Every bourbon drinker encounters <a href="https://www.unicornauctions.com/auction/213ccd64-797e-471d-9fb9-16e754e207c9/lot/4fa92367-1086-40df-81c9-6f415c110a7a" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Booker&rsquo;s</a> at some point, and it&rsquo;s usually a memorable meeting. The wine-style bottle in its attractive wooden box stands out, as do the hand-scrawled label and slanted batch sticker. Even more remarkable, however, is the whiskey itself: powerful, punchy, at times quite the walloper.
<a href="https://www.unicornauctions.com/auction/213ccd64-797e-471d-9fb9-16e754e207c9/lot/18b685e5-af3d-458e-a18b-62323d04e997" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Booker&rsquo;s</a> is the OG barrel-proof bourbon, initially created in the late 1980s by Jim Beam master distiller Booker Noe. The first bottlings were given as private gifts, but reception was so enthusiastic that the distillery decided to make this uncut, unfiltered bourbon more widely available. That led to Booker&rsquo;s being the first whiskey in what would eventually become the Jim Beam Small Batch Collection, which now also includes Knob Creek, Basil Hayden, and Baker&rsquo;s.
The importance of <a href="https://www.unicornauctions.com/auction/213ccd64-797e-471d-9fb9-16e754e207c9/lot/a2cd0d9c-6a87-4678-825c-403b10d2887a" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Booker&rsquo;s</a> in the evolution of modern American whiskey can&rsquo;t be overstated. Up until its commercial release, barrel-proof bourbon was virtually unheard of. It certainly wasn&rsquo;t widespread&mdash;indeed, taken for granted&mdash;the way it is today. Although Booker Noe died in 2004, his son, master distiller Fred Noe, continues to select the barrels for each batch of his namesake bourbon. There are usually four batches a year, each with a distinct name and story behind it.
There&rsquo;s minimal variation from batch to batch in terms of both age&mdash;between six and eight years&mdash;and proof, which typically lands in the mid-120s, and the mashbill is always the same 77% corn, 13% rye, and 10% malt. Still, Booker&rsquo;s flavor profile can have some nuance and whiskey fans have their favorite batches, though a few specific notes like peanut, cinnamon, and cola generally remain consistent.
<a href="https://www.unicornauctions.com/auction/213ccd64-797e-471d-9fb9-16e754e207c9/lot/b89bdd45-3187-41a5-813f-758a7e556485" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Booker&rsquo;s</a> is the benchmark by which all other barrel-proof bourbons measure themselves&mdash;but it&rsquo;s certainly not the only one you should consider trying. If you like a muscular, even aggressive, bourbon bottled at full strength, check out our recommendations below.&nbsp;
<h3 dir="ltr">Elijah Craig Barrel Proof</h3>
Barrel-proof bourbon doesn&rsquo;t get more consistent than this. There are three batches a year and every single one lands perfectly at the intersection of mature flavor and brawny vigor. This is perhaps even more remarkable given the range of ages the label showcases&mdash;though it once had a 12-year-old age statement, these days <a href="https://www.unicornauctions.com/auction/213ccd64-797e-471d-9fb9-16e754e207c9/lot/dc8941f6-1736-450e-b9cd-c8f1fa3fa80e" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Elijah Craig Barrel Proof</a> can be bottled as young as nine and as old as 13 (the label now tells you exactly how old the whiskey is). No matter what, you&rsquo;re getting dark chocolate and rich oak notes galore.&nbsp;
<h3 dir="ltr">Frey Ranch Farm Strength</h3>
You might want to brace yourself for this bourbon, which punches well above its significant, 120-proof-or-higher weight. All four grains in the mashbill (66.6% corn, 12% malted barley, 11.4% rye, 10% wheat) are grown on the eponymous Nevada ranch, so the somewhat corny &ldquo;farm strength&rdquo; moniker gets a pass. Prepare for a palate full of dark herbs, berries, and cocoa notes, wrapped in leathery oak that registers as mature beyond its years.
<h3 dir="ltr"><a href="https://www.unicornauctions.com/auction/213ccd64-797e-471d-9fb9-16e754e207c9/lot/270c5ec0-d182-4ae0-81ab-fdaaaae413c5" target="_blank" rel="noopener">High West Cask Strength</a></h3>
A brand that&rsquo;s built on blending is unsurprisingly the most complex whiskey on this list. It&rsquo;s made up of multiple bourbons as young as six years old and as old as 20, hailing from Kentucky, Indiana, and Tennessee. There are five mashbills among them. Four use rye as the secondary grain, ranging from 8% to 40%, and one contains no rye at all, instead featuring an unusually high 40% malt. The dizzying variety comes together in a burly 58.% ABV whiskey replete with nuts and spice.
<h3 dir="ltr">Hirsch The Cask Strength</h3>
This non-distiller producer brand has a similar mashbill to Booker&rsquo;s&mdash;72% corn, 13% rye, 15% malted barley&mdash;and lands very close in age (the most recent 2025 batch was seven years and six months old). But there&rsquo;s a twist to the traditional Kentucky straight bourbon here. Nearly two years of the maturation took place in Hine cognac casks, which are made from French oak and impart silkier tannins and a deep, seamless spice atop the base bourbon&rsquo;s familiar vanilla and caramel flavors.
<h3 dir="ltr">Knob Creek Single Barrel Select Cask Strength</h3>
This whiskey is made at the same distillery and from the same mashbill as Booker&rsquo;s, but don&rsquo;t expect it to taste exactly the same. The barrel-proof version of <a href="https://www.unicornauctions.com/auction/213ccd64-797e-471d-9fb9-16e754e207c9/lot/0cfebac2-7090-4f35-b833-193fb53b95d9" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Knob Creek</a> offers a great opportunity to explore how different two bourbons that are virtually identical on paper can be in the glass. Also, because it&rsquo;s a single barrel release, each bottling&rsquo;s exact tasting notes and proof vary, just as each batch of Booker&rsquo;s has its own subtleties that set it apart from the others.

