Met a college buddy for drinks at a local cigar/whisky bar and surprised that they had all of the Pappy’s on the menu. I ended up getting a pour of the 12 just to try it. I am generally more of a Scotch drinker than Bourbon, but the P12 was quite good with just a splash of water.
Lot B is good stuff. Go back and try the Rye or 15. IMHO, those are the sweet spot in their lineup. 20 is fantastic but usually kinda pricey for a pour. 23 is nuts.
Depending on where you are, there still might be bottles of W.L. Weller 12yr on the shelves. We call that the poor man’s pappy 12yr. (under $40) It is a wheated bourbon from the same distillery. It is now really difficult to get because they are rumored to be saving the stocks for future releases of Pappy. Here in California it is difficult to find.
I agree with Joe that the Rye and 15yr are the true gems of the line.
What is it about Pappy that makes people go absolutely nuts? Is it the 100 point scores, or is there something that I’m missing about it? It’s high quality for sure, but is it any better than all the other artisinal products you can find these days?
Did someone actually give a pappy 100 points? Ive never seen it. I own a bunch of pappy 12 20 and 23. Bought them all a few years ago because I loved the stuff. Never paid more than 200 for a bottle and the 12s I got under 50. To me they are the real deal. There have been a few recent bourbons that can play with pappy but they are almost as hard to get. 4 roses 125th for instance. Elijah 18 is another example but that might be even harder to find now. I think the luxury factor is definitely there but man the stuff is good.
Have found in Jacksonville, Florida and Evergreen, Colorado. Most stores that still stock them don’t know what they have, or they would have a “one bottle limit” attached. I’ve found 1L (mostly for on-premise) and 1.5L bottles as well. Tasty juice at $27, and I don’t even think about Pappy anymore since the prices have gone through the roof.
For those of you who are having a hard time finding the Weller 12yr, keep an eye out for Old Fitzgerald 12yr. Also discontinued, but still floating around in some places.
Back to the 100 point bit. My understanding of it is that Wine Enthusiast gave it 100 points, but that was back when it was a rye-bourbon mash bill. Those came in green tinted glass bottles.
I’ve heard all the rumors about Weller 12 being SW juice the VW picked over (basically declassified VW?). Maybe that was true at some point, but last fall’s Weller 12 and LotB are nothing alike IMO. I don’t know the mashbill of either, but the LotB seems to have a much spicier/floral rye like profile in comparison to the soft, wheated character of the Weller. There is no W12 in Va either, but there appears to be no shortage of it in Fla and Tx.
Killer prices Humberto - I was always surprised to see people letting go of what little SW Pappy remains, but if you bought 20/23 <$200, I can see why!
Caught them as the hype was starting Jody and the lcb had a bunch sitting on the shelves. I was collecting scotch at the time and I figured why not. Right place right time I guess. My buddy kept all the 15s we bought I dont recall why and he has since moved away. I went to visit him two weeks ago and he still has them all. We cracked one and Im happy about the choices we made. Theres something about the 15 I dont find as appealing as the 20 or even the 23. A harsher note on the palate though the nose is definitely every bit as good. We drank more than half of the bottle over a few hours with and without water and it didnt make me want to offer him a trade
I’m definitely getting into it at what is probably (hopefully) the worst time. I appreciate the notes on the 15. The bottle I have is from 2014, so it’s all Buffalo Trace. I have a lone 20 from 2011 so it still has some SW juice. I’m looking forward to comparing them, but I’m working my way through last falls Antique Collection first. I guess that 15 isn’t too bad though if you made it through half the bottle!
Oh dont get me wrong. The 15 is really good. All the bottles we got were SW btw. What I meant was that I could easily trade some sqn or something for some of his 15 since he is sitting on 4 or 5 bottles of it and he only drinks it when I come by. If it was as good as the 20 is to me id have pried them away somehow. As they are, im happy to drink them slowly