This week: I hope you’ve recovered from my last edition. I’ve got lots of great feedback on that! Also, to those who actually read some of my science papers and posters/abstracts… that’s insane! You’ve read them more then I have probably… Kidding, you ever edit a science paper? That haunts you. Literally trying to to pump out a few more of the next couple weeks. But here we are! In this latest issue, we dive into some fun topics. And this is all right before I head to San Francisco for Wind Up! Thanks John, for that. Seriously looking forward to the escape for some mental clarity. Well, lets get a move on! We can’t keep Godzilla waiting, can we!?

Also to note: One thing I got a lot of feedback was my references from my last edition. I will be adding this to all Newsletters going forward! Glad that was a good addition.

The American whiskey industry spent the last two decades convincing itself the party would never end. More distilleries. More barrels. More rickhouses stretching across the Kentucky hills. Production peaked in 2023 at 299 million proof gallons, up from 218 million in 2019.[1] The math eventually catches up with everyone.

It's catching up now. Kentucky is sitting on an all-time high of 16.1 million aging barrels of bourbon in its warehouses, most of which, by definition, can't be sold until they're ready. Distillers paid a $75 million tab in aging barrel taxes this year alone, a 27% increase from 2024 and a staggering 163% increase over the last five years.[2] Meanwhile, overall demand has softened. Consumers are spending more carefully. The extraordinary growth of the pandemic years was never going to last forever, and the hangover is real.

Then there are the tariffs, and here the story gets ugly. The trade war didn't just raise prices on Scotch coming in. It invited retaliation on bourbon going out. The European Commission announced plans to impose a 50% tariff on American whiskey[3], a figure that doesn't just dampen sales, it functionally walls off the market. The EU is the largest export destination for American whiskey, and a previous round of 25% retaliatory tariffs between 2018 and 2021 caused exports to plunge 20%, from $552 million down to $440 million.[4] A 50% rate would be far worse. Overall exports of American spirits fell 9% in the second quarter of 2025 compared to the same period the year prior.[2] Canada pulled US whiskey from shelves entirely for a stretch. Boycotts followed.

The industry's response has been blunt. Jim Beam announced it would stop distillation at its main Clermont, Kentucky facility for all of 2026, a plant that produces roughly a third of the company's annual output of approximately 26.5 million gallons. Brown-Forman cut 12% of its workforce at Jack Daniel's. MGP Ingredients trimmed production and refocused on its own brands. Several smaller names, including Garrard County Distilling and Uncle Nearest, were placed into receivership in 2025.[2]

The Goods: Speaking of good times to be a buyer: the 2026 World Whiskies Awards named New Riff Bottled-in-Bond Kentucky Straight Bourbon the World's Best Bourbon, and it retails for $40 with distribution in all 50 states.[5] For context, Eagle Rare 30 sold at auction this April for $12,500. The gap between what costs the most and what tastes the best has rarely been wider.

New Riff uses a mash of 65% corn, 30% rye, and 5% malted barley, aged a minimum of four years, bottled at 100 proof, and not chill-filtered.[5] It comes from an independently owned craft distillery in Newport, Kentucky. Not a conglomerate, not a legacy brand navigating a restructure. Just a well-made bottle at an honest price, beating the entire field. At a moment when the industry badly needs a story worth telling, this one delivers.

If you haven't tried it, there's no good excuse anymore.

Scotland's great Islay festival is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, and Diageo is marking the occasion properly. The Lagavulin 14-year-old Fèis Ìle 2026 has been matured in American oak ex-Oloroso sherry casks, bottled at 56.5% ABV, and priced at £240. There's also a Lagavulin 31-year-old, one of the oldest expressions the distillery has ever released. For Caol Ila fans, an 11-year-old finished in ex-Tequila casks from the Don Julio distillery in Mexico, bottled at 56.1% ABV and priced at £145. Both are available on distillery open days, first-come first-served. Lagavulin opens May 23, Caol Ila on May 25.[6]

Kilchoman is also releasing their annual Loch Gorm, a cult favourite that earns that description honestly every year. The 2026 edition is drawn from just 23 casks of ex-Oloroso matured a minimum of 10 years, bottled at 46%, and priced at £76.[6] Small, personal, and already spoken for in the minds of anyone who's had it before.