What to Drink Next If You Love Booker’s

Sylvester &lsquo;Sly&rsquo; Inda&rsquo;s wine career has come a long way since his Barefoot Moscato days. Born in Nairobi, Kenya, Inda and his family moved to the Bronx when he was just eight years old. His parents had a relatively conservative attitude towards alcohol, which was a big reason why he didn&rsquo;t first taste wine until he was studying pre-law at college (insert said liter-sized bottle of Barefoot Moscato here). Upon graduating, Inda quickly realized he needed a job, and that law school was likely out due to the outrageous cost. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s when I walked into Keens Steakhouse to interview as a server, but the wine director and owner saw something greater in me,&rdquo; he recalled.&nbsp;
Enter John McClements, the wine director who took Inda under his wing as a cellar assistant&mdash;and who would inevitably change his career trajectory. &ldquo;I believe their plan was to mentor me to eventually become either a wine director or someone in the industry who represented unbiased and unpretentious values in the world of wine,&rdquo; Inda said. His simple curiosity about wine quickly morphed into a full-fledged passion under McClements&rsquo; leadership. &ldquo;Realizing that wine is a part of our history as humans&mdash;through empires, religion and cultures&mdash;really sent me down the rabbit hole,&rdquo; he explained.&nbsp;
Inda&rsquo;s hard work as a cellar rat eventually paid off, and he was offered the role of assistant wine director at Keens, a position he held until the COVID-19 pandemic. While restaurants remained closed, Inda stayed busy with retail stints at Verve Wine in New York and Coolvines in New Jersey, though his passion for service remained. Post-pandemic, he immediately jumped back into &ldquo;more challenging floor roles,&rdquo; namely at Daniel Boulud&rsquo;s Le Pavillon and Danny Meyer&rsquo;s Gramercy Tavern, where he would ultimately become the head sommelier.&nbsp;
In November 2025, Inda was offered the prestigious wine director role at Ci Siamo, the Italian-focused outpost of Meyer&rsquo;s Union Square Hospitality Group (USHG). While Gramercy Tavern has an expansive wine list representing regions around the world, according to Inda 90 percent of Ci Siamo&rsquo;s selections hail from Italy. &ldquo;The list is classic in its approach, representing traditional wines from Piedmont and Tuscany,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;but it also promotes smaller, lesser-known regions like Lazio, Abruzzo, and Liguria.&rdquo;
The restaurant also focuses on native Italian grape varieties, like Pelaverga in Piedmont, Teroldego in Trentino-Alto Adige, Verdicchio in Le Marche, and everything in between. But Inda said that Ci Siamo&rsquo;s list is still accessible and should not be intimidating. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re especially proud of our value-driven wines&rdquo;, he said, noting that 40 percent of the list is priced under $100 and a whopping 70 percent can be purchased for less than $200.
While Chef Hillary Sterling&rsquo;s seasonal pastas and wood-fired dishes are unsurprisingly the main driver of the wine selection, Inda believes that staff input also plays an important role. &ldquo;When it comes to picking a wine for the list, everyone on the team tastes and votes, almost like a wine jury,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Your team has to be just as excited about the wines as you are, so that the excitement can trickle down to the rest of the staff and, ultimately, to the guests.&rdquo;
Below are few of Inda&rsquo;s current favorites.
<h3 dir="ltr">2014 Cascina Baricchi &lsquo;Ca Va Sans Dire&rsquo; Vino Bianco Piemonte ($145)</h3>
One of the many whites that I am excited about is this Timorasso from Cascina Baricchi, which is crafted from vines planted in the 1950s on clay and limestone soils. People may know of Cascina Barrichi and their legendary Barbaresco (fruit that the legendary Bruno Giacosa used to purchase frequently), but this Timorasso is built for age&mdash;this one has more than 10 years on it! On the palate, the wine is vibrant and complex, with a rich nutty and salty texture, reminiscent of aged White Burgundy.
<h3 dir="ltr">1994 Colli di Catone &lsquo;Lazio Colle Gaio&rsquo; Vino Bianco ($295 on Ci Siamo list)</h3>
This white wine from Lazio, which is made from the Malvazia del Lazio variety, is also built to last. Now with 32 years of age on it, this wine is drinking beautifully, especially with the Guanciale and black pepper of our rigatoni. It&rsquo;s full-bodied yet vibrant, with notes of hazelnuts, baked peaches, tangerines, oranges, and a hint of petrol. It&rsquo;s got that touch of honey that comes with age, and is perfect for fans of back-vintage Alsatian Riesling. It&rsquo;s a true rarity and a treat, as I&rsquo;m sure not many bottles are left in the world.&nbsp;
<h3 dir="ltr">2023 Cantine Barbera 'Ammano #11&rsquo; Zibibbo Sicily&nbsp; ($42)</h3>
Orange wine is a category that&rsquo;s very misunderstood. Fruit for this wine is grown on the southwest coast of Menfi, and is the representation of the Sicilian coast in a glass. From winemaker Marilena Barbera, only 218 bottles of this special wine were produced in 2023. Robust and fresh, the wine shows flavors of apricots, tangerines, beeswax, and pineapple. It&rsquo;s a very humble and pure project from a modest producer with high-quality results.
<h3 dir="ltr">2024 Fratelli Alessandria 'Speziale' Verduno Pelaverga ($72)</h3>
On the Ci Siamo list, we have plenty of Barolo, Barbaresco, and Brunello. But what often stands out are other grapes of these famed regions that are made so well for immediate drinking. One of these bottles may be the best Pelaverga ever made: Fratelli Allesandria&rsquo;s Speziale Pelaverga from Verduno. Fruit for this wine hails just a few hills over from La Morra. On the palate, the wine is light, juicy, and bright, yet still very complex. Notes of bing cherry, watermelon, and papaya make it easy to drink, coupled with vibrant acidity and soft tannins. The wine was first made in 1973 for family consumption, and is sold in very small commercial quantities today.
<h3 dir="ltr">2020 Il Bio Selvatico Toscano Rosso ($60)</h3>
[Given that we have] an Italian wine list, we have to give some love to Sangiovese. The grape is often deemed the &ldquo;wild cowboy&rdquo; variety of Italian wines, mainly because it can be untamed, assertive, rustic in nature, and unapologetic in style. This expression is produced from just five hectares of land farmed using a holistic approach. Vinified with 100% whole clusters by way of good ole&rsquo; foot stomping, the resulting wine is one of the purest expressions of Sangiovese that I have ever tasted. Notes of earth, smoke, leather, flint, and sage dominate, making the wine powerful yet light on its feet. It unapologetically embodies the cowboy grape we call Sangiovese.

The Hidden Gems on My Wine List: Ci Siamo’s Sylvester Inda

What&rsquo;s happening in wine and whiskey this week:
<h3 dir="ltr">This Week&rsquo;s Unicorn Review Stories</h3>
🍷 Sarah Clarke's wine journey started out by visiting some of the best restaurants in France, and ultimately led her to LA stalwart Republique. <a href="https://www.unicornauctions.com/unicorn-review/hidden-gems-wine-list-sarah-clark">She discussed her career and picked some of her favorite bottles at the restaurant</a>.
🥃 Cognac might be the best known style of brandy, but this grape-based spirit can be found in many countries around the world that <a href="https://www.unicornauctions.com/unicorn-review/brandy-global-spirit-wine-whiskey">make expressions appealing to both wine and whiskey drinkers</a>.
<h3 dir="ltr">New Bottle Releases</h3>
Daniel Weller Spelt Wheat ($550)
The latest edition of Buffalo Trace&rsquo;s Daniel Weller series, which is built around using different wheat varietals, is the new Spelt Wheat expression. Like most other whiskeys in the Weller lineup, this is a wheated bourbon. Buffalo Trace is famously tight-lipped about its mashbills, but what the distillery does reveal is that this bourbon was made using spelt wheat, an ancient grain normally used for baking and beer.
Peg Leg Porker &ldquo;Spirit of America&rdquo; Limited Edition Bottled-in-Bond Bourbon ($60)
This Nashville whiskey brand was founded by pitmaster Carey Bringle. The latest edition is a bottled-in-bond bourbon released to honor America&rsquo;s 250th anniversary (one of many that you&rsquo;ll see over the coming year). Details are a bit scarce about what's actually in the bottle, but given that it&rsquo;s bottled-in-bond we know that it was made at one distillery, it&rsquo;s at least four years old, and it&rsquo;s bottled at 100 proof.
<h3 dir="ltr">Unicorn Whiskey Pick of the Week</h3>
Remus Master Distiller Experimental Series No. 2 ($70)
Is this the year that wheat whiskey finally gets the recognition it deserves? That&rsquo;s kind of a loaded question, because it assumes that you actually think wheat whiskey deserves recognition&mdash;and I would say that it does, given that there are some truly excellent options out there to try in this often under-recognized category. One of the latest comes from MGP under its Ross &amp; Squibb line, which just added a wheat whiskey for the very first time to its Remus Bourbon brand.
<img src="https://directus-11-4sui.onrender.com/assets/7f44a86c-9474-4953-9744-45bffb67e634.jpg?width=1200&amp;height=675" alt="Remus 2026 Experimental Image 2"> 
The whiskey in question is the second release in the Remus Master Distiller Experimental Series, which is spearheaded by master distiller Ian Stirsman. The first expression arrived last year in the form of a nine-year-old bourbon aged in Seguin Moreau barrels. That company mostly makes French oak casks for aging wine and cognac, but in this case they made American oak barrels that were seasoned for 24 months, toasted, and lightly charred. As mentiond before, this new release is a wheat whiskey, the first to be bottled under the Remus brand.
This isn&rsquo;t your standard 51 percent wheat whiskey (or thereabouts), however; instead it&rsquo;s modeled after MGP&rsquo;s rye recipe with 95 percent wheat in the mashbill. It was distilled in 2017, bottled at a high 113 proof, and finished in a combination of casks&mdash;tawny port, white port, ruby port, and Oloroso sherry. The result is a really flavorful and complex whiskey that is really unlike anything else you have probably tried from MGP or Remus. There are rich fruit notes that veer to the sweeter side of the flavor spectrum but step back from the precipice, along with flavors of roasted almond, dark chocolate, and vanilla custard. Overall, this is a much more interesting release than the first, and really lives up to the "experimental" part in the series&rsquo; name. This might not be your go-to Tuesday night pour, but it&rsquo;s certainly an interesting creation that is worth trying.
<h3 dir="ltr">Unicorn Wine Pick of the Week</h3>
Dispatch From the Concours Mondial de Bruxelles 2026 in&nbsp;Ciro, Calabria, Italy
I had the privilege of judging wines for the ros&eacute; portion of Concours Mondiale de Bruxelles this year on the southern end of Italy, surrounded by Mediterranean waters during weather that makes a warm place feel cold. We&rsquo;re in Calabria, a wine region with a 3,000-year history, where vines stretch from wind-carved hilltops to within yards of the sea. Much of it is given to ros&eacute; wine, which makes this an ideal place to explore.
<img src="https://directus-11-4sui.onrender.com/assets/7454b76c-bb72-4ea4-a295-fb002b61869f.jpg?width=1200&amp;height=675" alt="Wine Comp">
The Concours Mondiale is one of the oldest and largest wine competitions in Europe. You&rsquo;ve probably come across the little medallion sticker on imported bottles in wine shops&mdash;aside from critics, it&rsquo;s one of the more time-tested ways that wineries market their wares.
Just the ros&eacute; portion alone in 2026 encompasses more than 1,200 wines from 32 countries. (Judging for whites, reds, sparkling, and sticky wines each have their own weekend later in the year.) The judges, too, are an international lot. I&rsquo;m one of just three Americans; the rest come from Britain and the E.U., as you&rsquo;d expect, but also Africa, China, and even South Korea are represented. My tasting table included judges from Italy, France, Spain, and Hungary. It seemed like we shouldn&rsquo;t agree on anything.
That&rsquo;s not exactly true; quality finds its adherents, no matter where it comes from and no matter who&rsquo;s judging. We tasted wines from eight countries this morning; the next two days will bring more sources. While I can&rsquo;t tell you who won (at least not now&mdash;I&rsquo;m not supposed to scoop the competition), I can tell you that one of our favorites was a rosado from Baja Mexico, which surprised the hell out of all of us.
We&rsquo;re looking to find wines that fulfill the charm offensive that ros&eacute; is known for&mdash;its yum factor, for sure, but also its facility with food, a thing that was proven at our luncheon an hour after tastings concluded. When I can reveal&nbsp; more of the results, I will. In the meantime, I urge you to stock up on spring pink wines from any number of Mediterranean locales, whether that&rsquo;s Provence, Greece, Spain, or even Calabria, Italy.

