I came across this at my local Costco of all places. I’ve heard good things - has anyone tried it or recommend it?
I bought some but haven’t tried it yet. I’ve heard mixed reports so far. Though I would say they have been most positive about this bottling (less about the Old Blowhard 26).
I sell the stuff but haven’t had a chance to try it yet. The feedback from my customers has been mixed, probably 50-50, although the customers whose palates I respect the most have been mostly on the negative side, finding it hot and not that complex.
Richard, does it surprise you that it’s being sold at Costco for $65? When I first heard about the Barterhouse, I assumed it was pretty limited but the fact that Costco is selling it by the pallet has me wondering just how rare it really is.
Not that surprising. Barterhouse is from Diageo, the world’s largest “drinks” company, and it’s probably safe to assume that Costco is one of their biggest customers (or perhaps the biggest customer) in the country, so if Costco says “we want some of that” Diageo will get them some.
Nonetheless, there simply isn’t much 20 year whiskey out there anymore so it probably is limited. Next up is supposed to be a 19 year whiskey called Rhetoric. Whether this comes from the New Bernheim distillery like Barterhouse or from LDI (the old Seagram’s distillery in Indiana, now known as MGP) remains to be seen. One thing you can be sure of is that the Diageo PR people will once again mention their Stizel-Weller warehouse in hopes of making it sound like that’s where the whiskey was distilled.
I had both Barterhouse & Old Blowhard at the national release tasting here in NYC back in March. It’s got a nice medium bodied palate of vanilla, almonds, toffee and dried fruits. I’m selling it for $80, definitely a buy at $65. I purchased a bottle on release and unlike some of the ‘rumors’ of different batches the bottle I purchased tasted very much like the sample I tried pre-release.
The link John offers is one of the better reviews I have read, if you do a google search there are several other ‘bloggers’ with varying opinions on the whiskeys.