This Week in Drinks

The 2026 Pappy Van Winkle lineup is official — here's what you're actually chasing

The Van Winkle family and Buffalo Trace announced this year's collection: six bourbons and one rye ranging from a 10-year to a 23-year, with suggested prices from $169.99 up to $499.99. Like every year, those suggested prices have almost nothing to do with what you'll actually pay — the entire release moves through state-level lotteries and Sazerac's distribution network to a small number of retailers, with bottles landing in November. If you want a real shot at buying one near retail, this week is when local shops start announcing their allocation drawings — find out who's running one now, not after bottles arrive. via BevNET

MGP — the distillery behind half your favorite sourced bourbon — is finally selling whiskey under its own name

MGP Ingredients, the Indiana producer that supplies bulk whiskey to dozens of bottled brands on shelves, released its first-ever bourbon carrying the MGP name: a 10-year-old, 111-proof "Chapter One: Out of the Shadows," limited to 6,000 cases nationwide this fall at $69.99. For anyone who's spent years guessing which "mystery Indiana distillery" made a sourced bottle, this is MGP putting its own name and age statement on the label for the first time. It's a reasonable one to seek out if you want to taste the source material other brands have charged a premium to keep unnamed. via Breaking Bourbon

Four Roses' 2026 Limited Edition Small Batch is its oldest release yet — and it ships next month

The distillery's 19th annual Limited Edition Small Batch blends four batches aged 14 to 23 years across three of its ten house recipes, bottled at 109.2 proof. Only about 16,800 bottles ship starting October 10 at a suggested $249 — a real allocation number for a release with a 23-year-old component in the blend. Get on your retailer's list now if you want a shot before it moves to secondary. via Breaking Bourbon

Kentucky Bourbon Festival just sold out its 35th year in Bardstown

The festival drew more than 10,000 attendees over its September 10-13 run, with most ticket packages selling out before the weekend even started and roughly 85% of ticketed guests traveling in from outside Kentucky. More than 70 distilleries and 200-plus brands poured across the four days. That kind of demand for a regional festival is the same appetite driving competition for the allocated bottles hitting stores this same season — Pappy and the Four Roses LE both land in this same window. If you're planning around next year's festival, book lodging and tickets early. via The Bourbon Flight

Bourbon's biggest distributor just settled a bribery case — here's why allocation chasers should care

Southern Glazer's, which distributes a large share of the allocated bourbon reaching store shelves nationwide, agreed to pay $12.5 million and tighten internal controls after the DOJ found former employees ran a scheme of cash, gift cards, and trips to California retailers from 2016 to 2024; five ex-employees still face criminal charges. It's not a bourbon-specific story, but distributor conduct is exactly what decides which stores get the good allocations and which don't — a reminder that "my store never gets Weller" is sometimes about relationships with the distributor, not luck. Nothing here should change how you shop this week, but it's worth watching for whether similar practices surface around bourbon allocation specifically. via VinePair

Old Forester's 2026 Birthday Bourbon is out — but the way to get one just changed

This year's release is an 11-year-old bottled at 97 proof, drawn from 212 barrels on the third floor of Warehouse B — the oldest warehouse at the Shively distillery — and made using a "sweet mash" process with only freshly propagated yeast instead of Old Forester's usual setback method. The distillery's pickup sweepstakes already closed on August 24, with winners collecting bottles in person through December 19, so this isn't a story about entering anything right now. Limited quantities are also going to select retailers nationwide, which is the realistic path for most hunters — worth calling around rather than waiting to see it on a shelf. via The Bourbon Central

Bib & Tucker's bottled-in-bond bourbon just went from preview to permanent shelf item

The Tennessee brand's first bottled-in-bond release — an 8-year-old high-rye bourbon at 100 proof, aged twice the required minimum — is rolling out nationally this September at $64.99 as a permanent, year-round expression rather than a one-off. That's the detail worth noting: this isn't a lottery bottle or a seasonal drop, it's meant to sit on shelves indefinitely at a real-world price. If you're tired of chasing allocation, this is a straightforward one to ask your shop to carry as a default bonded pour. via BevNET

Kentucky Bourbon Festival hits 35 years in Bardstown next week

The festival runs September 10-13 in Bardstown with more than 60 distilleries and 200-plus brands pouring, New Riff Distilling as this year's featured distillery, and exclusive KYBF single-barrel selections sold directly at distillery booths. For hunters, that last part is the real draw — buying single-barrel picks straight from a booth sidesteps the usual allocation math entirely, and New Riff's spotlight status makes its selections the ones worth beelining for this year. If you can get to Bardstown next weekend, this is a better use of your time than most retail allocation lists. via Breaking Bourbon