The Week in Wine and Whiskey: March 27

Rare are the homebars of the 21st century that are equipped with a brandy warmer. The sideways snifter propped above a flickering tea candle feels more like a vestige from some old Alfred Hitchcock picture, slowly warming the spirit to release volatile aromatics. Overall, brandy is often thought of as a stodgy spirit these days, with just a few select strongholds keeping its legacy alive. But, as grape-based spirits struggle to gain traction with new consumers, it is the perfect moment for the category to reinvent itself.
Brandy&rsquo;s plight has been particularly acute in recent years. According to data from IWSR, the global leader for beverage alcohol data and insights, the compound annual growth rate for brandy in the US from 2022 to 2024 was -7 percent, worse than any other spirit category during the same period. Just this January, <a href="https://www.lvmh.com/en/publications/solid-performance-in-a-disrupted-global-economic-and-geopolitical-environment">LVMH reported</a> that cognac sales in the U.S. and China in particular were weighing down the company&rsquo;s declining revenue. While the traditional centers of brandy production lag, now is the time for new regions to court international consumers with intriguing grape spirits that satisfy both wine and whiskey lovers equally.&nbsp;
<h3 dir="ltr">Brandy for the Wine Lovers</h3>
Brandy follows in the footsteps of wine, and, like wine, brandy relies on both varietal and environmental factors to determine its expression of flavor. Some of the most exciting brandies out there are speaking the oenophile&rsquo;s language of terroir, drawing on unique selection of varietals, high altitude growing, and windswept vineyards to create distinct spirits.&nbsp;
It should come as no surprise that some of the most ancient wine producing regions of the world craft legacy brandies. Georgia, which has produced wine for around 8,000 years, has enjoyed a recent resurgence in the international popularity of its wine. Brandy may follow suit.The country&rsquo;s oldest brandy house, which once sold to the Russian Czar and was later run by the Soviet Union, was only reprivatized and reintroduced to the world in the last two decades. Through all of this, <a href="https://www.sarajishvili.com/home">Sarajishvili</a> has been making brandy aged in oak since 1884.&nbsp;
What&rsquo;s most exciting about Sarajishvili&rsquo;s brandies, beyond its oak-mellowed, balanced-but-sharp VSOP, is that the house relies heavily on some of the beloved native grape varietals of Georgia. Local grapes like Chinuri, Goruli Mtsvane, Tsitska, and Tsolikouri offer distillers advantageous high acidity, a common trait in any good brandy grape. As the wine world warms up to vintages and indigenous varietals from the Caucasus region, esteemed brandy houses like Sarajishvili should become better known.&nbsp;
We then turn to South Africa&rsquo;s domination of Chenin Blanc. Here, too, we find a brandy connection. While Chenin Blanc, locally called Steen, grows well on the windy vineyards of the Cape, it was historically used as an input of the local brandy industry. Along with Colombard, South African winegrowers favored Chenin Blanc as a suitable base for the country&rsquo;s once booming brandy industry. Some of South Africa&rsquo;s signature wines owe their existence to brandy.
Narina Cloete, head winemaker at <a href="https://www.blaauwklippen.com/?srsltid=AfmBOorag4N1j4gOcYfjlH23HESjGKQ7qVxtnEqrpDmiohMyagdRQCwH">Blaauwklippen</a>, explained: &ldquo;Brandy is a big part of the South African wine and spirits history. As Blaauwklippen is the oldest wine farm in Stellenbosch, it is a must for somebody that values great brandy, history, and tradition.&rdquo; She pointed to two varietals, Colombard and Chenin Blanc, as being essential.&ldquo;They are the workhorses of South Africa&rsquo;s white grape varieties and make excellent base wines for our brandies,&rdquo; she said. While the vineyard is known for their red wines, Blaauwklippen also pot distills the iconic white grapes and ages the eau-de-vie for 10 years.&nbsp;
Further off the beaten path is a rising star in the category&mdash;Singani, Bolivia&rsquo;s unique, high-altitude brandy made from Muscat of Alexandria grapes. Unlike the oak-aged expressions of Georgia and South Africa, Bolivians tend to drink their Singani as a clear spirit, often in a chuflay, a highball made with ginger ale and citrus. This common usage bolsters the relevance of brandy as a cocktail spirit.&nbsp;
&ldquo;We are lucky that Singani is as versatile as it is, simply by nature,&rdquo; said <a href="https://singani63.com/">Singani 63</a> CEO Richard Scully, &ldquo;Many bars and restaurants showcase their creativity by pushing Singani to new limits. We see this in the excitement of early adopters&mdash;they share their enthusiasm, encouraging new experimentation, and the creativity continues. Singani&rsquo;s distinctiveness makes it stand out like a new color in a box of crayons, offering an original experience to cocktail culture.&rdquo;&nbsp;
The most distinct part of Singani production? The grapes must grow in vineyards at least 5,250 feet above sea level. The spirit is light, bright, sharp&mdash;just like the dizzying altitudes of the Andes.
In Eastern Europe, the Balkans are also home to a deep distilling tradition. But the most intriguing offerings from this region ultimately push the oenological envelope&mdash;they are made from plums instead of grapes. While you might be hard pressed to find a Serbian wine at your local shop, imported rakija offers a different essence of fruit. Serbian brandies, in particular, treat plums just as winemakers treat grapes. Brands like <a href="https://starasokolova.com/?lang=en">Stara Sokolova</a> distill spirits only from the trnovača variety, while <a href="https://yebiga.com/">Yebiga</a> opts for the čačanska rodna fruit. If you&rsquo;ve memorized all your grape varietals, it might be time to sip some Balkan brandies and brush up on your plums.&nbsp;
<h3 dir="ltr">Brandy for the Whiskey Lovers</h3>
If talk of varietals and terroir is not enticing enough, brandy has the dual-appeal of being an aged spirit. From time-honored cognacs matured in French oak to newer brands relying on used bourbon barrels, brandy is a spirit that can be very appealing to whiskey lovers.&nbsp;
Take, for example, Asbach Uralt, a German brandy that has a variety of aged expressions at different price points. The legacy distillery on the right bank of the Rhine looks to cognac as a model and exclusively uses Limousin oak from south-central France to age its spirits.&nbsp;
In America, Louisville distillery <a href="https://copperandkings.com/">Copper &amp; Kings</a> is vying to reclaim brandy&rsquo;s story as a heritage American spirit by relying on bourbon barrels for maturation. &ldquo;If I told you that for every three bottles of bourbon sold in America, there is one bottle of brandy sold, it would be hard to believe,&rdquo; said Rob Bourdon, owner and CEO of Copper &amp; Kings American Brandy Company.
His distillery buys Muscat, Chenin Blanc, and Colombard grapes from California, but the rest of the process, from fermentation to distillation and aging, is rooted in Kentucky&rsquo;s bourbon tradition. From custom fabricated copper pot stills to aging in ex-bourbon barrels, Copper &amp; Kings keeps pace with their corn-fed counterparts, although there are differences.&ldquo;We have a cellar downstairs and we control our aging environment,&rdquo; said Bourdon. &ldquo;We don&rsquo;t have that rough and tough aging environment that bourbon goes through; brandy is a softer spirit.&rdquo;&nbsp;
It&rsquo;s not that there is no brandy-making tradition in the U.S.&mdash;on the contrary, Bourdon wants to reclaim that history. &ldquo;We have this rich American heritage with brandy, and if you asked someone on the street, they wouldn&rsquo;t know that,&rdquo; he said. But when we look at the domestic brands that dominate the category, they are selling at lower price points and gathering dust on the bottom shelf. The largest brands, like Gallo&rsquo;s E. &amp; J., Sazerac&rsquo;s Paul Masson, Heaven Hill&rsquo;s Christian Brothers, and Korbel, all hail from the vineyards of California.&nbsp;
It makes sense that America&rsquo;s brandy heartland would be where over 80 percent of its grapes are grown, but these brands aren&rsquo;t necessarily trying to capture the attention of new consumers. Instead, excitement is drawn to brands like Copper &amp; Kings that are adding a new small-batch, craft spirit twist to the category.&nbsp;
In farflung countries, distillers are approaching the brandy category with a newfound vigor (even if they follow a centuries-old tradition.) &ldquo;Drinkers around the world are self educating like never before and seeking fun, new and authentic experiences,&rdquo; said Singani 63&rsquo;s Scully, &ldquo;The category of grape spirits is vast and exciting.&rdquo;&nbsp;
Even as brandy struggles at the macro level, there is a silver lining coming from regions that have not always been part of the discussion. Cognac may feel a bit dated and stuffy to some, but Georgian brandy has the apricot zing of a newfound treasure, South African brandy breathes with the southeasterly winds of the Atlantic, and Kentucky is adding some Southern char and sweetness to California grapes. If you look around, it&rsquo;s easy to see that the current doldrums in the brandy industry could be setting the stage for some exciting new waves to come.&nbsp;

