What bourbon are you drinking today?

[allmanbros]

Just read that Sotheby's in NY recently sold what they claim to be the highest single price ever recorded for a bottle of bourbon, $162.5K for a bottle of Pappy Van Winkle 20 Year Single Barrel "Sam's"...that's about 6.4K an ounce assuming the bottle is a 750ml and not the old standard fifth size...Sam refers to Sam's Wine and Spirits in Chicago, who at some point purchased 60 bottles of unique single barrel 20 year with their name on the label...without knowing for sure, I would say that somewhere along the history of Pappy and his two sons, there was a relationship built with "Sam", and this was a special bottling done exclusively for him.

 

[MuchoReverbo]

Well I ran out of Bourbon last week so I finally made it to our local liquor store today and picked up a couple bottles of my favorites...



The big old bottle (1.75L) of 101 & some Rare Breed. Not a real big selection at the local store but as long as they have these I'm definitely good to go.

 

[whoaru99]

...I would say that somewhere along the history of Pappy and his two sons, there was a relationship built with "Sam", and this was a special bottling done exclusively for him.

I don't know the history of store picks but, yeah, a store pick Pappy must be a pretty rare thing.

I used to get store pick Eagle Rare or Buffalo Trace (or others) from an outfit up the road, but haven't seen either for quite a while.

 

[MuchoReverbo]

They had Buffalo Trace, Makers Mark (which I like too), 4 Roses, Jim Beam and Evan Williams and of course Jack Daniels and Gentleman Jack as well as a few others at little local store I went to this week. Not a lot of real expensive ones or limited editions other than the Rare Breed.

I like all the Kentucky Bourbons but really don't like Jack Daniels and most of the other Tennessee whiskeys nearly as much.

I was going to get another bottle of the Sweetens Cove which is half Tennessee but they didn't carry it. The big bottle of Wild Turkey 101 was $53 and the Rare Breed Barrel Proof was around $40.

Even if I won the Powerball there would be no way in hell I would ever pay $162,000 for a bottle of Pappy Van Winkle.

I'll take the bird.

 

[allmanbros]

I don't know the history of store picks but, yeah, a store pick Pappy must be a pretty rare thing.

I used to get store pick Eagle Rare or Buffalo Trace (or others) from an outfit up the road, but haven't seen either for quite a while.

I am sure the deal with Sams was cut back in the late 70's or early 80's long before Pappy became so highly sought after...just prior to the bourbon boom of the early 2000's, some distilleries of which Buffalo Trace was the leader, began offering retailers the opportunity to taste and select barrels of certain brands and have their selection specifically bottled and labelled for them...in some cases like Buffalo Trace Bourbon, selecting a barrel changed the bourbon from a blend of barrels to a single barrel giving it a unique taste unto itself...these barrel selections became popular to a fault when a distillery began selling more bourbon than their projections had allotted, then the bourbon boom accelerated the depletion rate even faster...at this point the barrel selections were either discontinued or drastically cut back to stretch inventories as far as possible until distillation could be increased to cover demand...a barrel selection generally yielded about 20-25 cases...many times the retailer asked the master distiller to select the barrel then the master distillers name was added to the special labelling giving the whole process more "credibility"....I suspect there is plenty of bourbon aging today that anybody could get as many barrels as they wanted of most any brand.

 

[Erik Tracy]

Sippin' some Elijah Craig Straight Rye on a breezy cloudy Saturday evening.

 

[MuchoReverbo]

Well I picked up another bottle of Bourbon. Of course it comes from the Wild Turkey family.

We'll be sipping this tonight. $65 per bottle.

 

[whoaru99]

The big old bottle (1.75L) of 101 & some Rare Breed. Not a real big selection at the local store but as long as they have these I'm definitely good to go.

Bought a handle of the 101 myself about a week ago for a little experiment.

