Proof of Life: The NOM Father Always Wins

Welcome to another pour of Proof of Life—your weekly reminder that bourbon news doesn't have to suck (and neither does your inbox).

This edition? It's loaded. We’re floating ideas for a bourbon-fueled Colorado getaway, unpacking industry drama (spoiler: distributors are still the worst), and spotlighting everything from a tequila truth-teller getting raided to a bottle auction honoring a bear more beloved than most politicians. There’s even an ice cream worth breaking your summer diet over.

We’ve also opened the vault—this edition is available to everyone for a limited time, including access to our past newsletters. If you enjoy what you read, do us a solid and share it with your bourbon-loving friends. Let’s grow the Drinking Class the right way—one pour, one post, and one laugh at a time.

Now let’s get into it.

HELP US SCOUT A COLORADO TAKEOVER

We’re kicking around the idea of hosting a Bourbon & Banter community trip to Colorado this August, and we want to know—who’s in?

The itinerary is still coming together, but here’s the rough idea:

✈️ Thursday Night: Fly into Denver and checking into our hotels.

🚌 Friday: Bus ride to Breckenridge for a VIP distillery tour, lunch at Breckenridge Brewing, an exclusive blending lab experience, and dinner back at the distillery with potential surprise VIP guests. Then it’s back to Denver for the night.

🥃 Saturday: Private barrel session at Laws Whiskey House with Al Laws himself—yes, you'll be drilling barrels and sipping straight from the source. (Pops and Steve Coomes have done it and can confirm: it’s worth the trip.) Followed by lunch and a visit to another top distillery—we’re currently chatting with Leopold Brothers to round things out.

🍽️ Sunday: Fly home.

If this sounds like your kind of weekend—good whiskey, great people, and zero tourist traps—we’d love to hear from you. This would be a paid trip (covering travel, food, lodging, and experiences), so we need to know who’d seriously consider making the trek before we lock it in.

👉 Interested? Curious? Ready to pack a Glencairn in your carry-on? Answer the poll question below. We'll use the feedback to modify and finalize the trip if there are enough bourbon fans ready to climb a few mountains (and crack a few barrels).

If you can't see the poll above, click here to submit your input.

BOOZE BIZ BUZZ

The Devil Wears Distribution Rights

In the three-tier booze circus, distributors remain the unchallenged ringmasters, flexing their power while small suppliers are left juggling flaming bottles of cash flow and broken promises. The law forces retailers to pay wholesalers on time (30 days or less in many states), but shocker—no such rule exists requiring wholesalers to pay suppliers in return. Some small producers are waiting six months or more to get paid, with no legal recourse.

Meanwhile, state regulators shrug and say, “Hey, we just enforce the rules—we didn’t write this lopsided mess.” And that mess? It’s got franchise laws protecting wholesalers from big suppliers, but not a damn thing shielding small brands from getting stiffed.

So what happens when a supplier gets ghosted? They either eat the loss, settle for pennies on the dollar, or lawyer up—assuming they’ve got the money, time, or bourbon left to bother.

The fix? Easy: if wholesalers get guaranteed payment terms, so should suppliers. It's basic booze karma.

🥃📋 SIP REP: The middle tier isn’t just bloated—they’re basically the boss hogs of the booze business, cashing checks while small brands pray for payment. If justice is blind, then the three-tier system handed her a cocktail and sent her home early. Fix the damn imbalance—or at least let the little guys bring a lawyer and a Louisville Slugger to the contract table.

Buffalo Trace Flood Recovery: Progress, Pours & Pop-Up Shops

One week after floodwaters surged through Buffalo Trace, cleanup crews have made serious headway—over 75% of debris and damage has been cleared, power’s back on in key areas, and bottling lines are humming again inside Blanton’s Bottling Hall and the main bottling facility.

• Tours are still paused, but as of April 14, visitors with prior reservations can enjoy a limited retail experience at the Freehouse pop-up, complete with select bottles and complimentary outdoor tastings.
• Walk-ups and full tours remain off the table for now, but more reservation slots may open soon on a first-come, first-served basis.
• The team plans to roll out community relief efforts in the weeks ahead. In the meantime, you can donate to the Franklin County Flood Relief Fund here.

🥃📋 SIP REP: It’s good to see Buffalo Trace bounce back so quickly—credit to the crews, contractors, and probably a few prayer circles. But if you were hoping for a casual stroll and a Weller pour this weekend, you’re gonna need a reservation, a backup plan, and maybe some rain boots just in case.