Why Brandy Has Become a Global Spirit That Appeals to Both Wine and Whiskey Drinkers

There aren&rsquo;t many sommeliers in California who can claim that they learned formative professional lessons at dining tables in Paris and Lyons. But that&rsquo;s where Sarah Clarke, wine director at Republique in Los Angeles, got her introduction to fine wine.
Her father was an executive for a French pharma company, so she traveled there often in her late teens and early twenties. That meant visiting gastronomic icons like Brasserie Lipp, Le Coupole, and others. And that&rsquo;s also where she had her first &ldquo;meaningful&rdquo; sip of Champagne. &ldquo;At the time, La Coupole was serving a flute of Champagne with a little strawberry wedge on the side,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;It just looked so elegant and ladylike, and I loved how it made me feel. Pretty soon I started loving what was actually in the glass.&rdquo;
After attending the Culinary institute in Hyde Park, NY, she ended up in Los Angeles, where she did stints at some of the finest restaurants with the city&rsquo;s top chefs. Those included Joachim Splichal at the Patina Group, Jos&eacute; Andr&eacute;s at the Bazaar and Saam, Mark Peel at Campanile, Nancy Silverton in the Mozzaplex, Antico Nuovo, and Chef Walter Manzke at Republique, where she&rsquo;s been since 2021.
Through it all, she&rsquo;s navigated a restaurant downturn, a myriad of dietary fads, a scandal or two, a pandemic, and the peripatetic twists and turns of every beverage whim Angelenos can throw at her.
Republique is the place to do it. It is the closest thing the city has to an omnibus eating experience in Los Angeles right now. This is a place to pop in for a casual coffee and baked good, a delicious casual lunch, or a fine dining experience that rivals any in Southern California. Eating here can be as mellow as a bite at the bar or as complex as a prix fixe extravaganza complete with intricate wine pairings. Clarke&rsquo;s list, now at about 1,800 SKUs, can keep up.
That&rsquo;s partly because Chef Walter Manzke had opened two other restaurants just out of the pandemic and neither could be sustained, so Clarke took on extra wine inventory from both. But the real reason is that Republique is a wine destination, a place for people in search of game-changing wine experiences, from basic to almost unattainable. Also, said Clarke, she&rsquo;s striving to keep with Manzke&rsquo;s intricate, wildly creative menu stride for stride.
&ldquo;We fleshed out certain categories that are essential for pairing,&rdquo; said Clarke, &ldquo;that maybe aren&rsquo;t something people buy every day, like Rieslings and Champagne. But we&rsquo;re pretty fortunate, you know, we sell a lot of those too. Chef Walter still does lots of tasting menus; I can use all of it for pairing.&rdquo;
Clarke comes to Republique after several seminal wine program directors preceded her in the position, many of whom are stars in the wine firmament here, like Taylor Parsons, Maria Garcia, and Sam Rethmeier. All three of these had a love for French and German wine that was unparalleled. Italian was represented as well, but Clarke, with her tenures at Antico Nuovo and especially the Mozzaplex, was given free rein to flesh out selections from the Boot.
She&rsquo;s slowly winning over her boss, a dyed-in-the-wool Francophile. &ldquo;He gets to try lots of incredible Burgundy all the time,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;When I ask him, &lsquo;Do you want to try some great white Burgundy, Chef?&rsquo; He's like, &lsquo;Is that even a question?&rsquo; I'm like, &lsquo;Good point.&rsquo;&rdquo;
But she&rsquo;s found that he loves Barolo and Barbaresco, and he&rsquo;s warming to Brunello. &ldquo;I haven't quite taken him on the whole tour through Friuli or Campagna, but we&rsquo;re getting there,&rdquo; she said. She also snuck a couple of Sicilian wines into his glass. &ldquo;A nice minerally Italian white wine can be really useful when the menu items involve squid or octopus or things like that.&rdquo;
Below are a few of the rarities and additions Sarah Clarke has brought to the Republique wine program. &ldquo;Nearly everything I&rsquo;ve brought on is from a smaller house,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;where the sense of soul is more palpable. It's not just everything is perfect and fancy, but you get a grasp of what the winery is, what the winemaker&rsquo;s intentions, and their commitment.&rdquo;
<h3 dir="ltr">2021 Brezza Barolo Castellero, from the MGA of Barolo ($160)</h3>
Right now we&rsquo;re pouring the&nbsp; 2021 Brezza Castellero Barolo by the glass. I love Enzo Brezza. I've stayed at his place many times, and have had many meals with him. He's such a sweet man.
He makes a number of single vineyard Barolos. There&rsquo;s one called Sarmassa, and it&rsquo;s probably a better wine, more long lived anyway. But I love the finesse and the beauty of Castelero. It's so enticing, it&rsquo;s everything you want in a Barolo. It's got scents of rose and tar and everything that you expect, but in this one there's almost a little bit of purple flower, like lavender and things like that that just make it so pretty. There's definitely tannin, but it's not like huge, grippy Monforte tannin, or a young Cannubi. And, you know, good Nebbiolo always has that beautiful sultry aroma. I think partly that&rsquo;s why they go so well with truffles. I love that wine to pieces.
<h3 dir="ltr">2020 Franzen Bremmer Calmont Riesling, Mosel, Germany ($150)</h3>
I don't know how unusual you're going to consider this, but I think it's very interesting. The 2020 Franzen Bremmer Calmont comes from the steepest vineyard&hellip; in Europe, for sure, maybe anywhere. They actually have to rappel down the hill to get to the grapes. Every year there are accidents during harvest, people falling.
I got it initially just because I thought that sounded so extreme, and so I was like, &ldquo;I want the wine from the steepest hillside in all of Europe.&rdquo; Plus, it&rsquo;s Riesling from the Mosel. Why not? But when I got to tasting it, it has a really beautiful richness, not just minerality that you expect. That one&rsquo;s extremely unique, and kind of a special wine to me.
<h3 dir="ltr">2020 Borgo del Tiglio Friulano Ronco delle Chiesa Friuli ($210)</h3>
I love Friulano. I think it's a really special grape. I love how it has that beautiful upfront floral quality, and then the little bit of bitterness on the finish. It works so well with food, especially if you're eating something rich. This wine is so versatile, from a fourth generation family who isolated this singular, more aromatic version of the Friulano grape. It&rsquo;s like a skeleton key for so many dishes.
Most people have never heard of Friulano, but they love this pairing. I absolutely love being there the moment you see the light switch on, the joy on someone else's face, when the wine clicks. That's my favorite thing.

