whiskey

^^ good choice. I got a bottle of that last year - definitely my kind of whisky.

yeah she accosted some fella looked like a whiskey drinker and badgered him into the least peaty decent bottle of scotch they had- she won't abide the likes of laphroaig in the house.

I just had some awesome 21-year Willett from a bottle signed by the Norwegian (married into the family) dude who runs the company. He had reason to be proud of this barrel. I had reason to be happy I was not the one who paid for the bottle, because man ....

by even or drew k.?

Even.

nice. hope he's around to enjoy the results of their in-house distillation

I got to keep the bottle. Thinking of making it into a flower vase.

Anyone with their ear to the ground have an inkling as to this year's BTAC release? It's usually early fall, isn't it?

i think i've heard october so maybe a bit earlier than usual.

Picked up a bottle of Stagg Jr. BT is saying they'll be making it available throughout the year, but in limited amounts, whatever that means. If it's anything like what happened with the squat-bottled Old Rip, its association with some of the more coveted of bourbons will ensure it's off the shelves before most people even know it's there.

'Tis the season for BTAC and PVW. In the case of the latter, with no more spring allocations, it should be "easier" to find, mitigated by the demand, of course. Fingers crossed!

In the meantime, I got a bottle of the Old Forester 2013 Birthday Bourbon and count me among its fans.

i saw Stagg Jr. today and may have overreacted and bought two bottles of it.

i cracked my bottle last night. need some more time with it but initial impressions are positive.

Yeah, the Stagg Jr.is seeing the same effect that sparked a run on Old Rip, which you also can no longer find on shelves.

Hah, as I posted three weeks ago!

Was anyone able to get a bottle of Elijah Craig barrel proof? The new 21 is too rich for me at $150, considering the 18 went for $50 til they killed the product.

http://www.awardrobeofwhisky.com/bottle/the-glenlivet-master-distillers-reserve-1l-main_image.jpg

one shot of this cost me more than i'd care to admit over the weekend, it was good but not great imo

i can't figure out where to get PVW from

do yourself a favor and don't try

PVW is basically a unicorn for me.

This article suggests W.L. Weller if you can't get PVW:

http://www.foodandwine.com/blogs/2013/10/2/5-things-you-need-to-know-about-bourbon

The most helpful Pappy hunt piece is this one:

http://thebourbontruth.tumblr.com/post/56759493121/hunting-the-elusive-pappy-van-winkle-bigfoot-of

Basically, if you put in the effort akin to a full-time job, with lots of driving and flexibility, you can get a bottle. I've managed to get a bottle each of the last two years, running the gauntlet of waitlists, networking and stalking the shops. This year should be even tougher, though, since PVW is not announcing when shipments have gone out to each state, which puts the power in the hands of the stores, who can announce - or horde, or sell off - their allotments as they see fit. And I certainly don't trust the stores, given the way they pump up prices.

It's really quite amazing, given that just two years ago and certainly three you could find the occasional bottle or two of Pappy or BTAC or other special bottlings. I really think the secondary market has messed this all up.

FWIW, the 23 year I believe is the only bottling that still features 100& Stitzel Weller juice, which at least can account if still not justify the hundreds of dollars. Scarce is scarce. The younger bottlings, however, are all Buffalo Trace, and limited primarily by design rather than scarcity.

lol "close cousin" - van winkle 10, 12, and prob 15 expressions are now 100% the same distillate as weller.

this is the last year of 100% stitzel-weller in pappy 23 if you want to drive yourself completely crazy

For fun, the nerds at the Straight Bourbon forum swear by their namesake 50/50 blend of Old Weller Antique and Weller 12. Haven't tried it yet myself.

xp Regardless, Van Winkle has never been a distillery. and has never been about single barrels. It's always been about the family's knack for picking great blends, regardless of source, so whether SW or Buffalo Trace, the tastebuds in charge remain the same.

that's not true. julian van winkle sr. owned s-w.

im an dilettante at best with this stuff but the 18yr old Jefferson's seemed comparable to PVW to me, and you can pretty much always find that.

the early run of jefferson's 18 was stitzel-weller, and it was pretty damn good. i think the general consensus is the current stuff must be from somewhere else. i have newer bottles that aren't bad but prob not worth the money.

ah i havent had it in a while--that's too bad to hear.

oops let me correct myself--my bottles from up through last year still have "aged in stitzel weller barrels" on the sticket.

the debate may have been more around the quality of some of the s-w barrels jefferson's was using.

and the 21 y.o. jefferson's label does not mention anything about its origin.

related, this bourbon truth blogger is really mad about some stuff!

that's not true. julian van winkle sr. owned s-w.