My gal and I were eating cherries and she said "we should make some cherry bounce". I'd never heard of it before. Checked out the recipe... simple enough. She pitted a bunch of cherries, I poured in better part of the handle of 101 and the sugar. Calls for 3 months resting, so late October we'll see about that.

 

[MuchoReverbo]

So do the cherries "rest" in the refrigerator for 3 months or out in the open?

In the meantime you can indulge in some 101 by itself! I'm sure you didn't use the entire bottle on this experiment.

101 is my favorite. The good part is it doesn't cost a fortune. I don't consider it "bargain" bourbon. I prefer it over $100 bottles of a lot of other stuff. If I had my choice between a bottle of Russel's Reserve Single Barrell (which is awesome) or 3 bottles of 101, I would take the 101 every time. It's just so smooth and delicious.

 

[TomD62]

Reminds me of the cherries my Italian grandfather used to soak in grappa. He grew his own grapes and made his own wine. Some of it was real good, other batches not so much. I miss him.

 

[whoaru99]

So do the cherries "rest" in the refrigerator for 3 months or out in the open?

In the meantime you can indulge in some 101 by itself! I'm sure you didn't use the entire bottle on this experiment.

The concoction is in a 2qt Mason jar, lid on, at room temp for 3 months.

 

[MuchoReverbo]

I went down to the liquor store to get a Powerball ticket and while I was there picked up a couple "old" bottles for the bar...

 

[whoaru99]

Picked up one of these over the weekend. No tastes yet.

 

[MuchoReverbo]

You got an "old" one too! lol

 

[drp1003]

Jim Beam Black 90 Proof
Evan Williams Single Barrel 87 Proof (WOW!)
Old Forester 100 Proof
Old Grand Dad Bonded 100 Proof
Knob Creek 9 year 100 Proof (ALRIGHT!)
Benchmark Single Barrel 95 Proof
Maker's Mark Cask Strength 110 PROOF (WOW!)
George Dickel 8 year 90 Proof (YES!)
Sazerac RYE 90 Proof
Micther's Small Batch US1 (Elegant!)
Old Forester Old Fine Whiskey (Kinda Expensive!)
Jim Beam Single Barrel 108 (Underrated)

 

[MuchoReverbo]

With a list that big I'm surprised you don't have some Wild Turkey distillery related products in there. They are my all-time favorites that I always come back to.

Every bourbon collection should at least have a bottle of Wild Turkey 101 if nothing else. Best bourbon on the planet for less than $30.

 

[sfox52]

I recently bought a bottle of the Jim Beam single barrel mentioned above, it is impressive.

 

[Hajidub]

I have a really small liquor store by my house in a not great part of town. This store is an allocation paradise, probably has more Blanton's (cases at MRSP) than every other stores combined in a town of 650K. A lot of rare Fitz's, Forresters, even an occasional Pappy. First place I've seen Eagle Rare 17. I blabbed at work and many are driving 50 mins to hit this store. Dunno if anyone watches that larger, bearded connoisseur on Youtube, but he just came thru Colorado and stated that Colorado has more high dollar, rare bourbons, at MRSP than anyplace he's ever been (he's from Kentucky, but travels the country).

 

[MuchoReverbo]

What's a case of Blanton's at MSRP go for? lol

Whatever it is I guarantee you it's too rich for my wallet.

 

[whoaru99]

I have a really small liquor store by my house in a not great part of town. This store is an allocation paradise, probably has more Blanton's (cases at MRSP) than every other stores combined in a town of 650K. A lot of rare Fitz's, Forresters, even an occasional Pappy. First place I've seen Eagle Rare 17. I blabbed at work and many are driving 50 mins to hit this store. Dunno if anyone watches that larger, bearded connoisseur on Youtube, but he just came thru Colorado and stated that Colorado has more high dollar, rare bourbons, at MRSP than anyplace he's ever been (he's from Kentucky, but travels the country).

I've been told Buffalo Trace allocations are heavily influenced by how much Fireball a store will sign up for.