Two $79.99 Windows Close Tonight — Old Fitz BiB vs. ECBP C926

This is The Cut.

Soft caramel wheat, dried fig, and honey-oak warmth that settles in and stays — that's the profile inside tonight's closing window. Heaven Hill's Old Fitzgerald Bottled-in-Bond Fall 2026 closes pre-allocation at midnight. The last time you can access it at $79.99 MSRP is tonight.

I'm John from Chasing the Unicorn Podcast. Here's what we're going after today. June 4, 2026.

Here's where we want to end up. On the confirmed pre-allocation list for Old Fitzgerald Bottled-in-Bond Fall 2026 at $79.99 — Father's Day ship confirmed, one phone call, before the window closes at midnight.

Here's what makes it tricky. Most buyers don't know how Heaven Hill's specialty-account reserve system actually works. Accounts build their distributor orders based on committed buyers, not walk-in demand. When the pre-allocation closes tonight, those orders finalize. September walk-in is what's left — no price guarantee, and lower availability at the accounts that mattered most.

Here's the move. Call or email your specialty retailer today — before midnight — and ask specifically about Old Fitzgerald BiB Fall 2026 pre-allocation. Confirm Father's Day delivery when you commit. If you're not near a specialty account, Seelbach's handles this nationally. One call. That's the whole move.

The federal Bottled-in-Bond credential on this bottle guarantees four things. One distillery — Bernheim in Louisville. One distilling season — second half of 2021. A minimum of four years in a federally bonded warehouse, this one runs eight. And exactly 100 proof. The 1897 law that created the BiB standard was the first consumer protection legislation in American whiskey history, and every word on that label still answers to it.

The second concept: Heaven Hill runs a wheated mash bill here — corn, wheat, malted barley, no rye. Same grain family as Weller and Pappy at Buffalo Trace, with a federally documented production trail at a price those labels never touch. Breaking Bourbon scored the Spring 2026 release at 4.2 out of 5. Caramel wheat, dried fig, honey-oak depth — that's what a wheated mash bill does when it has eight years and a bonded warehouse to work in.

Tonight's window closes on two bottles simultaneously. The Chase has all three.

Elijah Craig Barrel Proof C926 is the one that matters most tonight. $79.99, 14.2-year average age, 130.4 proof — the highest-proof C-batch in the expression's history. Dense dark caramel, dried black cherry, baking chocolate through the mid-palate, a finish that runs well past two minutes. Early secondary is tracking $145 to $165 post-distribution. Tonight's MSRP is the only access price that exists before those numbers materialize. This is worth the chase.

Also on today's Chase: Old Fitzgerald Bottled-in-Bond Fall 2026 at $79.99 — Heaven Hill's wheated BiB at 100 proof, pre-allocation closing tonight at midnight right alongside the Elijah Craig. Nothing new above two hundred dollars this week — the top tier's quiet, and we'd rather say so than repeat a bottle. Full read is in today's Cut Daily on our website. Free.

A word of caution on choosing between two windows that close at the same time. Old Fitzgerald BiB and Elijah Craig Barrel Proof C926 are both $79.99, both tonight. You may only be able to commit to one. The price of being wrong on either is modest — the price of missing both is September walk-in at whatever the market decides. The rule of thumb: when two windows close at the same price, commit to the one you'd be most comfortable drinking if the secondary never materializes.

Today's full American Whiskey Industry Brief on Patreon has the Flight — Old Fitzgerald Bottled-in-Bond Fall 2026 against Larceny Barrel Proof A926, both closing tonight, same distillery at Bernheim, opposite proof architectures, and the verdict on which one earns the midnight call when you can only make one. Also in the Brief: George T. Stagg 2026's TTB confirmation at 134.4 proof — a new series record — and what that means for secondary floors on 2025 bottles and lottery participants waiting on July notifications in Ohio and Virginia.

That's The Cut. The full American Whiskey Industry Brief is at patreon.com/ChasingTheUnicornPodcast. I'm John Schuster. Thanks for joining me. Your unicorn is out there.