What’s happening in wine and whiskey this week:

This Week’s Unicorn Review Stories

🍷 When it comes to wine, New Zealand might be best known for its Sauvignon Blanc. But there's a lot more going on, particularly on the North Island.

🥃 The Isle of Skye is a rugged island off the coast of Scotland that is home to some fantastic whisky distilleries. Here's a guide to how to navigate visiting them all, including one on the neighboring Isle of Raasay.

New Bottle Releases

New Riff Balboa Rye ($60)

If you’re going to get one rye whiskey for your home bar, consider this excellent bottle from Kentucky distillery New Riff. It’s made from a mashbill of 95 percent heirloom Balboa rye and five percent malted rye. That makes for a tasty and complex bottled-in-bond, 100-proof whiskey with big notes of spice and fruit that is perfect for sipping or mixing.

High West Cask Strength Bourbon ($70)

This is a new release from Utah’s High West, a blend of bourbons bottled at cask strength of 117 proof. The blend consists of several straight bourbons distilled in Kentucky and Indiana aged between six and 20 years. Each has a unique mashbill, including one that is made from 60% corn and 40% malted barley and one that is made from 60% corn and 40% rye.

Unicorn Whiskey Pick of the Week

Lock Stock & Barrel 25 ($1,000)

How much would you be willing to pay for a Canadian rye whisky aged for a full quarter century? Lock Stock & Barrel, a brand owned by Cooper Spirits Co., is hoping that you won’t blink at spending a thousand bucks, and potentially more than that on the secondary market. The thing is, it just might be worth it.

The whisky was distilled at Alberta Distillers in Calgary, where so much Canadian rye bottled by other brands is (we’re looking at you, WhistlePig). There’s a good reason for that—the distillery makes really good rye, and the climate in Alberta means that it can be aged for a long time without getting really overly oaky as it would down south here in America. This is the oldest age statement to date from LSB, and indeed it seems to be the oldest rye whiskey (actually, whisky) on the market at the moment. It was fermented with koji, according to the brand, and distilled from a mashbill of 100 percent rye in 1999 on copper pot stills before being aged in barrels for a quarter century. It was bottled without chill filtration at 111 proof.

And it’s a really good rye, with deep notes of dark berry, caramel, vanilla custard, black pepper, baking spice, and cherry syrup. The higher proof provides some heat, and helps to bring all the flavors together as you sip. At that high price, this is clearly intended to be a sipper… but if you feel like breaking some rules, go ahead and make a Manhattan with it—after all, you bought it, you should enjoy it any way you want (and this is a really good way, I can vouch for it).

There are just 250 bottles available, but this seems to be a bit of a sleeper whisky. If you find one in the wild and have a grand burning a hole in your pocket, go ahead and buy it.

Unicorn Wine Pick of the Week

For this week’s selections, we’re going to go Old School Chardonnay. Thomas Fogarty Winery and Talley Vineyards have both been around for quite a while—Fogarty started his winery in 1981, Talley Vineyards was founded by Don Talley in 1982. Both are family wineries well into their second generation, with legacies that have stayed modern while outlasting modish trends. Both are devoted to cool climate Chardonnay, and both still make wines that reward cellar time.

Dr. Fogarty founded his winery after a career as a surgeon and medical technician, perfecting a catheter that became a universal tool in vascular surgery. The Fogarty brand has been a stalwart of Santa Cruz family wineries, now run by the second generation. Fogarty’s son, Thomas Jr., had the good sense to promote his talented winemaker, Nathan Kandler, to general manager, and he has deftly stewarded this brand’s traditional approaches into the present day. Few Santa Cruz wineries cast a wider net than Fogarty—Kandler draws from vineyards up and down this coastal range to make a suite of singular vineyard designate reds and whites.

Thomas Fogarty 2023 Santa Cruz Mountain Langley Hill Vineyard Chardonnay ($85)

Kandler’s Chardonnays get ever more refined and meticulous—this wine fits the bill, from a 5.25 acre vineyard high above the San Francisco Bay at 2,000 foot elevation. Lifted and bright, it has a lemon blossom scent that deepens to lemon curd and golden apple with air. The flavors seem rich at the outset only to firm up as it travels along the palate, with notes of beeswax, honeyed citrus, and a penetrating acidity to counterbalance any impression of weight.

Talley Vineyards 2022 Oliver’s Vineyard Edna Valley Chardonnay ($60)

Oliver’s Vineyard was the Talleys first grape planting in the Edna Valley, a cool site planted in 1991 (it’s named for the family’s patriarch who founded their farm in 1948). Modestly weighty and satisfying, this Chardonnay leads with scents of caramelly lees and lemon curd, and an interesting herbal note frames a sweetcorn sweetness. The flavors are generous, with a caramelly note from oak. And the fruit is all rich citrus, broad but with a linear frame and the acidity Edna Valley is known for, which will contribute to the wine’s longevity.