But the PVW has never been single barrel stuff, right? Always a blend?

no its never been "single barrel" but until recent years when they started filling in with bernheim and buffalo trace whiskey it was all stitzel-weller distillate.

Gotcha.

Any of you ever had Smooth Ambler 14 Year Old Very Old Scout Bourbon? It's LDI sourced, apparently actually a mix of 14-, 15-, 17- and 19- years. I bought a bottle last year, I want to say, but haven't opened it yet. It's another one that earned a lot of positive comparisons with PVW.

No, not tried. Do you remember what you paid?

Yeah, I paid ... $60? $65? Something like that.

pretty damn impressed with Stagg Jr. It's definitely reminiscent of the regular Stagg, but my old bottle is long gone so i can't compare.

"reminiscent" is definitely the right word--you can really feel that ~5 or so years of age missing from stagg jr.

I'm going to be in Louisville for a weekend of eating and drinking (and a private tour of Willett). Can any of you think of any bottles or brands that I can only get in Kentucky? The downside of being so (relatively) close in a city with great distribution is that a lot of "exclusive" brands make their way up here pretty easily, so I don't want to waste my dollars or trunk space on stuff I can get at home. I may try to get another bottle of Ancient Ancient Age, since you can't see to find that in Chicago anymore.

AAA would be my first choice. Hell, I'd like a bottle of that myself just to try it!

i don't know of much that is kentucky-only. agree if you find some aaa 10 year you should scoop it up. i don't know exactly what's going on with that brand but wouldn't assume it'll be coming back your way.

Yeah, it's weird. I have a bottle left, but I think it's a brand, or sub-brand, that's just no longer making it out of Kentucky.

well i think there's a question of whether the 10-year version is going to continue to exist in general

Yeah. This world is so slippery it's impossible to get a straight answer on anything. Age statements, sourcing, distribution, allocation ... it's all a close to the vest mystery.

Got a tasty bottle of single barrel Willett 8 down there, a bottle of the AAA 10 (which I think is discontinued?) and best of all, a couple of bottles of Elijah Craig 12 barrel proof, which you can't find around here, and which they had a couple of lingering bottles of at the Heaven Hill distillery at a slightly higher proof than got distributed. Excited!

Happened to be down there during the PVW/BTAC release, too, and needless to say, it sounded insane. People lining up at 4am, waiting in long lines for a shot at a handful of bottles. Nuts. Stopped into the Bardstown staple Toddy's and the folks behind the counter were gleefully bitching about the Van Winkle stuff, since every other call at the store was some dude looking for a bottle. They said they got two bottles of each, and they were gone instantly.

nice haul

Putting my tin hat on for a second, is there anything in place to stop shop employees from setting aside what little stock they get of Van Winkle and BTAC? I was in a store today, and the guy behind the counter was talking to his coworker about seeing PVK in a bar going for $90 a shot. Is there any chance in hell, that should should the shop get even a bottle of anything, that it would make it anywhere remotely to a shelf, let alone some customer on a waiting list, when the guy behind the counter can conspire to sell it for multiples above MSRP and pocket whatever he wants?

not unless you're in a control state. i've seen some pretty insane van winkle markups around here.

i think the best you can do is let the van winkles know if you are aware of bottles marked at way above retail. they have asked for that kind of info before, though i'm not really sure what they do with it.

The Van Winkles don't care. Or at least, they may care, but they say they can't do anything about it.

My point is less the markup and more that these bottles, at least in a major market like this one, are now pretty much impossible to get unless you know someone on the receiving end of an allocation who can grab a bottle for you, never mind what they are asking or you are willing to pay. There's simply no way to get it on the primary market, and that trend is trickling down to other bourbons as well.

I've noted before that this has only accelerated to a ridiculous degree. Two years ago I got a bottle of PVW15 for $50 with minimal effort. Last year took a bit more legwork but I got a bottle, once again at the store, for $80. This year things have become so obscured and behind the scenes that short full-time effort and a ton of luck, never mind money, there seems to be absolutely no way. That's kind of lame, because the implication is that almost every single bottle is earmarked or otherwise claimed before the allocations even go out.