Damn, Michter’s 10 offer in my inbox…$160. Damn.
Man I was 20 min late seeing the email so now I have to drive 1.5hrs away to get a chance at mine lol. My pickup date is set for sat I believe with a confirmation email coming later today. Best of luck!
Thanks Albert. I just got my confirmation. So a question for the bourbon crowd - let’s say I get there first and have my choice, which of these would you choose? My inclination is ER17 but I’ve never had any of these:
George T. Stagg,
William Larue Weller,
Eagle Rare 17 Year-Old,
Sazarac 18 Year-Old and
Thomas H. Handy Sazarac
See http://whiskyadvocate.com/2016/09/19/2016-buffalo-trace-antique-collection-general-impressions/ for some thoughts on each. Personally, I’d go with Weller if you want a bourbon, Sazerac 18 if you want rye.
I’d probably go with the Saz 18, but WLW and Eagle 17 are both good options. Stagg then Handy would round out the order for me.
Yeh, I’ve eliminated Stagg and Handy, if given options.
WLW seems to have the most consistent reviews.
ER17 seems polarizing this year, reviewers love it or hates it. I am a huge ER10 fan, never had ER17.
Saz 18 is the first “new” batch in many years - the past several releases have been coming from a single stainless tank that ran dry last year. The new stuff, some love it, some hate it. I love rye, but am torn.
Eh, we will see what is there when I get there.
State of PA just put up (2) different 4 Roses Barrel Strength offerings on their website with 180 units available of the OBSO and 168 of the OBSV. $80. Doubt they will last.
I was just sitting last night having a couple of pours of WA107 and OFBB and with all the recent news of Booker’s anticipated price increase to $100 I started to contemplate where to I go from here in buying bourbon. I’ve been thinking about this for awhile but…
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I give up on chasing bourbons around, the fun has gone out of it. In NH people actually camped out the night before at 6PM in anticipation of getting THH and GTS with a 3 bottle limit, just nuts.
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Booker’s was originally released in 1989 with a retail of $40 and the prices since then have only increased modestly over the years while the competition has jacked theirs up considerably more and making it a relatively good value in a sea of swill. I would have gone along with an increase to $70-75 but $100 I believe is a marketing blunder.
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Other than being a limited edition and 12 years old, can someone tell me what the hell is so great about OFBB that makes it worth $90/btle much less the $180-$230 people seem to be willing to pay for it on the secondary? I’ve still got a couple of 2014 that I bought for $60 that I think I’ll be getting rid of and either buy or trade a few others that I prefer.
I guess I can only dream that other peoples tastes change and there is a market correction in my lifetime.
I got to Total Wine at 9am, exactly when they opened, and was #12 in line. One guy showed up at 6:45am in 30 degree sleet. No thanks. As the line progressed, the Weller was gone, then the Eagle Rare 17 was gone. The guy 2 spots in front of me got the last Stagg, the guy in front of me too a Handy, and I got the last Sazerac 18 for $99, which is one of the 3 I targeted. A good morning for me! The next 6 people all got Handy.
I got to total wine an hour before opening. Was the only one there for 30 min before the next guy showed up then another guy 15 min later. There were only three of us there when the store opened. They had received a total of 9 bottles, 3 weller, 3 stagg and 3 handy. I walked out with a weller, guy behind me got the same and the 3rd guy picked up a stagg. I think the hour 15min drive was worth it 
Nice work!
I also got the Total Wine BTAC offering and had to travel 65.3 miles over the Tappan Zee Bridge, across Westchester on 287 and up 95 to the Milford location and neither the snow, sleet or hail would have stopped me from making the trip. I arrived at 10AM and had my choice and went with the WLW for $99.99 + tax which made me forget about the 2.5 hour trip it took to get there.
Nice work!
I was out last night and the bar had the new Eagle Rare 17, so I had one. It is really nice, better than ER 10, but maybe not quite epic enough for me to want to pay $100. Still, a nice drink.
We came back and had a pour of the Sazerac 18 and I am really impressed with it. Reviews were mixed, but I am in the "this is awesome "camp…super happy to have my bottle.
Good stuff!!
Also, I heard from somebody at the local store today that Old Scout is being discontinued. Is that true? I tried searching about this but came up empty handed.
Not true. In fact, earlier this month Pernod-Ricard purchased a majority stake in Smooth Ambler, who makes Old Scout. It’s a bit hard for me to see how that could be good for the brand but it is what it is. I recently purchased a LWS’s single barrel 11 year old bottling of Old Scout. It is good, but I’m less impressed than I was by a 10 year version purchased at Liquor Barn in Lexington, KY, last year. Just opened though so could still see some improvement.
Sadly I have no access to BTAC or Pappy at this point. St. Louis is an S-show for these, with low allocations largely given out by random list selection or raffle. We have Total Wine but they don’t do their rewards program here, having told me (wrongly I believe) that the program would violate MO law. As a trade off things like 4 Roses Single and other good but still-readily-available bourbons tend to be very cheap, so I can’t complain too much, particularly as 4RSB is my favorite bourbon and cask strength selections of this are readily available at good pricing. Still makes me long for the days just a few years ago when I could easily obtain those sought after bourbons.
Well, Buffalo Trace isn’t really fond of South Carolina either, as I never see Eagle Rare 10 or Blanton’s. Luckily I live super close to the borders of NC and GA, and can find those in my border states.
I was quite surprised the BTAC collection was offered to me, but it may just be because they had a deal with Total Wine nationallly…excluding MO it seems.
Was doing some holiday shopping and saw a local store had Weller Antique 107 and Elmer T Lee for $26 each. Grabbed one of each and went on shopping.
Awesome! ETL is $35 in the Virginia abc–but drops once a year and sells out instantly. $26 is stupid good.
My local offered me a bottle of ETL on Friday for $50. I passed.
Manhattan’s Bryant Park has a pop-up “Winter Village” (an outdoor bazaar with shops, eateries & a skating rink) throughout the season. Braved the teen wind chills and went last night with a friend. The outdoor bar happened to have a bottle of the Thomas H Handy and George T Stagg. I asked the bartender what the pour was costing. Expecting something north of $30, imagine my shock when he told me "not really sure, but I’ve been charging…
It was delicious!