The Hidden Gems on My Wine List: Republique's Sarah Clarke

When Trey Zoeller started working in the liquor business in the 1990s, he was surprised to find that, outside of his home state of Kentucky, nobody wanted bourbon. &ldquo;Everybody drank bourbon here and I never thought about it&mdash;I assumed they drank bourbon everywhere,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Then I moved to a half dozen different places around the country and nobody was drinking it.&rdquo;
Why, then, did he decide to start a bourbon business in 1999, a year when bourbon sales were, to put it bluntly, in the toilet?
For one thing, he could get good bourbon cheaply. There were just eight distilleries operating in Kentucky, replete with well-aged barrels from the so-called glut era of the 1980s, but &ldquo;we could buy from anyone,&rdquo; Zoeller recalled. He also believed that bourbon had the potential to achieve the same high prices that scotch and Irish whiskeys were starting to command.
&ldquo;Ignorance is bliss,&rdquo; he laughed. &ldquo;There wasn't a high-end [bourbon] market or consumer at the time, but I had confidence that what was out there, some of the great old barrels, were superior to things that were being bottled&mdash;and that there's always room at the top. Maybe that was a little bit before our time because we couldn't give it away in the beginning.&rdquo;&nbsp;
Sales were so poor in the early days that Zoeller had to diversify, so he shilled energy drinks, fortified water, and even a Chardonnay called Pinque. Those products outsold Jefferson&rsquo;s for years, helping to sustain Zoeller&rsquo;s faith that, eventually, whiskey drinkers would come around. &ldquo;I should have concentrated more effort on those products than bourbon, because it wasn't paying the bills at the time,&rdquo; he said.
Eventually his passion project paid off. Early bottlings of Jefferson&rsquo;s Presidential Select, originally priced at $100 and containing Stitzel-Weller bourbon, now command thousands of dollars at auction. Though his initial supply of glut-era barrels has long since been exhausted, Zoeller has been shrewd about laying down new make on contract and buying whiskey from different distilleries, all with an eye toward finishing and blending. It&rsquo;s this post-distillation process that defines Jefferson&rsquo;s rather than what happens in the stillhouse.
Over the years, Zoeller hasn&rsquo;t shied away from aggressive barrel finishes, and he&rsquo;s made waves&mdash;literally&mdash;with products like Jefferson&rsquo;s Ocean, a bourbon aged onboard active container ships that some commentators in the past have dismissed as a gimmick. The brand now has a deep bench of everyday whiskeys, as well as a luxury offering in Marian McClain, a five-bourbon blend named for an early American distiller and ancestor of Zoeller. As part of the Castle Brands portfolio, Jefferson&rsquo;s was acquired by Pernod Ricard in 2019. The company is building a distillery in Lebanon, Kentucky that Zoeller says should come on line sometime later this year.&nbsp;
Many in Zoeller&rsquo;s position would have retired at this point, but he&rsquo;s still full of energy and ideas&mdash;and looking at potentially bringing his children, twins who recently turned 21, into the business in the future. Even with bourbon&rsquo;s 21st-century momentum starting to slow, he sees plenty of opportunity ahead. The Unicorn Review sat down with Zoeller to talk about the bourbon community, the roots of his experimental philosophy, and more&mdash;including an as-yet-unreleased collaboration with an A-list rock star.&nbsp;
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
The Unicorn Review: There are a number of whiskey blenders making a good name for themselves nowadays, but that wasn&rsquo;t the case when you got started. Did you consciously avoid talking about blending?&nbsp;
Trey Zoeller: We didn't beat our chest about it, that's for sure, because you're exactly right: blending was bad. It was a dirty word. People associated it with blended scotch whisky, blended Canadian whiskies. What we were doing was blending Kentucky straight bourbon whiskeys&mdash; great products all the way around&mdash;and just trying to put them together to make them better than they were. We started doing it way before most had even thought about it. If there were other distilleries doing it, they weren't talking about it.&nbsp;
Now people are putting more weight and more credit into blending. I think there's a real art to it. It's the hardest product. We&rsquo;ve done 30 expressions, and we've got four blended products now. Those are the ones that are still the most difficult to put together because there's one way to do it&mdash;that's by taste.&nbsp;
You told me once that distilling is not what&rsquo;s interesting to you. It&rsquo;s maturation and what you can do with the whiskey afterwards. Where does that philosophy come from?
When I started, 99% of bourbon was made in Kentucky. If you look at the history, then you understand why they distill and age the way they do, which is all borne out of practicality. So I looked at it as: if you threw practicality out the door, what could you do to enhance bourbon the most?
So Marian McLain, my eighth-generation grandmother, was arrested for not paying taxes. After the Revolutionary War, George Washington had to pay for the war, so he instituted the whiskey tax. A lot of the distillers [from the East] went over the Appalachian Mountains and started distilling in this region. To get the whiskey back to where there were people, they put it in barrels for the first time. They floated it down the river system and then shipped it around Florida, back up to where there were people.&nbsp;
I recreated that [journey] 10, 12 years ago, and the whiskey that we distilled and sent on that voyage was unbelievable. It was as dark as the 16-year-old bourbon that we double-barreled for five years. Completely complex, so much more rounded than the same whiskey distilled on the same day and aged in Kentucky.&nbsp;
Then the railroad made its way down to Kentucky and you could ship barrels of whiskey up to New York in two weeks. Two-week-old whiskey sucks. So what did they do? They built warehouses right next to the distillery, built them high rather than wide, and aged it year over year over year to catch up to what happened on that voyage.&nbsp;
I looked at it and said, what changed on that voyage? It was environment and agitation. If you change the environment and agitation, you can drastically change the outcome of the whiskey. So I started experimenting in those different routes and that really opened up to what I could do.&nbsp;
Jefferson&rsquo;s Ocean is tremendously impacted by its sea voyage, but I still see people casually dismissing it as a gimmick. They don&rsquo;t understand what&rsquo;s happening to the barrel when it gets loaded onto a ship. What do you say to the haters?
It's really interesting that they dismiss that, but they buy into Warehouse J or Warehouse G [as influencing flavor in specific ways due to their location]. You've been to Kentucky&mdash;no microclimates here. It's either blanketed in heat and humidity or it's cold as shit. So is there really a difference between one warehouse and another? Maybe so&mdash;if so, slightly.&nbsp;
But let's say you take a barrel out of that warehouse and you put it on a ship and it's rocking back and forth and you take it down to the Tasmanian Sea and all the way up to the North Sea and cross the equator. If you can't [believe] that that matures bourbon in a different way than it would from one warehouse to another, then you've lost the ability to rationalize.
Your early Presidential Select bottles were $100 at time of release. Now they&rsquo;re selling for thousands at auction. Did you ever expect that?
We had a hard time selling for a hundred bucks. I would&rsquo;ve held a lot more of it back if I knew that was going to be the case. I was just happy to sell what we had.&nbsp;
Most people would say it was a perfect storm of things coming together that finally made bourbon take off, from the economy to Mad Men to cocktail culture. If you ask me, this [holds up phone] is what it was.&nbsp;
Once people could geek out together and to form a community together, that's when bourbon really started to take off. But at the time, the collectability of bourbon wasn't a thing. Nobody anticipated any of that&mdash;I certainly didn't. It's the community of bourbon that has made it proliferate so much, which is such a great, cool thing about it.
Have you ever seen people trying to sell fake Jefferson&rsquo;s, refilled bottles or something like that?
I've seen empty bottles for sale on the internet, so I can only assume.&nbsp;
When I first got into the industry, and I'm talking 1997, I remember being with a distributor in Nashville and seeing people recork wine bottles. It totally blew my mind. I couldn't believe that was going on, and it was going on in the open in front of a number of people. I'd be naive to think it doesn't happen.&nbsp;
I've seen bottles that we've only sold overseas end up in the U.S. I assume that's how they got there, but I'm not positive. So I think unfortunately it happens, but I guess that's just a sign of the success of the category or the brand. When we started doing some releases and seeing how many people were lined up there knowing that 50% of them were buying it only to flip it&mdash;you hate to see that, but it's indicative of the success of the category.&nbsp;
You&rsquo;ve been at this for almost 30 years. In the next 30 years, do you think bourbon can establish itself internationally as a whiskey that&rsquo;s as well known and respected as scotch?
Absolutely. When I first went to the first WhiskyFest in New York [in the late 1990s], us bourbon companies were pushed in the corner. We were the redheaded stepchild. Nobody was there to talk bourbon. It was all about scotch.&nbsp;
It's an education process. I don't think that we have properly pushed bourbon out into the world with as much emphasis as we should. In my mind, it's all about prestige and status that bourbon has not done a good enough job establishing. So I think absolutely it can be and will be more and more accepted. If you go to South America and Asia, scotch is king just as it was here in the &lsquo;90s. There will be a time and a place that shift happens, and it will happen rapidly like it did here. When that happens, I don't know.&nbsp;
Do you ever lose track of your experiments?
We&rsquo;re much better at [keeping track] now that we&rsquo;re part of Pernod Ricard. That said, I've got a number of experiments that I would love to bring to market. It's just how you can only bring so much to market at a time. We've got some unbelievable products that we've done in very small amounts that I would now like to do in commercial bottlings. That&rsquo;s one of the fights that I have with the bigger company all the time. I want to put these out and they're like, hold on, let's have a more planned out release for them and space it out a little bit more.
In 2019, you told me you were shipping bourbon over to <a href="https://tenutailpalagio.com/">Il Palagio</a>, Sting&rsquo;s wine estate in Tuscany. What happened with that?
It wasn&rsquo;t enough for a commercial release. That&rsquo;s one of those products I&rsquo;d love to come out with. It&rsquo;s got all the right components: different climate, a building to age it, which is perfect. We do have one obstacle to overcome, which was the legality of what we were doing. How to get it there. I&rsquo;ve got to figure that out.&nbsp;

