>
Indri Agneya
While it might not be familiar to everyone, Indian whisky is a category to be reckoned with. There are some fantastic single malts coming out of this country, many of them from bigger names like Paul John and Rampur (big being a relevant term here). But one lesser known producer (at least here in the U.S.) that is making waves is Indri, and it just launched&nbsp; a lightly peated new single malt called Agneya.
<img src="https://directus-11-4sui.onrender.com/assets/a5532834-ad1f-4123-a916-3f5005d91cc8.jpg?width=1200&amp;height=800" alt="Indri Whisky">
Agneya means &ldquo;belonging to fire,&rdquo; but as mentioned before the smoke is relatively light on the palate (nowhere near as strong as a whisky from Islay, for example). The whisky was produced at the Picadilly distillery, which lays claim as being the largest independent producer of malt spirits in India. There are currently more than 40,000 barrels aging there&mdash;Agneya was aged in a combination of PX sherry and bourbon casks, pretty typical for a single malt from any country. The mashbill is 6-row malted barley that was kilned over peat smoke (the peat is imported from Scotland). No color is added to the whisky, and it&rsquo;s non-chill filtered to preserve as much flavor as possible.
And that flavor is impressive. This whisky is clearly on the younger side (the youngest liquid is about five years old, according to the brand), but that doesn&rsquo;t mean it lacks complexity. Look for notes of vanilla, pepper, citrus, baking spice, and honey, along with toasted oak and a subtle wave of peat smokey as you sip. &ldquo;With Indri Agneya, we set out to push boundaries,&rdquo; said Surrinder Kumar, master blender for Piccadily Agro Industries Limited, in a statement. &ldquo;We wanted to explore the untapped space between the familiar and the unexpected. Agneya introduces a new conversation, a whisky that hints at smoke and spice, while still retaining the warmth and complexity that defines Indri&rsquo;s house style.&rdquo;
In that, Agneya has succeeded, making this yet another Indian whisky you keep an eye out for in this rapidly growing world of spirits. You can find a bottle now at retailers around the country (SRP $80).&nbsp;&nbsp;

The Week in Wine and Whiskey: October 24, 2025

The Chicago Blackhawks marked their Centennial season with more than just a celebration of hockey history. In partnership with Unicorn, the team&rsquo;s charitable foundation staged a once‑in‑a‑lifetime auction that shattered fundraising records and underscored the power of pairing rare spirits with community purpose.
Founded in 1993, the <a href="https://www.nhl.com/blackhawks/foundation/">Chicago Blackhawks Foundation </a>has contributed more than $40 million to local causes across Illinois, supporting youth hockey, after‑school programs, mental health initiatives, and food security. Its mission is to build stronger, more equitable communities throughout Chicago, and the Centennial Charity Auction offered a historic platform to extend that mission into the team&rsquo;s 100th year.
The auction, which launched during the Centennial Season Home Opener on October 11 and closed a week later, raised an unprecedented $392,625 in hammer value ($451,518 including buyers&rsquo; premium), nearly tripling the Foundation&rsquo;s previous fundraising record of $188,587 from a combined live and silent auction.
At the heart of the event was the <a href="https://www.unicornauctions.com/auction/855c2c9a-160e-4fb8-926e-19696ef02ab0/lot/629376eb-8512-4e75-b385-cbe8a887bfa2">Very Very Old Fitzgerald 18‑Year &ldquo;Blackhawk&rdquo; bottling </a>(sold for $85,200), a legendary whiskey distilled in 1969 at Stitzel‑Weller using its wheated mashbill and bottled exclusively for the Wirtz family, the longtime owners of the Chicago Blackhawks and one of the nation&rsquo;s most influential beverage distribution dynasties. Never released publicly, the bottle represents a rare intersection of bourbon craftsmanship and hockey heritage. At 121 proof, it's the highest strength ever bottled under the Old Fitz label, the result of the barrels being stored on a higher floor in one of the Stitzel-Weller rickhouses. Its inclusion, alongside a <a href="https://www.unicornauctions.com/auction/855c2c9a-160e-4fb8-926e-19696ef02ab0/lot/018df531-a508-4a9c-88cd-60f9a09797fd">private tasting</a> with Blackhawks Chairman Danny Wirtz and Julian Van Winkle III (sold for $177,800), the third‑generation Kentucky distiller behind the famed Pappy Van Winkle bourbons, created a headline lot that drew bourbon collectors and hockey fans alike.
Other highlights included the first ever <a href="https://www.unicornauctions.com/auction/855c2c9a-160e-4fb8-926e-19696ef02ab0/lot/4791cab7-79e9-4f30-a99d-656e71ab2bc8">Brook Hill 18‑Year barrel pick with Pablo Moix</a> (sold for $77,400) from Rare Character, the complete 2025 Buffalo Trace Antique Collection (sold for $8,050), tickets to a Jim Gaffigan comedy show with access to bottles from his private barrel picks (sold for $4,625), and Blackhawks memorabilia such as a team‑signed Centennial jersey.&nbsp;
For Unicorn, the Centennial event built on a track record of mobilizing collectors for a good cause. Earlier this year, the platform raised $420,000 through its&nbsp;<a href="https://www.unicornauctions.com/auction/4e5550f5-22fc-4345-ae80-54c1a3ec85a3?sortBy=number_asc">Bourbon Bonanza Charity Auction</a>, demonstrating how digital auctioneering can channel passion into philanthropy.
&ldquo;The partnership between Unicorn Auctions and the Chicago Blackhawks Foundation was a truly special collaboration to mark a century of Blackhawks history,&rdquo; said Phil Mikhaylov, CEO and co‑founder of Unicorn Auctions. &ldquo;Our goal was to create an auction that celebrated both legacy and community impact. Being able to use the Unicorn platform to support such a great cause is an amazing feeling, and I&rsquo;m proud that in just three months we&rsquo;ve helped raise over $1 million for charity on Unicorn.&rdquo;
The record‑setting proceeds will go directly toward expanding youth access to hockey across Chicago over the next decade. &ldquo;The generosity from this auction will have an immediate and lasting impact,&rdquo; said Danny Wirtz, Blackhawks chairman. &ldquo;These funds help advance our $3 million Centennial Commitment&mdash;ensuring every young person across Chicago has the chance to experience the game through floor hockey, learn‑to‑skate, and community programs that make the sport more accessible and inclusive for all.&rdquo;
As the gavel fell on October 18, the Centennial Charity Auction had done more than raise funds. It wove together history, rarity, and generosity into a singular moment&mdash;one that honored the Blackhawks&rsquo; past while investing in the future of Chicago&rsquo;s youth.

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The Week in Wine and Whiskey: November 14

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

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