Tuesday’s Cut opens with the most straightforward premium access event of the summer. Michter’s confirmed this morning that Fort Nelson Distillery at 801 West Main Street in Louisville will open walk-up sales for the
Monday’s Cut opens with the value move that resets the premium bourbon shelf. Heaven Hill confirmed the Elijah Craig 18-Year Straight Bourbon at $89.99 this week — the brand’s first formal 18-year age statement,
Franklin maps out the allocation calendar for the week ahead, starting with Wild Turkey Master’s Keep Triumph 2026 — 17 years, 116.4 proof, 11,400 bottles nationally — closing its window Monday, June 15. BTAC 2026 lotteries are live in Virginia and Ohio, with Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Michigan portals expected soon. The feature this week is the Four Roses Limited Edition Small Batch 2026: buyers are committing on proof data alone — 108.2, the highest the series has run since 2019 — before master distiller Brent Elliott reveals the recipe on July 8. It’s a look at what trust in a distiller actually costs.
Franklin walks through a week where the common thread was access — who gets the bottle, how, and on whose terms. BTAC lottery portals opened free of charge in Virginia and Ohio, a federal label clearance for E.H. Taylor Old Warehouse “C” gave specialty retailers a quiet window, and Wild Turkey’s Master’s Keep Triumph started drawing secondary quotes before most buyers had heard of it. The week’s standout story comes from Hye, Texas: Garrison Brothers released what the Texas Whiskey Association is calling the first Bottled-in-Bond bourbon in Texas craft distillery history — the same 129-year-old law, doing real work in a rickhouse where summer runs past 105 degrees and the angel’s share runs twice what Kentucky surrenders. Franklin closes with what’s still reachable this weekend.
Friday’s Cut arrives with National Bourbon Day two days out and the annual community one-bottle debate anchored to two specific available-today releases for the first time in recent memory. Larceny Barrel Proof A926 confirmed
Thursday’s Cut opens with the most urgent active spread in the bourbon market: Wild Turkey Master’s Keep Triumph 2026 sits at $199.99 through June 15 while secondary pre-sale is already quoting $280 to $320.
Wednesday’s Cut opens with the cleanest Father’s Day bourbon gift map in recent memory — three confirmed MSRPs at three price points, each backed by real production specs and a hard shipping deadline before
Tuesday’s Cut opens with federal label news most buyers won’t see for two to four weeks — and that gap is exactly when the notification list is at its shortest. The TTB confirmed E.H.
Monday’s Cut opens with the only bourbon window where the entry is free and the upside is George T. Stagg at $129. The Buffalo Trace Antique Collection 2026 lottery portals activated over the weekend
Franklin sets the table for the week ahead on this Sunday look-ahead edition of The Cut Weekend. The Wild Turkey Master’s Keep Triumph window closes June 15 — seventeen years old, 116.4 proof, around eleven thousand bottles nationally at $199.99 — so a retailer call this week is worth making. The bigger story is the 2026 Pappy Van Winkle lottery calendar coming into view: Ohio’s OHLQ opens July 22, Virginia ABC on July 28, with Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Mississippi following in the weeks after. Franklin explains how state lotteries work, why they’re worth entering, and which dates to put somewhere you’ll actually see them.
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