After Three Decades in Bourbon, Trey Zoeller Is Still Experimenting

Arizona is a Southwestern state known for its varied topography, flora, and fauna, stretching from arid deserts to snowcapped mountains. It's not necessarily known as a prolific wine-producing region in the eyes of many people, but the fact is that there is a long history of viticulture here. Similar in temperature and geography to Spain and Southern France, it should really come as no surprise that the state&rsquo;s winemakers aren&rsquo;t only succeeding&mdash;they are in fact thriving.
There are now approximately 150 wineries in the state across three different regions, a number that has doubled over the past decade. Arizona&rsquo;s intense climate has become its biggest viticultural strength instead of a hindrance. Most of the vineyards are set at high elevations (4,000 to 5,000 feet is common), resulting in some of the most dramatic diurnal temperature shifts in the country. Vintners have used intelligent irrigation strategies to mitigate water scarcity, like capturing the moisture from summer monsoons, and have planted grapes that respond well to the intense sunshine.&nbsp;
The extensive growing season contributes to whites with balanced acidity, such as Viognier, Malvasia Bianca, and Chardonnay, and full-bodied reds that pack a punch made with robust&nbsp; varieties like Syrah, Mourvedre, Tempranillo, and Grenache.
<h3 dir="ltr">The History of Arizona Wine</h3>
There are reports of winegrowing in the Arizona territory as far back as the 16th century, when Spanish missionaries settled in the area&rsquo;s southern regions. By the late 19th century, the territory of Arizona had a burgeoning wine industry, supplying settlers in the Phoenix area and Central Arizona. In particular, the Verde Valley was singled out for its potential to support vineyards after Henry Schuerman founded a successful winery in Oak Creek in the 1880s.&nbsp;
Arizona was on track to become a substantial player in the American wine industry, but Prohibition brought that upward trajectory to a sudden stop. The state&rsquo;s viticulture was left in the dust for almost 70 years, until soil scientist Dr. Gordon Dutt planted experimental grapes in 1972. He recognized the potential in Southeastern Arizona, not far from where the Spanish had planted vineyards hundreds of years before, and created the state&rsquo;s first modern commercial wine vineyard, Vina Sonoita.&nbsp;
<h3 dir="ltr">The Three AVAs</h3>
Arizona&rsquo;s three regions are at high elevation, meaning there are significant diurnal temperature swings&mdash;90 degree days are not uncommon, while the temperature can dip into the low &lsquo;50s by nightfall. However, the regional similarities end there.&nbsp;
Sonoita, usually referred to as Sonoita/Elgin, is just a couple of hours south of Phoenix. This was Arizona&rsquo;s first AVA, getting its official designation in 1984. Nestled between four different mountain ranges at an elevation of 5,000 feet, Sonoita has an arid, hilly landscape with soils that are an alluvial mix of limestone and volcanic fragments. Wild grasses mix with flowering Red Yuccas and endless blue skies here, and Arizona&rsquo;s famous sunsets are particularly spectacular set against the vineyards.&nbsp;
A little over an hour northeast of Sonoita is Willcox, Arizona&rsquo;s second AVA established in 2016. The town of Willcox is historic, with several 19th century buildings and museums marking its Old West past. Tasting rooms now occupy the historic brick buildings across from the old Railroad Park, which once housed mercantile centers. Willcox is home to the majority of Arizona&rsquo;s vineyards, a broad basin composed of loamy soils set at approximately 4,500 feet. Miles of flat, scrubby desert landscape extend towards the distant Chiricahua mountains, where nights bring endless stretches of stars.&nbsp;
A couple of hours north of Phoenix in Central Arizona is the Verde Valley AVA, the most recent of the three that was established in 2021. This is high country where Fremont cottonwood trees and Arizona sycamores sway in the wind, with vineyards set at around 3,800 feet. The area is named after the Verde River, so the sedimentary deposits found here are unsurprising. But the soils also contain volcanic remnants. Most visitors don&rsquo;t realize that nearby Hackberry Mountain and House Mountain are just two of hundreds of volcanoes&mdash;most but not all extinct&mdash;that cover Central and Northern Arizona. Look for a heavy basaltic influence here, and clay derived from volcanic ash as well as limestone.
<h3 dir="ltr">The Arizona Wine Community</h3>
&ldquo;Generosity of spirit is the first thing that comes to mind,&rdquo; said Arizona vintner and noted wine writer Pavle Milic about the local community. &ldquo;When my wife and I first moved to Sonoita and Elgin, everyone offered counsel, advice, and a helping hand.&rdquo; It&rsquo;s a theme often repeated&mdash;fellow winemakers are here to help because there is a belief that a rising tide raises all ships. Not only that, but they all face the same unique struggles. &ldquo;When you add in the challenges like spring frosts, hail, monsoon rains, or javelinas (wild creatures from the pig family who are perfectly content to eat grape leaves and wreck irrigation lines), it just makes that spirit even more impressive,&rdquo; said Christina Barrueta, contributing editor to The Somm Journal. &ldquo;Winemakers here experiment, they adapt, they persevere, and they do it while supporting and looking out for each other.&rdquo;
There are dozens of worthy wineries all across the state, but start with these Arizona producers that are worth cellaring (that is, unless you choose to drink them now).
Caduceus Cellars + Merkin Vineyards
Known outside of winery circles as the frontman for the progressive metal bands Tool and Puscifer, Maynard James Keenan has spent decades as one of the biggest and most visible advocates for Arizona wines. Keenan owns vineyards across the state, with several in the Verde Valley, which he championed tirelessly to become an AVA. Guests can go to the Merkin Vineyards Trattoria in Cottonwood or a tasting room in the funky town of Jerome to experience what Keenan has been crafting since 2004.&nbsp;
Keenan has two separate labels, Caduceus and Merkin, focused on Spanish and Italian wines. Merkin has more blends, like the Shinola collection that features grapes from the Al Buhl Memorial Vineyard near Willcox and includes Sangiovese, Barbera, and Montepulciano. Caduceus leans more towards single-vineyard grapes. These are powerful, structured wines, so don&rsquo;t be shy about holding them back for a few years. The wait will be worth it.
Los Milics Vineyards
As a restaurateur, magazine columnist, and podcaster, Pavle Milic has spent years educating the locals about the bounty of wines outside their front door. Working the front of the house in California kitchens helped fuse the idea of weaving local wines and food together. Upon returning to Arizona, he and chef Charleen Badman opened Scottsdale&rsquo;s FnB in 2009, focusing on local ingredients and an Arizona-only wine program. In 2014, he created Los Milics, a wine collaboration with Dos Cabezas, before finally planting vineyards of his own in 2018 in Sonoita with partner Mo Garfinkle.&nbsp;
Los Milics specializes in Mediterranean varieties like Syrah, Grenache, and Vermentino. But it also dabbles in more tannic varieties like Tannat, Teroldego, and Vranac for a blend Milic calls Mo&rsquo;s. &ldquo;Three behemoths,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;that will need at least a couple of years to hit their stride and allow the tannins to soften.&rdquo;
Callaghan Vineyards
If there&rsquo;s a godfather of Arizona wines, there&rsquo;s a case to be made that Elgin&rsquo;s Kent Callaghan fits the bill. &ldquo;Kent is a stalwart of Arizona juice, a true north star,&rdquo; said Milic. Established in 1990, Callaghan Vineyards has been leading the charge for cultivating grapes in the state&rsquo;s challenging environment, a pursuit born out of trial and error. They found success with varieties like Petit Verdot, Grenache, and Graciano. And by 1992, Callaghan was crafting wine with fruit grown on the estate.&nbsp;
The honors arrived soon after with wins at Missouri&rsquo;s Jefferson Cup Invitational and the San Francisco Chronicle Competition, where last year their 2022 Aglianico took home gold. Their wines have been served at the White House on four different occasions. The winery remains one of the state&rsquo;s standard-bearers. &ldquo;The Estate Graciano and Tannat are particularly age-worthy,&rdquo; wrote Barrueta.
Dos Cabezas WineWorks
Say the names &ldquo;Todd and Kelly&rdquo; in local Arizona wine circles and everyone knows who you&rsquo;re referring to, no last name needed (though, for reference, it&rsquo;s Bostock). Todd joined as winemaker for Al Buhl&rsquo;s Dos Cabezas in 2002. And in 2006, the Bostocks took over the winery and relocated to Sonoita, planting two high-elevation vineyards to varieties that include Tempranillo, Mourv&egrave;dre, and Syrah. They&rsquo;ve also never been afraid to try new things, making sparkling wines, blends inspired by the Rhone Valley and Spanish wines, and co-ferments. They were also the first Arizona winery to produce canned wines, and run the best pizzeria in southern Arizona.
Todd and Kelly have been recognized nationally, including as Winemakers to Watch by the San Francisco Chronicle, and their wines have also been served at the White House. Perhaps what&rsquo;s more impressive is the recognition they receive from heavy hitters in their own backyard. &ldquo;Back in May of last year,&rdquo; said Milic, &ldquo;we hosted a winemaker dinner where Todd wanted to demonstrate how Malvasia Bianca ages. He poured a 2021 that had aromatically morphed from its usual tropical notes into something more savory&mdash;almost spearmint-driven&mdash;and decidedly serious in tone. It was a beautiful reminder that Arizona whites, when given the chance, can evolve in compelling and unexpected ways.&rdquo;

