What’s happening in wine and whiskey this week:

This Week’s Unicorn Review Stories

🍷 Is Arizona on your radar as a notable wine region? If not, Asonta Benetti makes the case for why you should consider wine from this southwestern state.

🥃 Three decades into his career, Jefferson’s Bourbon founder Trey Zoeller is still experimenting, and has a lot to say about American whiskey.

New Bottle Releases

New Riff Silver Grove Bourbon and Rye ($60)

At six years old, these are the oldest expressions in New Riff’s Silver Grove lineup to date. The bourbon is bottled at 116.4 proof and made from a mashbill of 65% corn, 30% rye and 5% malted barley; the rye is bottled at bottled at 115 proof and made from a mashbill of 95% rye and 5% malted rye. Proceeds from the sales of these whiskeys goes to benefit the Silver Grove Community Foundation.

Kavalan LÁN Single Malt Whisky ($80)

Taiwanese distillery Kavalan makes some truly fantastic single malt. This new release is a blend of whiskies aged in port, bourbon, and STR wine casks (shaved, toasted, recharred), bottled at 43 percent ABV. That has given it notes of sweet fruit, jasmine, orange, and cinnamon, making this another notable world whisky in this rapidly growing category.

Unicorn Whiskey Pick of the Week

Oban 15 Year Old Port Cask Finish

Last year, one of the best single malt scotch whiskies came from Oban, the small coastal distillery owned by Diageo that is often outshined by its much better known counterparts like Lagavulin and Talisker. That whisky was the 15 Year Old Cask Strength Sherry Cask Finish, a 55.3 percent ABV single malt that stood out in a crowded field of many new releases. This year, Oban has returned with another new cask-finished expression, and it’s also one worth seeking out: Oban 15 Port Cask Finish.

As you can tell by the name, this whisky is different from last year's release because it is finished in port instead of sherry casks—specifically, it spent 15 years in American oak hogsheads and then was given a secondary maturation in American oak ruby port casks from Portugal, and bottled at 52.1 percent ABV. This is the second in this series of 15-year-old whiskies, so presumably there will be more coming down the line.

The whisky at hand is perhaps not quite on the level of last year's sherry cask finish, but if you consider it as a standalone release it’s certainly in the conversation about noteworthy new scotch whiskies to try. The exact amount of time it spent finishing in port casks is not revealed, but it's likely less than a year based on the information provided. That has imbued it with rich and syrupy fruit notes, as well as vanilla, maple, black pepper, honey, and baking spice flavors. And the higher proof than normal goes a long way here, leaving some lingering heat on your tongue as it fades.

Oban often talks about the maritime influence on its whisky that comes from the distillery's proximity to the sea, and you may or may not pick that up here (I found the port influence to obscure that for the most part). Regardless, the distillery is a key member of the Diageo portfolio that has put another excellent new whisky into the world, and it's one that is well worth seeking out.

Unicorn Wine Pick of the Week

Cadre 2024 San Luis Obispo Coast Band of Stones Gruner Veltliner ($30)

There have been a number of stabs at growing and making Gruner Veltliner in the U.S. since the late ‘80s, when Austria pulled off its minor putsch on the American market. Talk about anything but Chardonnay. Gruner was fresh and verdant, full of energy and somehow weightless in lighter, federspiel bottlings, more weighty and full-bodied in smaragd styles. It didn’t taste like oak, it didn’t taste like fruit salad, it was its own racy self.

Not surprisingly American winegrowers set down some gruner vines, and did what they could to capture that bolt of green lightning, with plantings in the Finger Lakes, Oregon, and parts of coastal California. Most seemed a little wan, too pale or too one-dimensional to approximate Austrian versions.

In the mid-2000s, John Niven took a portion of his family’s pioneering vineyard Paragon in the Central Coast’s Edna Valley and planted cool climate whites, including Albarino, Gruner, and Sauvignon Blanc, to found Cadre. The vines are nearing 20 years of age, and the wines are really showing some character, none more than the 2024 Cadre Gruner Band of Stones.

This comes mostly from older vines at Paragon, a relentlessly cool site not five miles from the Pacific. It’s aged in steel, and malo is suppressed. Its scent is spot on—green pea shoots and salted citrus, a hint of ground pepper, and a  tropical fruit base, like papaya. Made at a federspiel level of richness, this wine is structured to be bright and racy, less fat, more sun. The acidity and saline tang reminds you of its coastal character and proximity to the sea. Grab a bottle and head to the beach.