What’s happening in wine and whiskey this week:

News of the Week

📦 No shame in drinking wine in a box—here are some of the best picks.

🍷 These wine pros picked what they think are the most overrated wine regions. 

🌳 These winemakers let their biodynamic certification lapse.

💨 American peated whiskey is having moment.

🥃 These are 30 of the best rye whiskeys you can drink now.

New Bottle Releases

Barton 1792 Cognac Cask Finish

Buffalo Trace sister distillery, Barton 1792, just released this Cognac cask-finished bourbon, the first cask finish to join the permanent lineup (there was a previous port barrel-finished bourbon). This is made from the same mashbill as Barton’s Small Batch Bourbon (a high-rye recipe), but it was given a secondary maturation in Cognac barrels from France in the upper levels of the rickhouses for up to six months. That has given the whiskey notes of dark chocolate, baking spice, dried fruit, and creme brulee, and it’s bottled at a satisfying 95 proof.

Hirsch The Cask Strength Finished in Cognac Barrels

Hirsch is a name in whiskey that dates back many decades. The 16-year-old bourbon distilled in 1974 is considered to be one of the best out there by some, and it commands extremely high prices on the secondary market and at auction. The name was resurrected a few years ago, and now the brand is owned by Hotaling & Co. in San Francisco. The latest release is another Cognac cask-finished bourbon, but this one clocks in at cask strength. It was made from a mashbill of 72 percent corn, 13 percent rye, and 15 percent malted barley, aged for nearly six years, and finished for close to two years in Hine Cognac barrels.

Still Austin Bottled in Bond 2025 Bourbon

Still Austin is one of the best craft distilleries in the country, and its bottled-in-bond series is a good example of what that is. The fall 2025 release is the oldest to date after seven years in barrels. It was made from a mashbill of 70 percent white corn, 25 percent rye, and five percent malted barley, and bottled at 100 proof (as per the BIB definition). The rye shines through on the palate, giving the bourbon notes of spice that mingle with classic bourbon flavors, and the bottle comes with an eye-catching label designed by artist Marc Burckhardt.

Unicorn Pick of the Week

Milam & Greene Provisions

Milam & Greene is a Blanco, Texas distillery led by CEO and master blender Heather Greene. She and her team both distill and source whiskey, coming up with new and innovative blends, finishes, and single barrel expressions, and attempting to show how the specific climate in the state affects whiskey as it matures. The latest release is called Provisions, and this is meant to be an accessible and affordable bourbon priced at $35. But it also happens to have a complexity that belies its low price and 80 proof.

Provisions is a blend of pot-distilled Texas bourbon and Kentucky straight bourbon, but it undergoes a process that the distillery calls “Texification.” That’s another way of saying that those barrels of Kentucky bourbon are brought to Texas to age and let that Blanco climate do its thing—according to the distillery, the environment in the Lone Star State brings “richness, roundness, and drinkability” to the bourbon.

It’s hard to argue with that, because Provisions drinks beyond what you might expect after reading the basic stats. There’s a very classic bourbon flavor profile present here, with notes of vanilla, molasses, honey, and some smoky oak on the palate. Those are buttressed by some fruit and spice flavors as well. 80-proof doubters, don’t worry—this is a satisfying sipper even at that lower proof (and hey, we can’t drink high-proof whiskey all the time, can we?). The flavor is bold enough to mix this whiskey in any classic cocktail you can think of (I recommend an Old Fashioned), but it also sips quite nicely on its own—and no ice is required to tamp down the heat.