Buffalo Trace is pouring Weller Antique 107 for free in four cities this fall

The distillery's traveling tasting tour returns to Branson, Kansas City, Dallas/Fort Worth, and Denver between October and mid-November, with 14 complimentary 75-minute sessions per stop pouring Buffalo Trace Bourbon, Eagle Rare 10, Weller Antique 107, and the new Sazerac Rye 100 Proof. Registration opened September 2 with a four-ticket limit per person, and free access to Weller without a raffle tends to fill fast. If you're within range of one of those four cities, this is worth grabbing a slot for now rather than waiting to see if it's still open next month. via Forbes

Basil Hayden's first new bourbon in three years is finished in real Cognac casks

Cognac Cask Reserve keeps the brand's high-rye mash bill but finishes it in French oak casks that held Cognac for 20 to 25 years, bottled at 80 proof with a suggested price of $49.99. It's a limited edition, but priced and positioned as a shelf buy rather than an allocation chase. At $50, it's a reasonable way to taste what a genuine Cognac-cask finish does to a bourbon without committing to one of the $150-and-up finished releases that usually carry that story. via PR Newswire

Brown-Forman's own numbers show where its energy is going — and it's not new bourbon releases

Brown-Forman's first-quarter results (period ended July 31) showed net sales down 1% to $911 million, with Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey flat and Jack Daniel's Tennessee Honey and Gentleman Jack both declining, while the company's ready-to-drink portfolio grew 20%, powered by New Mix sales up 48% in Mexico. When a company's core whiskey brands are flat to down and its RTD line is the one posting real growth, that's usually where marketing dollars and new-product attention follow next. It's not a reason to worry about Old Forester or Woodford Reserve disappearing, but it's a reason not to expect a wave of ambitious new releases from Brown-Forman's whiskey side in the near term. via Brown-Forman

The Canada trade deal died — and bourbon's export crisis isn't going away

Talks between the U.S. and Canada collapsed and 50% U.S. tariffs on Canadian goods took effect August 24, just weeks after Canada's prime minister had asked provinces to start restocking American liquor as trade talks looked promising. That restocking effort now looks a lot less likely to happen. Canadian imports of U.S. alcohol had already fallen more than 80% during the standoff, and Jim Beam halted bourbon production at its main Kentucky distillery in December as exports to Canada cratered — so if allocation on some mainstream labels has felt tighter this year, lost export volume forcing brands to lean harder on the domestic market is part of why, and this week's news makes a quick fix less likely. via Shanken News Daily

Sazerac just bought a bankrupt Kentucky mega-distillery for $20 million

Sazerac affiliate Tom Collins Distilling acquired the Garrard County Distilling facility in Lancaster at auction after the plant — built in 2024 as Kentucky's largest independently owned distillery — landed in receivership over roughly $26 million in debt. The site has two column stills and two 20,000-square-foot barrel warehouses, with capacity for 350 to 400 barrels a day, and Sazerac says it'll fold the infrastructure into its existing network alongside Buffalo Trace, Barton 1792, and Glenmore. It doesn't change what's aging today, but it's a clear signal Sazerac is positioning for volume growth in its own brands over the next several years rather than just riding out the current slowdown. via Fred Minnick

Four Roses' new honey-cask bourbon is a distillery-only pour, with no wide release planned

Experimental Series No. 002, finished in casks that previously held honey, goes on sale September 18 exclusively at the Four Roses Distillery in Lawrenceburg and the Cox's Creek Visitor Center — $55 for a 375ml bottle, while supplies last. It's the kind of release that rewards showing up rather than calling around: no distributor allocation to chase, just being there when it drops. If you're not near central Kentucky, it's one to watch for whether any of it travels later, the way some of Four Roses' other limited pours eventually have. via The Whiskey Wash

A 23-year Willett just set a new world auction record at $39,200

Unicorn Auctions sold a Willett Family Estate 23 Year single barrel, nicknamed "Bigfoote" after former Stitzel-Weller and Bernheim master distiller Edwin Foote, for a $39,200 hammer price — a new record for that bottling. It's a reminder that the very top of the auction market is still setting records even while broader bourbon sales data looks soft, which says these are two different buyers with two different budgets, not one shrinking market. If you're chasing allocated bottles at retail rather than at auction, this doesn't move your world directly, but it's a useful read on where real demand is concentrated right now. via Shanken News Daily

Bardstown Bourbon Company's two fall releases hit shelves nationwide this week — both real quantities, both $140

Bardstown released 2026 Discovery, a blend of 7-, 10-, and 11-year bourbons finished four months in Garryana oak at 66.4% abv, alongside Lochs of Jura Barrel Finish, a bourbon-and-rye blend finished 32 months in ex-Sherry casks at 52% abv. Both went nationwide August 21 at $139.99, in limited but real distribution rather than lottery-only quantities. At that price you're paying for the barrel-finishing work, not scarcity alone — worth comparing side by side if your shop gets both in, since they're built from similar base stock but pushed in very different directions. via Shanken News Daily

