moment
Chasing the Unicorn
The American Whiskey Industry Brief every weekday, and the podcast that talks it through. For the buyer who wants to be informed, not advertised to.
You’re in the store, in front of the bottle everyone is talking about.
The ad is beautiful and the hype is everywhere. So you figure it must be good, and you take it home.
That was me for years. I listened to the hype, chased the bottle, and bought whatever had the best advertising. What changed was wanting to know more: how it was made, why it was made that way, and which decisions changed it along the way. Once I understood that, I could make my own call.
My background is marketing and data analytics, so I knew both sides of that shelf. If I understood the marketing and had the data, I could see past one to the other. Two years ago I started gathering that data and talking it through on the Chasing the Unicorn podcast.
Then I stepped away from the mic to build the whole thing out and take the industry apart piece by piece. This spring it became the American Whiskey Industry Brief. It’s industry news, but read every weekday it becomes something more: a picture of how American whiskey changes, day to day, week to week and month to month. Now it’s my focus and my passion, shared so other people can buy informed instead of advertised to. The podcast is becoming a weekly conversation alongside it.
The unicorn isn’t the rare bottle. It’s the pour that speaks to you.
Every problem, the right choice.
You know whose words are whose.
Most coverage blends a reviewer’s notes, a brand’s claims and the writer’s opinion into one voice. The Brief credits every source and owns every verdict, so you can always tell which is which.
Coverage that answers to you.
When a brand pays for placement, the reader stops being the customer. The Brief is free to read, and no distillery, retailer or marketplace pays for coverage, placement or a verdict.
A record of what was true that morning.
Prices move and allocations close. Each issue stays as it was published, and corrections are made openly, so the archive is a real record you can trust.
Out every weekday.
Start from the reader.
Most whiskey coverage starts with the bottle someone wants you to buy. The Brief starts with the reader and what they’d need to know to make their own call. It’s the same habit behind everything I make.
Buy informed, not advertised to.