Graeter’s Bourbon Ball Ice Cream Review

I saved the bourbon for last because even with everything else being so incredible with this ice cream, Graeter’s has achieved what is often very difficult and what another whiskey ice cream on the market failed at (you know the one…)

BOURBON & BANTERHank Bourbon

Bernheim Barrel Proof Review A225: The Wheat Bomb Returns

I keep harping on the Bernheim Barrel Proof A release from 2024, but it really did stand out to me in a short-lived series that, while consistently good, hasn’t produced many very memorable expressions. This latest release, however, is nipping at its heels.

BOURBON & BANTERDrew Beard

New Maker’s Mark Wheat Whisky is groundbreaking in many ways

There have been several terrific entries to the category over the last few years, some of which we’ve reviewed. But this one’s a standout: lush in aroma and texture and fruit-centric like middle-age rye whiskies.

BOURBON & BANTERSteve Coomes

Review: High West Noble Share’s Bold Amburana Finish

This one definitely won’t be for everybody, so I highly recommend you test drive it at a well-stocked watering hole first.

BOURBON & BANTERDrew Beard

Is Booze the New Tobacco or Just Having a Midlife Crisis?

Beverage alcohol is still nursing a multi-year hangover, and the question circling the industry like a fruit fly over spilled Fireball is: Is this a temporary slump—or are we heading for a full-blown lifestyle breakup with booze?

According to new survey data from Numerator, the answer is... mostly cyclical, but with some structural baggage. In other words, people aren’t dumping alcohol because of Ozempic or weed—they’re broke, busy, or on a diet.

• Volume’s down across beer, wine, and spirits—YTD alcohol is the worst-performing major category in tracked retail, down 4.5%.
• Top reasons for drinking less? Price hikes (23%), economic anxiety (15%), and lighter paychecks (9%).
• Structural stuff like new diets (13%) and shifting to non-alc drinks (9%) are creeping in, but weed (2%) and GLP-1s (3%) barely register.

So no, the bourbon apocalypse isn’t here yet—but if the industry keeps pretending this is just a “Dry January” thing, it's in for a rough decade.

🥃📋 SIP REP: Let’s be real—bourbon isn’t going down because of semaglutide. It’s down because the price of everything is up, and people are trimming their luxuries, not their waistlines. But if we don’t stop acting like this is just a blip, we’ll be the next Blockbuster Video with better drinkware.

Additive-Free Tequila Gets Raided, Silenced, and Possibly Cartel’d

Turns out if you try to tell the truth about what's in your tequila, you might get a visit from the feds. That’s what happened to Grover Sanschagrin and the Additive Free Alliance (AFA), who dared to shine a light on which brands don’t pump their juice full of vanilla flavoring, glycerin, and mystery sweeteners. Their crime? Creating a grassroots, non-profit certification program the Mexican government didn’t authorize—which really upset the big brands, their buddies in government, and maybe a few folks who’d rather you not ask too many questions.

After refusing to roll over, Grover and his team got hit with cease-and-desist letters, brands were threatened, the CRT axed its own additive-free label, and in a truly suspicious turn, Grover’s house was raided and marked as a “crime scene.” Now they’re living in exile, and small additive-free brands are slapping stickers over their labels and hoping their shipments still clear customs.

• Fact: A bottle labeled “100% agave” can legally contain up to 1% additives—and no one has to tell you.
• Reality: Small brands are growing like crazy by telling the truth, while the big dogs are slashing prices and losing ground.
• Problem: The CRT, supposedly a neutral regulator, is largely funded by those same big brands.
• Excuse: The government says "additive-free" is “confusing to consumers.” (Translation: it's confusing to profits.)

Read more

🥃📋 SIP REP: Let’s call this what it is—regulatory protectionism dressed up in NOM codes and bureaucracy. When a couple of tequila nerds get raided for starting a truth-telling movement, you gotta wonder who’s really calling the shots—government officials or the cartels that don't like competition. Either way, the message is clear: speak up, and you might just get stickered, sued, or silenced. Welcome to the dark side of agave.

NEW RELEASES

Here are some new releases worth a look—shared for awareness, not endorsement. #DrinkCurious, but choose wisely. 🥃

Chicken Cock Revives Ryeteous Blonde for Summer Sipping

Chicken Cock Whiskey is bringing back Ryeteous Blonde—its fan-favorite rye finished in Goodwood Brewing Blonde Ale barrels—for a limited time starting May 1. Originally released in 2020, this summer-ready pour blends bold rye spice with malty beer sweetness, delivering notes of honey, biscuit, crisp apple, lemongrass, and toasted oak.

At 100 proof and priced at $69.99, this limited edition rye is part of their new #RyeteousSummer campaign, designed to celebrate bold adventures and backyard bottle sharing. Available at select retailers, Circa 1856 in Bardstown, and online (except in MI, SD, TN, and UT). More Info

🥃📋 SIP REP: Whiskey finished in beer barrels doesn’t always work—but this one? Might just be your summer MVP. Think of it as “Kentucky Spring Break in a Glencairn.” Get it before it disappears like your PTO.