Maker's Mark's oldest bourbon yet is landing September 1 — and it's actually allocated, not just marketed that way

The fourth annual Cellar Aged release blends 11-, 12-, and 14-year-old Maker's Mark at cask strength — 112.1 proof — making it the most mature mix the distillery has put into this series so far. It reaches select U.S. retailers September 1 at $175 before expanding internationally later in the year. Maker's doesn't usually release anything this old, so if your shop has a track record of getting allocated Maker's drops, get on the list now instead of waiting to see it on a shelf. via Fred Minnick

Redemption's relaunch is working — now it's adding a $50 bonded bourbon and bringing back its 18-year

Deutsch Family's revamped Redemption brand has grown to roughly 85,000 cases with high-single-digit growth this year, in a bourbon segment that's mostly shrinking. It's following that up with Single Barrel Bonded Bourbon — six years old, 100 proof, $49.99 — going nationwide in September, plus a return of the Ancients 18-Year at $400 in limited fall quantities. Redemption doesn't have MGP mystique or allocation hype behind it; it's succeeding on a straightforward bottled-in-bond value proposition, which makes the $50 release worth a look if you're tired of paying up for less transparent sourcing. via Shanken News Daily

Diageo's layoffs reach the whiskey side too — Bulleit and George Dickel sit under the same cost-cutting umbrella

Diageo's roughly 2,000 job cuts and $1 billion cost-reduction plan cover the whole company, and its American whiskey brands — Bulleit, George Dickel, I.W. Harper — aren't carved out. Deep cuts to marketing and support staff don't change what's already aging in a rickhouse, but they can affect how hard a brand gets pushed into new markets or how much gets spent defending shelf space against smaller, faster-growing craft labels. If Bulleit is a staple on your list, it isn't going anywhere soon, but it's worth watching over the next year rather than assuming business as usual. via VinePair

Heaven Hill's new Double Mash is the bottled-in-bond release actually worth buying this month

Heaven Hill's new Bottled-in-Bond Double Mash blends two-thirds of its standard bourbon mash bill with one-third of its wheated recipe — the distillery says it's the first time it's combined both mashbills into a single bonded release. It's 9 years old, 100 proof, and $49.99, rolling out nationwide this month. An age-stated, bonded bourbon at a real-world price from one of Kentucky's largest producers, sold at normal volume instead of lottery quantities, is worth prioritizing over most of what else is on shelves right now. via Forbes

Chattanooga Whiskey finished a bourbon blend in Moldovan ice wine casks — distillery-only, $59.99

The eighth release in Chattanooga's Barrel Finishing Series blends five malt whiskeys and one bourbon, finished in casks from one of Moldova's most decorated wineries. It went on sale August 13 at the brand's Experimental Distillery in Chattanooga for $59.99, with no wider release announced yet. If you're within driving distance, this is a straightforward walk-in buy; if not, it's one to watch for a possible broader rollout later, the way earlier entries in this series have gotten one. via The Whiskey Wash

Never Say Die is opening a Lexington brand home this fall — and it'll be the only place to get its next bourbon

The transatlantic bourbon brand — distilled and aged more than six years in Kentucky, then shipped to England for further maturation at White Peak Distillery — is opening its first brand home in downtown Lexington this fall, pairing a micro-distillery with an English-style pub. It's reportedly the only place anyone will be able to taste and bottle "Double Ocean," a bourbon that makes two transatlantic crossings instead of one. Worth a note on the calendar for a fall Kentucky trip; single-location exclusives like this tend to disappear fast. via Breaking Bourbon

Circle City's 50/50 Club blending program is expanding into Illinois and Wisconsin

Circle City Whiskey, an independent bottler that blends barrels from two different distilleries into a single custom release, is bringing its 50/50 Club program to retailers and clubs in Indiana, Wisconsin, and Illinois after growing more than 100% year-over-year. It's not a Kentucky operation, but the model is worth watching: taking barrels that didn't fit a brand's single-barrel program and rebottling them as a blend is a growing way independent bottlers stretch limited stock into something genuinely one-off. If your shop does barrel picks, it's worth asking whether they've got access to this program. via BevNET

Stetson's first bourbon isn't a novelty bottle — it's a $70 Green River/Bardstown blend

The western-wear brand's debut release is a 7-year-old, 100-proof bourbon blending stock from Green River Distilling and Bardstown Bourbon Company — the first time those two producers have combined for a joint release. It's priced around $70-75, sold through Stetson's own store and site, and ships to 40 states. Celebrity-branded whiskey is usually a pass, but two real Kentucky distilleries and an actual age statement is a different proposition than a flavored cash-in; worth a taste before writing it off as merchandise. via Forbes

