What’s happening in wine and whiskey this week:

This Week’s Unicorn Review Stories

🍷 Champagne gets all the glory, but Prosecco is the best-selling sparkling wine in the world. Here are some recommended bottles to drink now.

🥃 Instead of a “best of” list, we put together a list of some of the most interesting and unique spirits released in 2025, from tequila to rum to whiskey.

New Bottle Releases

New Riff Red Turkey Wheat Bourbon

New Riff re-released its Red Turkey Wheat Bourbon this fall, the first time in about four years. This is a wheated bourbon made with heirloom red turkey wheat varietal in the mashbill—the full breakdown is 70 percent corn, 25 percent red turkey wheat, and 5 percent malted barley. It was aged for a minimum of five years and is bottled in bond. 100 proof; SRP $60

The Glenlivet Eternal Collection, Second Edition, 56 Year Old

This ultra-aged single malt scotch from the Glenlivet came out in November in a run of just 60 bottles. After aging for more than five decades in a bourbon barrel, the whisky was put into a specially produced cask for a secondary finish that was seasoned with a blend of sherries—Oloroso, Pedro Ximenez, and Palo Cortado—and bottled in a specially designed decanter. 85.4 proof; SRP $61,500

Hatozaki Small Batch 15 Year Old Mizunara Cask Finish

This is the oldest age statement to date from this Japanese whisky brand, part of its Omakase collection. It’s a blend of whiskies that were initially aged for 12 years in new charred oak, and then finished for a final three years in mizunara casks assembled from trees harvested from the Hokkaido region of Japan. 92 proof; SRP $66

Unicorn Whiskey Pick of the Week

Cazcanes No. 7 Extra Anejo (80 proof; SRP $200)

This week we’re going to take a look at a tequila instead of a whiskey, and what a tequila this is. Cazcanes has been making waves over the past year, as more people are becoming familiar with this excellent brand. It recently made news when it was announced that former WhistlePig CEO, Jeff Kozak, was joining the brand as president, a move which very well may help accelerate its growth.

Cazcanes is produced at NOM 1614, where brands like Tres Agave and Matthew McConaughey’s Tequila Pantalones are also made. It’s an additive-free brand, even though it can’t really advertise as such anymore due to the regulations set forth by the CRT, and it is made using more traditional methods including slow cooking the agave in an autoclave (not exactly a stone oven, but still), fermentation with a proprietary yeast strain, and distilled in small pot stills.

There are a range of unaged expressions available, including Still Strength and High Proof versions of the blanco. These are great sipping tequilas, but the aged expressions are some of the best out there. The new Extra Anejo is fantastic, and it's a great option for whiskey drinkers looking to get into agave spirits. The minimum age to be called extra anejo is three years, but this tequila spent a bit longer than that in barrels previously used to age whiskey from distilleries like Jack Daniel’s, Jim Beam, and Four Roses. A little of the tequila in the blend was finished with French oak staves as well.

The result is superb. The agave character is not lost after this extensive aging, but it’s augmented by notes of oak, chocolate, vanilla custard, maple, honey, and some black pepper spice. If you’re looking for a rich and complex tequila to sip, or perhaps use in an Old Fashioned, definitely consider this bottle. 

Unicorn Wine Pick of the Week

2024 Troon Applegate Valley Druid’s Red Blend ($30)

For the New Year, I sought to come up with a wine that would act as a companion, a wine I would want around all year long, that would be happy-making through good times and rough patches. Usually three categories fit this bill for me: Cru-Beaujolais, with its serious charm; Chianti Classico, because of its versatility and rustic pleasure; and Côtes du Rhône, for its accessible, satisfying breadth and succulence.

Then I tasted one wine toward the end of the year that seemed to embody all these things. It’s a Rhône-inspired blend from Troon Vineyards called Druid’s Red.

Troon is in the Applegate Valley in Southern Oregon, a place that’s warmer than the Willamette Valley by and large, but cooler than most California appellations, with the heat units to ripen most Rhône varieties without difficulty. This blend of Syrah (25%), Cinsault (21%), Mourvedre (20%), Carignane (19%), and Grenache (15%) fits the bill.

Troon has been under the ownership of Dr. Bryan and Denise White since 2017, and they had the good fortune to hire Napa veteran Craig Camp to manage the property (Nate Wall makes the wine). Camp has systematically transformed the viticulture at the Troon Estate to Demeter-certified biodynamic and, in 2022, became Gold Label certified Regenerative Organic. The team’s commitment to the practices have completely transformed the property and the wines.

As this is a blend, it’s made for maximum flavor and impact. In addition to multiple varieties, the team uses multiple picks, fermenting lots, and vessels—both concrete and neutral barrels have given this wine an effortless balance in 2024. Charming in its dark fruit character (I detect maybe a bit of carbonic juiciness from the whole cluster lots) it leads with aromas of lavender, clove, sage, and dark berry fruit, with a Syrah-based smokiness that haunts the wine. The flavors are forward and generous, with plenty of acidity, the tannins fine and light. This is a wine I’ll want to have at my side all year long.