Welcome to The Fingers Weekender, a Sunday digest exclusively for paying Friends of Fingers featuring the independent journalism about drinking in America you love, optimized for hungover scrolling. In today’s edition:
The NCAA has an official beer now, lol;
Wine’s strongest soldiers in Q3;
Brown-Forman’s slow walk on New Mix;
Illinois is previewing the coming THC shitshow;
And much more. Buy a subscription to get next Sunday’s full edition straight in your inbox.
🍺 BEER
Modelo is the first beer sponsor of the NCAA, which… has beer sponsors now? I guess? Last week Constellation Brands announced a terms-undisclosed deal to establish its flagship cerveza as the marquee malt-based beverage of March Madness and…
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🍷 WINE
Wonderwerk doubled its volume last year. Which, sure, check the denominator, but still! California’s terminally millennial natural wine firm closed out 2025 at 26,000 cases, and…
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🥃 SPIRITS
The age of “ades” is already out of control. After vodka-spiked hard sports drinks’ huge summer, there was no way the pseudosegment wasn’t going to get a little silly. Boy, has it…
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👀 RELATEDLY
The coming shitshow from the federal THC ban is already playing out in Illinois. We’re less than a month out from the Trump administration’s looming de facto prohibition on hemp-derived tetrahydrocannabinol products, but…
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💬 BUZZWORDS OF THE WEEK
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🔗 VIRGIN LINKS
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The Gambling App Playbook for Bankrupting Young Men (Bloomberg)
Inside The Great Battle for The Democratic Party’s Future (How Things Work)
The Votes Are In. The Mandate Is Accountability. (The New Republic)
A Scandal at the Center of the Economy (The Atlantic 🎁)
Kick Them When They Are Down (Welcome to Hell World)