Why Arizona Should Be Your Next Wine Destination

Wine has always been a part of Nikita Malhotra&rsquo;s life. Born in New York to immigrant parents, Malhotra&rsquo;s family had a rather unique relationship with alcohol. Her great-grandfather was a scotch importer with the British Raj in India, which led her family to embrace the convivial nature of eating and drinking early on. &ldquo;My family was always very open&mdash;even my great-grandmother would ask for a nip of whisky whenever she was sick,&rdquo; she laughed.&nbsp;
Malhotra&rsquo;s father, who had a construction company in India&mdash;along with a bio-physics degree&mdash;sold his company and moved to Cleveland for a lab job, though his dreams of owning something in America held firm. &ldquo;The opportunity to purchase an existing business in New York presented itself, so he grabbed at the chance,&rdquo; she said, and he ended up opening a wine and spirits store on New York&rsquo;s Upper East Side. Using his base knowledge of spirits, Malhotra&rsquo;s father eventually became a self-taught wine connoisseur, taking every opportunity possible to taste and learn&mdash;which eventually trickled down to Malhotra herself.
&ldquo;By the time I was in my teens, my parents were pouring me glasses of wine and teaching me very basic things; wine had become such a big part of their lives,&rdquo; she recalled, adding that a bottle was always present on her family&rsquo;s dinner table. She studied philosophy, but then pivoted to the hospitality industry. After completing wine courses and various gigs, Malhotra eventually became a sommelier at Tribeca Grill, followed by a stint as wine director at Momofuku Ko. However, she craved the opportunity to expand her knowledge. &ldquo;​​I wanted to go back to being a student,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I love being a mentor, but I think to be a good mentor, you have to acknowledge that there's also more to learn.&rdquo;&nbsp;
Enter Pressoir, the wine experience-focused company behind La Paul&eacute;e, La Tabl&eacute;e, and La F&ecirc;te du Champagne. Malhotra joined the Pressoir team as head sommelier in 2023 and never looked back. Here, she&rsquo;s been able to greatly expand her knowledge of&mdash;and taste thousands of bottles from&mdash;Champagne, Burgundy, and the Rh&ocirc;ne Valley. Eventually, the hospitality bug pulled her back in. In conjunction with her role at Pressoir, Malhotra opened Smithereens, a New England-inspired, seafood-focused restaurant in the East Village, with her business partner, Nick Tamburo. At Smithereens, Malhotra keeps her list tight, but purposefully so. &ldquo;I always knew it would be a small wine program because of the space constraints, but that was exciting for me,&rdquo; she said, describing the restaurant&rsquo;s list as her personal playground.&nbsp;
In addition to the regular list, Malhotra incorporates a rotating theme, which changes every three to four months. Past themes have focused solely on Grenache, Champagne, and other specific regions/varieties. The end goal is to simply open her guests&rsquo; minds to new things. &ldquo;I want to have a wine program that maybe in some ways gets people to think and engage,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s what&rsquo;s leading the vision at Smithereens.&rdquo;&nbsp;
Below are few of Malhotra&rsquo;s current favorites (edited for clarity and concision):
<h3 dir="ltr">Champagne Etienne Calsac 2021 Avize Grand Cru &lsquo;Clos des Maladries'&nbsp;</h3>
I've enjoyed watching Etienne Calsac grow and progress through the years, and I have had the pleasure of visiting him and hanging out with him and his wife in Los Angeles (I have a great video of [them] singing and dancing). We have the 'Clos des Maladries' Grand Cru Avize 2021 on our list. The label features the illustration of a doctor during the Plague, a reference to the name of the vineyards. &lsquo;Maladries&rsquo; is a term that comes from the Middle Ages, and the fruit here comes from vines that Etienne's grandfather planted in the &lsquo;70s.
<h3 dir="ltr">Lukas Hammelmann 2023 Pfalz 'Z' Zeikam Aus der Dorfen Chardonnay&nbsp;</h3>
Lukas Hammelmann captured my staff's attention when he came in to dine last year, and his Chardonnays have me believing the many promises people have been claiming about German expressions of the grape. At Smithereens, we can't help but champion German wine. I'm glad to report it is not just me that is aligned on this, as the whole staff fully supports our German producers! We have Hammelmann's Chardonnay 'Z' 2023, a the village-level bottling (the &lsquo;Z&rsquo; stands for Lukas&rsquo; hometown village of Zeiksam on loess and sandstone soils). This bottling is delicious. As with most German wine, be it Riesling, Syvaner, or even Chardonnay, there is a sense of energy that is expected, and this delivers.&nbsp;
<h3 dir="ltr">Domaine Mie Ikeno 2022 Yamanashi &lsquo;Moonlight Harvest&rsquo; Chardonnay&nbsp;</h3>
Mie Ikeno is considered one of the great winemakers in Japan, so of course I am excited to have any of her wines on the list. However, I am especially excited to have the 'Moonlight Harvest' Chardonnay 2022. As the name implies, the team harvests at night for this bottling. Most of us get into wine because it provides us the opportunity to be life-long students, and I certainly get that chance with wine from Japan, and her story of giving up her journalism career to go learn how to make wine in France reinforces the idea that we are constantly learning in the wine world.
<h3 dir="ltr">Perkins-Harter 2024 Eola-Amity Hills Bracken Vineyard Pinot Meunier&nbsp;</h3>
Shelby is a force, and her wines communicate a bit of that personality. I always love sharing her bottles with guests, and her Pinot Meunier offers such a great way to discuss the cool climate in Bracken Vineyard in the Eola-Amity Hills. The wine is vivacious, balanced, and fun&mdash;and for a seafood restaurant, it is the type of red wine that meets any challenge a dish may present.
<h3 dir="ltr">Quinta dos Pesos 1994 Carcavelos Vinho Generoso Fortified Wine (500ml)</h3>
We like to feature a couple of fortified wines at Smithereens, as an ode to how New Englanders drank many years ago in taverns [with] secret toasts against the British. The wines of Quinta dos Pesos present us with the almost lost wines of Carcavelos, Portugal&rsquo;s smallest appellation, located just west of Lisbon. With the passing of Manoel de Boullosa in 2005, operations ceased and there is almost no production left in this region. We usually have a couple of vintages to pour, and at present we have the 1994.&nbsp;