Anyone want to go? The festival runs May 22nd - May 31st. Melissa, lets pack our bags! Sadly many of us will have to buy the bottles at auction. Anyone want to go halfsies?

Let's get the obvious out of the way: this watch is small. At 21mm wide, it's a sliver of a case, and on my 7.5-inch wrist that reality hits the moment you strap it on. I expected it. It still takes a second to adjust. But here's the thing: it wears better than it measures. The case has some thickness to it, which on paper sounds like a flaw in a dress watch, and honestly, on a piece at this price point, it is a compromise. But that thickness works in a strange way. I have a Breda that's 5mm larger across and somehow feels smaller on the wrist because it disappears flat against the skin. The Lexington sits up just enough to register as a watch. You know it's there. That's not nothing.

The colorway sealed it for me. I went with the tan, not the black, and that turned out to be the right call. The dial has a lacquered quality to it, warm and deep, the kind of finish that looks like it has no business being on a $169 watch. It does not look cheap. At all.

Where it struggles is context (for me). This is not a jeans-and-a-t-shirt watch, at least not on a larger wrist. The proportions push it firmly into dress territory, and if your wardrobe doesn't run that way, it'll spend a lot of time in the drawer. But if you've been eyeing a Cartier Tank and doing the math on what that actually costs, the Lexington is the honest answer to that question. Not a replica, not a homage in the pejorative sense. Just a well-made rectangular watch at a price where wearing it without anxiety is the whole point.

This release marks a first for the ongoing Snyder-Timex collaboration: prior to this, Snyder had never crafted a rectangular timepiece.[8] It was designed exclusively for his Spring/Summer 2026 runway show, La Buena Vida, a collection drawing on the faded glamour of 1950s Havana and the louche confidence of a man stepping off a plane in Miami in the 1980s.[9] The palette follows accordingly: khaki, butter yellow, and black. Understated and warm. Todd redesigned the traditional Roman numerals to a more modern numeric style for improved legibility, and the stainless-steel case measures a slim 21mm wide with 18mm lugs, the kind of proportions that disappear under a shirt cuff the way a dress watch should.[9]

The dial carries no seconds hand, which neatly eliminates the one thing that tends to betray a quartz movement: that telltale lurch between ticks.[7] What you're left with is clean, analog, and very easy to live with. Mineral crystal. Genuine leather strap. Water resistance to 30 meters, enough for a caught-in-the-rain scenario, not a lap swim.

"The Lexington came out in the 70s, but it has such a timeless design that it would look at home any time between the Art Deco period to today's Ivy style resurgence," Snyder said. "It's the first time we've ever done a rectangular watch, but it feels really timely."[8]

Final Thoughts:

The Timex × Todd Snyder 1976 Lexington is available now at timex.com and toddsnyder.com, as well as select Todd Snyder retail locations. Retail: $169. However, by the time this goes out, it will most likely be sold out already. It is already. Already sold out. Checked Tuesday Night. Will it be back? Unsure, but probably not. But do not pay these ridiculous resale pricing on eBay.

Yes. I know. I talk about the GTR a lot. But for good reason. It’s one of my favorite cars (Porsche 911 964 & 997 GT3rs, Land Rover Defender from the 90s, Jag F-Type, 2004 WRX/STI, GTR R34… to name a few) After an 18-year production run that defied every expectation anyone had for it, the R35 GT-R rolled into the history books in August 2025.[10] But the story isn't over. Not even close.