Warbringer Big Cockerel Rides In—Unaged, Unfiltered, Unapologetic 🐔🔥

Scotch legend John Campbell (yes, that John Campbell from Laphroaig) shocked the whiskey world by heading to Sespe Creek Distillery in California last year—and now he’s doubled down on the unexpected with his first release: Warbringer Big Cockerel Aguardiente.

Forget aged and polished—this unaged beast is a nod to California’s original spirit, with deep roots in Gold Rush grit and Mexican tradition. Distilled from 60% mesquite-smoked corn, 15% fire-toasted corn, and 25% malted rye, it’s got more smoke than a campfire poker game and more attitude than a rooster on moonshine.

At 98 proof and $35, it’s a wild ride through toasted pumpkin seed, molé, flan, and mesquite chicken—yes, really. Grab a bottle if you'd like.

🥃📋 SIP REP: Look, we’re all for honoring history—but let’s call this what it likely is: a creative way to slap a cool backstory on what’s essentially a dressed-up white dog. Sure, the mash bill sounds tasty and John Campbell’s name adds some serious clout, but is there really a thirst for an Aguardiente revival, or is this just a clever rebrand to move young juice while more aged stuff sleeps? Either way, props for the swagger—and if the flavor lives up to the pitch, we’ll gladly eat our smoked flan-flavored words.

Long Live the Queen (of the Tetons) 🐻🥃🐾

Wyoming Whiskey is bringing back the buzz around Grizzly Bear #399 with a charity auction featuring the last bottle of Queen of the Tetons bourbon—bottle #399 itself. Starting April 22, this one-of-a-kind collector’s bottle will be auctioned off on BlockBar.com, with 100% of proceeds benefiting the Grand Teton National Park Foundation.

The winner will also receive a backup bottle to actually drink, plus a signed, framed print from legendary wildlife photographer Thomas Mangelsen, whose work helped make #399 a national icon.

Starting bid? $300. Raising awareness and funds for conservation? Priceless.

Join the action and bid yourself.

🥃📋 SIP REP: A bottle you won’t want to open, a bear that captured hearts, and a whiskey brand doing it right. Between the art, the pour, and the purpose—this one’s for the history books and the back bar.

📆 DATES TO REMEMBER

I suck at remembering dates. As such, I've developed a solid habit of putting things on my schedule as soon as I get the information. Let my lack of memory help you keep track of key dates related to booze.

Community Calendar Reminder 🗓️

Bookmark our community calendar so you're always in the know.

April's Group Therapy Session ⚕️- 4/29

Join your fellow Drinking Class members for our monthly group therapy session on April 29th at 7:30 pm CT. A Zoom link will be sent via email and Discord before the session date. Make sure you're subscribed to Service Announcements to receivew these updates.

Hard Truth Virtual Community Tasting – 5/20

Hard Truth Distilling will be the focus of our next community tasting on 5/20/25. 30 sample kits from the brand will be available for Drinking Class members to register for next week. Free Drinkers will be invited to register to attend (w/o sample kits) shortly thereafter.

West Fork Whiskey VIP + Private Barrel Pick - 6/6

Ready to drink like an insider? Join Pops, Brent, and fellow Bourbon & Banter Drinking Class members for a one-of-a-kind, behind-the-scenes experience at West Fork Whisky’s 35,000 sq. ft. whiskey wonderland. We’re getting a private VIP tour and picking a private barrel for the Bourbon & Banter Community. Email invites went out earlier this week to Drinking Class members to enter the lottery to join us for the barrel pick.

Hard Truth Distilling VIP Experience + Get Lost Tour - 6/7

We’re keeping the weekend rolling after the West Fork Whiskey barrel pick with a Saturday that’s all about whiskey, wide open spaces, and a little adventure. Together we'll head to Hard Truth Distilling for lunch, a behind the scenes VIP tour and an unforgettable afternoon exploring the 325 acre Hard Truth property via ATVs. Email invites went out earlier this week to Drinking Class members to register and secure their spot.

That’s it for this week’s pour of Proof of Life. If your glass is empty, we hope your curiosity isn’t.

As always, thanks for reading, sipping, and stirring the bourbon pot with us. If you liked what you saw, smash that thumbs up at the bottom of your email—it helps us know what’s working (and what’s just neat, not neat-neat).

And if you're not yet a member of the Drinking Class… well, you're missing out on first dibs for barrel picks, tastings, and the kind of behind-the-scenes bourbon content the influencers don’t want you to see. Just saying.

Until next week—
Stay curious. Stay honest. Stay hydrated (with whiskey).

—Pops

Chief Drinking Officer 🥃💼🧔🏻‍♂️