The Hidden Gems on My Wine List: Smithereens' Nikita Malhotra

Like many bourbons, <a href="https://www.unicornauctions.com/auction/b5fb34e4-e911-4684-bf11-96a1cdef4ebd/lot/93ca45eb-0688-473d-b8e1-b1a079808808" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Old Fitzgerald</a> has a long and rather winding history. Originally created in 1870, the brand found its post-Prohibition home at Stitzel-Weller, where it landed in the hands of none other than Pappy Van Winkle himself. It was Pappy who changed the recipe to feature wheat, rather than rye, as the secondary grain. By 1999, Old Fitzgerald was acquired by Heaven Hill, where it languished as a relatively low-end label and even disappeared for a few years.&nbsp;
Then in 2018, Heaven Hill relaunched the brand as a semiannual, bottled-in-bond release, with an age statement that varied from batch to batch. Packaged in an elegant, decanter-style bottle, the new <a href="https://www.unicornauctions.com/auction/b5fb34e4-e911-4684-bf11-96a1cdef4ebd/lot/5310277e-882e-479b-9e64-6921d6a9e311" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Old Fitz</a> became very popular among bourbon drinkers eager for a well-aged wheater, but reluctant to spend big bucks on the likes of Van Winkle or <a href="https://www.unicornauctions.com/auction/b5fb34e4-e911-4684-bf11-96a1cdef4ebd/lot/6e09032d-bb13-4bad-8029-07bc4c2675de" target="_blank" rel="noopener">William Larue Weller</a>. The oldest release so far, at 19 years old, was the Fall 2022 edition, though younger offerings&mdash;notably the 8-year-old from Spring 2021&mdash;meet all the same standards of quality and flavor.&nbsp;
Building on the success of the decanter series, Heaven Hill introduced a permanent expression in 2025. Old Fitzgerald 7 Year Old is bottled-in-bond like the other expressions, but it has a consistent age statement, it's packaged in a less ornate bottle, and it's priced to sell at $60. Like its elder siblings, the whiskey has a mashbill of 68% corn, 20% wheat, and 12% malted barley. As an everyday pour, it&rsquo;s hard to beat&mdash;warm and sweetly bready, with a lush texture and deep but balanced oak.&nbsp;
Across the lineup, Old Fitzgerald gets top marks for consistency, and the decanter lineup is chock-full of standouts. Even when it&rsquo;s constrained by the limitations of the bottled-in-bond designation, which dictates that all barrels must come from a single distilling season, finding exceptional whiskey is easy for Heaven Hill because it has so much to choose from. The company&rsquo;s Louisville distillery is capable of producing 400,000 barrels a year, and the recently opened Bardstown plant adds another 150,000 annual barrels to that capacity.
But there&rsquo;s much to explore beyond Old Fitz. As both wheaters and bonded bourbons have exploded in popularity, excellent options abound, many of them still well under the radar. Keep reading for five of our favorites.
<h3 dir="ltr">Wilderness Trail Wheated Bourbon</h3>
One of Kentucky&rsquo;s newer distilleries, Wilderness Trail, set itself apart from the get-go by using sweet mash, meaning its fermentations forego the traditional setback and always start with fresh yeast. The process creates a more consistent spirit, according to the distillery team, with a softer mouthfeel&mdash;especially with a mashbill of 64% corn, 24% wheat, and 12% malted barley that emphasizes herbaceous mint and coffee bean notes. After debuting at about four and half years old in 2018, this bourbon&mdash;always bottled-in-bond&mdash;has increased in age and varied in proof.&nbsp; 
<h3 dir="ltr">Bardstown Bourbon Company Bottled-in-Bond</h3>
Using the same 68-20-12 mashbill as Old Fitzgerald, the house wheater of Bardstown Bourbon Co. features Kentucky-grown corn and wheat. It&rsquo;s aged for six years, although it tastes older than that, with a brooding earthiness offset by roasted nuts and Concord grapes. The Bardstown lineup underwent a packaging redesign recently&mdash;this one has the black label that prominently announces its bottled-in-bond status.
<h3 dir="ltr">Holladay Soft Red Wheat</h3>
Another bonded 6-year-old, this bourbon comes from Missouri rather than Kentucky. It&rsquo;s made from a mashbill of 73% Missouri corn, 15% soft red winter wheat, and 12% malted barley. The specific type of wheat isn&rsquo;t just for kicks&mdash;its lower protein levels yield a softer (some might even say smoother) spirit that only gets more nuanced with time in the barrel. In this case, Holladay has crafted a bourbon with mature herbal notes juxtaposed with caramel sweetness and black pepper.&nbsp;
<h3 dir="ltr">Rebel 10-Year-Old</h3>
Offered as a single barrel release, this bourbon isn&rsquo;t bottled-in-bond, but still comes in at 100 proof like its bonded peers. The brand is owned by Lux Row, which was acquired by MGP in 2021, but the whiskey itself was contract-distilled elsewhere in Kentucky. The familiar mashbill of 68% corn, 20% wheat, and 12% malted barley should give you a clue as to its origins&mdash;and its quality.&nbsp;
<h3 dir="ltr">Larceny Barrel Proof</h3>
Call this the Old Fitz booster pack. It comes from the same distillery and is made using the same mashbill, but punches through with a more powerful proof&mdash;anywhere from 111 to 126, or sometimes even higher. It&rsquo;s aged 6 to 8 years, right in line with Old Fitzgerald&rsquo;s core whiskey, and released in batches three times a year. Check the label code, which begins with A, B, or C, to determine when it was bottled&mdash;the first number corresponds to the month, the second two to the year. LBP has many of Old Fitzgerald&rsquo;s familiar flavors, but overall is weightier, more viscous, and more muscular, the kind of whiskey that&rsquo;s both an arm wrestle and a bear hug.

the Unicorn Review

What to Drink Next If You Love Booker’s

Bourbon

What to Drink Next If You Love Booker’s

What to Drink

The Hidden Gems on My Wine List: Ci Siamo’s Sylvester Inda

Week in Wine & Whiskey

The Week in Wine and Whiskey: March 27

Cognac

Why Brandy Has Become a Global Spirit That Appeals to Both Wine and Whiskey Drinkers

Wine

The Hidden Gems on My Wine List: Republique's Sarah Clarke

Bourbon

After Three Decades in Bourbon, Trey Zoeller Is Still Experimenting

Where To Go

Why Arizona Should Be Your Next Wine Destination

Wine

The Hidden Gems on My Wine List: Smithereens' Nikita Malhotra

What to Drink

What to Drink Next If You Love Old Fitzgerald Bottled-in-Bond

No matter what you’re looking for, Unicorn is the place to find it.

Buy

Sell

Vault

The modern platform
for spirits & wine

Take unicorn with you

The modern platform
for spirits & wine

the Unicorn Review

What to Drink Next If You Love Booker’s

Bourbon

What to Drink Next If You Love Booker’s

What to Drink

The Hidden Gems on My Wine List: Ci Siamo’s Sylvester Inda

Week in Wine & Whiskey

The Week in Wine and Whiskey: March 27

Cognac

Why Brandy Has Become a Global Spirit That Appeals to Both Wine and Whiskey Drinkers

Wine

The Hidden Gems on My Wine List: Republique's Sarah Clarke

Bourbon

After Three Decades in Bourbon, Trey Zoeller Is Still Experimenting

Where To Go

Why Arizona Should Be Your Next Wine Destination

Wine

The Hidden Gems on My Wine List: Smithereens' Nikita Malhotra

What to Drink

What to Drink Next If You Love Old Fitzgerald Bottled-in-Bond

No matter what you’re looking for, Unicorn is the place to find it.

Buy

Sell

Vault

The modern platformfor spirits & wine

Take unicorn with you

The modern platformfor spirits & wine

Extended Bidding

What is Extended Bidding and how does it work?

Congrats!

The modern platform
for spirits & wine

The modern platform
for spirits & wine