Handy Spot Warsaw Hunt Video

Monday's video you need to see: We just dropped the Hunt Warsaw Handy Spot, and if you know our hunt series, you know these are consistently our best viewed content — this is where we actually find the good stuff. Go watch it.

Coming This Week

• Tuesday: Marcella takes on Pappy Van Winkle 12 Year for "Try It Until She Likes It"
• Wednesday: Booker's Milkshake goes head-to-head with Little Book Chapter 10
• Thursday: Fort Wayne Bourbon Fest next set of Distilleries
• Friday: Russell's 13 vs Wild Turkey Gold Foil. Crazy blind.

What are we pouring?

We've had a stretch of genuinely great single barrel picks come through lately, and a few are still available if you want in.

ZBar Pick's still available — email me for details:

• Larceny 9 Yr — Only 15 bottles left and then sold out.
• Green River Wheated
• Bardstown Wheated
• Larrikin 9 Yr
• 1792 Full Proof

Just reply to this email if you want to be pointed toward one — happy to help you track a bottle down.

Also worth a watch: Last week we reviewed Old Grand-Dad 114 Single Barrel 7 Year — if you missed it, it's a great one to catch up on before you go hunting for a bottle yourself.

Honest take on the industry

You've probably seen the headlines: MGP's adjusted EBITDA fell 51% compared to last year, and RNDC — the country's former #2 alcohol distributor — just filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Both are real, both are serious, and both are getting the doom-and-gloom "bourbon bubble is bursting" treatment online.

Here's my take: this isn't a bubble bursting. It's a rightsizing.

The industry way overproduced through the boom years, the economy's softer, and people are spending less on alcohol across the board — not just bourbon. What we're seeing is inventory working its way back to normal, distributors that overextended getting squeezed, and the market correcting. That's different from demand disappearing. MGP's own leadership is basically saying the same thing — they're calling it a "gradual rationalization," not a collapse. I think that's the right read.