Frey Ranch is selling access, not whiskey — $999 a year for 500 members

The Nevada grain-to-glass distillery capped a new "Tractor Tailgate Club" at 500 memberships for $999 annually, which buys VIP access to limited releases like the Harvester Series and Five Grain Bourbon, virtual tastings with the distillers, and a discount at the tasting room — not necessarily the bottles themselves. It's worth watching as a model: paid membership tiers instead of lottery entries are one way distilleries are managing allocation demand. If a Kentucky producer runs the same playbook, this is roughly what it'll look like. via The Whiskey Wash

Chicken Cock Whiskey has a new owner — and it comes with two Kentucky tasting rooms

Next Century Spirits bought Chicken Cock Whiskey along with three other Grain & Barrel Spirits brands (Dixie Southern Vodka, Elvis Whiskey, and the E.G. Booz mark) plus the Circa 1856 tasting rooms in Bardstown and Louisville — NCS's first real footprint in Kentucky. Ownership changes are usually the moment sourcing or mash bill quietly shifts, so if Chicken Cock is a regular pour for you, it's worth comparing future bottlings against what you're used to rather than assuming continuity. via Shanken News Daily

The data confirms it: bourbon over $25 is the only part of the category still growing

Impact Databank figures show the $25-and-up bourbon segment grew 3.5% in volume last year to just under 11 million cases even as the overall category shrank 1%, with Maker's Mark leading the tier at 2.25 million cases. Distillers have every incentive to keep pushing new releases and shelf space toward that price band rather than the entry level. If your budget has crept past $25 a bottle without you deciding that on purpose, this is why. via Shanken News Daily

RNDC is winding down — and your local shelf will feel it

Republic National, one of the country's biggest spirits distributors, filed Chapter 11 last week to wind down what's left of its business after selling most of its markets off to Reyes, Breakthru, Martignetti and others. For hunters, the story isn't the bankruptcy — it's the reshuffle. When a state's distribution changes hands, allocation math gets redone from scratch: accounts get re-ranked, drop schedules slip, and stores that never saw certain bottles suddenly do (and vice versa). If your usual shop sits in a former RNDC market, the next few months are worth watching closely. via Shanken News Daily

Garrison Brothers Laguna Madre lands August 8 — with a first-ever cask-strength single barrel

The seventh annual Laguna Madre — four years in American oak, four more in French Limousin — comes in at 101 proof, $349.99, and just 3,000 bottles. A thousand go at the distillery event on August 8; the other 2,000 hit key accounts and Garrison's own e-commerce starting August 14. New this year: a 135.4-proof cask-strength single-barrel version at $409.99, distillery-only. If this is your annual chase, the online window opens in days, not weeks — set the reminder now. via Breaking Bourbon

Old Forester's 117 Series goes Triple Char — and Kentucky keeps this one home

The latest 117 Series is the first Old Forester made entirely from whiskey distilled at the revived Main Street distillery in Louisville — a genuine milestone bottling for the brand. Triple-char barrels, 115 proof, 375 mL, $64.99, sold at the distillery and select Kentucky retailers only. That combination — milestone provenance, small format, in-state release — is exactly the profile that disappears fast. If you're anywhere near Louisville, go this week, not next. via Bourbon Lens

Old Elk drops three 10-year whiskeys at $69.99 — age-stated value with no lottery

A 10-year straight bourbon, a 10-year straight wheat whiskey, and a 10-year wheated bourbon, all around 103–105 proof, all $69.99, all nationwide. Double-digit age statements at this price barely exist anymore, and these you can actually walk in and buy. The 96% wheat whiskey is the sleeper of the three — a true aged wheat whiskey is a rarity from anyone. via Bourbon Lens

Cigar Blend turns ten — and it's Nancy Fraley's last one

Jos. A. Magnus marked ten years of Cigar Blend with an anniversary bottling that blends in 11- and 18-year whiskeys, finished in Armagnac casks — and it's billed as the final Cigar Blend from Nancy Fraley, the blender who created the category-defining original in 2016. Cigar Blend already trades hard on the secondary; a final-blender anniversary release is the kind of provenance collectors move on immediately. No proof or price published yet, so watch your shop's allocation list rather than waiting for a shelf sighting. via Bourbon Lens

Bulleit's first new core bottle in 15 years is a $29.99 bourbon-rye blend

Bulleit '87 blends the house Kentucky bourbon with its Indiana rye, finishes it on toasted American and French oak staves, and lands at 90 proof for $29.99 this September as a permanent addition — the brand's first new core expression in over 15 years. Nobody's chasing this one, and that's the point: a big brand putting a stave-finished blend on the everyday shelf at under $30 says something about where the mainstream market is headed. Try it before the ad campaign tells you to. via Bourbon Lens