Nissan CEO Ivan Espinosa has officially confirmed that a new GT-R is coming, describing the decision as "easy." "It's one of the strongest brands in our portfolio," he said. "It's not only a car, it's a symbol of many things inside and outside the company. There definitely needs to be a new GT-R: it will come."[11]

The announcement came alongside details that will matter to anyone who's been paying attention. Nissan North America's Senior Vice President and Chief Planning Officer Ponz Pandikuthira confirmed at the 2026 New York Auto Show that the R36 will sit on an entirely new chassis, an all-new car in his words.[12] The powertrain direction is where it gets interesting. No clean-sheet engine. The block stays, or so it seems. "If there was a hybrid powertrain, the block of that VR38 engine is so great, why would you throw that away?" Pandikuthira said, stopping just short of a direct confirmation.[13] The implication was clear enough that nobody in the room pushed back.

What Pandikuthira did confirm: the cylinder heads and pistons will be redesigned, and whatever form the hybrid system takes, it won't be a full EV.[14] "It can't just be electrification for the sake of electrification," he said. "It still needs to be a capable performer. Nürburgring, multiple laps, hold lap timing records."[15] What "hybrid" actually means here is still deliberately vague. It could describe anything from a 48-volt electric supercharger system to a full plug-in setup with multiple motors.[14]

As for output: the outgoing VR38DETT made 565 horsepower and 467 lb-ft in the 2024 GT-R. With the block reworked and electric assistance added, 700 horsepower or more is a reasonable expectation, and a GT-R Nismo pushing 800 is not out of the question.[16]

Concrete announcements are expected by 2028, with the car slated to reach the street before 2030.[12] There's a dedicated team in Japan already working on it. After years of executive non-answers and vague reassurances, that's more than anyone had six months ago.

Good things, as they say.

The US new car market told us a lot about itself in 2025. Buyers wanted SUVs, trucks, and recognizable names. They did not want sedans, niche EVs, or anything that felt like it had been designed in a boardroom five years ago and forgotten about. The following models spent most of the year sitting on lots, collecting dust and dealer incentives.

A quick note on how to read this: the metric used here is market days supply, essentially how long it would take a dealership to sell through its current inventory at the car's existing sales rate. If a model has 30 days of supply, it's flying off the lot. The industry considers around 60 days healthy. Everything below is well past that, some by a factor of five or more. High days supply usually means one of three things: the car is overpriced, the segment is dying, or buyers have simply moved on. In 2025, it was often all three at once.

1. Jaguar F-Pace: 332 days of supply.[17] Jaguar's brand struggles in the US are well documented, and the F-Pace bore the full weight of them. Excellent SUV, wrong moment, wrong badge.

2. Maserati Grecale: 301 days of supply.[17] Maserati hoped the Grecale would be its breakout volume model. It was not.

3. VW ID.4: 297 days of supply. Came out of the gate hot; ran out of momentum fast.[18] EV cooling and a crowded segment made it nearly invisible.

4. Audi S6: 482 days of supply, with only 61 examples sold in a 45-day window.[18] With an electric successor on the horizon, buyers simply waited it out. The A6, Q4 E-Tron, and A4 told the same story from different angles. Audi placed four models in the ten slowest sellers of the year, a damning pattern that points less to individual product failure and more to a brand caught mid-transition, unable to convince buyers to commit to outgoing designs while the next generation sits just over the horizon.

5. Ram 2500: 233 days of supply, more than 8,000 units sitting on lots.[18] A truck that should be moving isn't, and when loaded trims brush six figures, it's hard to make the case for it over something newer or more refined.

6. Lincoln Aviator: More than seven months of supply. Fierce competition from newer, more refined rivals and limited brand momentum made it a tough sell in a crowded three-row segment.[19] Lincoln continues to struggle with the question of who it's actually for.

7. Alfa Romeo Giulia: 184 days on lots. Sharp styling and lively handling aren't enough when reliability concerns and a shrinking appetite for sedans work against you simultaneously.[20]

The through-line is hard to miss: the compact luxury sedan is in freefall, the EV hangover hit harder than most manufacturers expected, and even trucks aren't immune when the price gets out of hand. The market isn't punishing bad cars. It's punishing cars that aren't SUVs, and anything that asks buyers to be patient while the better version is still being built.

Outro: And with that my friends, Drink well. Wear something interesting. Don't buy a Jaguar F-Pace. And thank you as always! Make sure you leave me a comment on the website, and give the articles a like. See you next time!

References