Whiskey Clique

tempo_n_groove

Bentleyspop said:

Just got to try this. 30 yr Japanese Whiskey.

These are sometimes easy to find.  How was it?

Bentleyspop

tempo_n_groove said:

Bentleyspop said:

Just got to try this. 30 yr Japanese Whiskey.

These are sometimes easy to find.  How was it?

It was really smoooooth

Then I tried this....

Gern Blansten

mca47 said:

bbiggs said:

Gern Blansten said:

bbiggs said:

Gern Blansten said:

bbiggs said:

Bentleyspop said:

bbiggs said:

Gern Blansten said:

I grabbed a bottle of Evan Williams bottled in bond because I kept seeing people mention it on tiktok....it's legit.  And cheap.

Nice.  I'll make a good BIB recommendation.  McKenna 10.  10 year age statement.  BIB.  Inexpensive for what you're getting and a damn good bourbon.

But depending on where you are it's borderline allocated.

True.  My shop doesn't even put it on the shelves.  Us "regulars" get first dibs.  Crazy that a $35 bottle of bourbon that used to collect dust on shelves is that hard to find lately. 

I'm new to this....so a store will set bourbon aside for regulars to check out first?  This is solid intel

More or less. The allocated stuff never sees the shelves at the store I go to. They keep it in back and sell it to the regulars and/or bourbon drinkers they know from frequenting the store.  You just have to be on top of delivery dates because it doesn’t last long. 

Interesting....I need to ask more I guess.  I have signed up for emails but those are generally promos and not anything good related to bourbon.

The best advice I could give is to chat with the workers a bit and if there is someone that is in charge of liquor, get to know him or her.  Also, express to them that you enjoy bourbon and would like the opportunity to buy some of the more allocated stuff.  Just showing loyalty to the store and being friendly goes a long way.  Hope you can land a few things you may not have otherwise.

Yeah, this ^ really is your best bet of landing something rare/special.  We don't have many small mom and pop liquor stores near me.  The ones that are, are fully aware of the secondary markup prices and gladly participate in charging outrageous prices.  As a result, I don't have a ton of rare stuff in my collection.  Occasionally the liquor manager at my local Total Wine keys me in on something that is allocated, but that's not too often.  I hate schmoozing with that guy, but I'm nice and he sees me in there quite a bit.  That fn guy tries to pawn dumb shit on me all the time.  "Hey, have you tried this?  It's really good for the price."  I don't say it, but I'm thinking "Dude, that's stuff fn sucks!"  haha!
We do have a local "Fine foods" grocery store that does get in some good stuff from time to time.  Every time I'm there, I'll swing by the liquor section and check out their supply.  They tend to mark up stuff, but then again, they fancy themselves as a fancy-high end grocer, so it's not more than $10-20 over MSRP.  
The hunt can be fun and it can be a total pain in the ass.

agreed....I have found several that are pretty available and not too expensive.  Guy at the local store sold me on a bottle of Benchmark that he had behind the counter.  It was only $20 and is from Buffalo Trace distillery.  It was 126 proof of something but really good.

I thought it was kind of odd that he had that back there but I probably wouldn't have bought it if he had not pointed it out.

Gern Blansten

https://www.buffalotracedistillery.com/our-brands/benchmark/full-proof.html

Here it is....Full Proof

tempo_n_groove

Gern Blansten said:

https://www.buffalotracedistillery.com/our-brands/benchmark/full-proof.html

Here it is....Full Proof

I will look for that and hope the savages haven't ran up the pricing.

Bentleyspop

tempo_n_groove said:

Gern Blansten said:

https://www.buffalotracedistillery.com/our-brands/benchmark/full-proof.html

Here it is....Full Proof

I will look for that and hope the savages haven't ran up the pricing.

It should be a $20 bottle everywhere and easy to find.

tempo_n_groove

Bentleyspop said:

tempo_n_groove said:

Gern Blansten said:

https://www.buffalotracedistillery.com/our-brands/benchmark/full-proof.html

Here it is....Full Proof

I will look for that and hope the savages haven't ran up the pricing.

It should be a $20 bottle everywhere and easy to find.

Dear God that would be amazing.  Is it actually good?  Something like this will make the bourbon snobs shutter.

tempo_n_groove

Reading reviews it gets a "better than average" consistently.  For $20 I'll take that.

Gern Blansten

It's good....I'm still relatively new to bourbon snobbery but I wouldn't guess it was from a $20 bottle.

My only complaint was getting the screw top off....had to go at it with a knife and now it doesn't seal correctly

Bentleyspop

This little  surprise showed up today...

Gern Blansten

Bentleyspop said:

This little  surprise showed up today...

very nice....I've never tried it

mca47

tempo_n_groove said:

Bentleyspop said:

tempo_n_groove said:

Gern Blansten said:

https://www.buffalotracedistillery.com/our-brands/benchmark/full-proof.html

Here it is....Full Proof

I will look for that and hope the savages haven't ran up the pricing.

It should be a $20 bottle everywhere and easy to find.

Dear God that would be amazing.  Is it actually good?  Something like this will make the bourbon snobs shutter.

Well, it's Buffalo Trace, it's going to probably be allocated soon and hit the secondary at $120.
Screw caps and MSPR be damned, Buffalo Trace can do no wrong in the minds of the whiskey horde. 
Weller Special Reserve, a $20-25 bottle, I've seen marked up to $150.  I was at a liquor store not too long ago.  It was a store well known to mark up and play the secondary game, but I was just poking around seeing what they had.  Two dudes come in "Oh man, they got a Weller (Special Reserve).  How much?  Only $120.  Can we get more than one?"  I wanted to walk over and slap them both.
What shocked me more than that dude and his dumb fn comment is that the store only would sell him one at a time.  They said he could come back in a week and get another if he wanted.  Goddamn store owner could have sold him his entire supply if he wanted at $120 ea, but he knows the game.  Gotta get more idiots like that guy in and they'll ALL be coming back and falling for that bullshit.  

Another quick one.
My local Albertson's (Kroger) for some reason got in a supply of BT products last fall.  I was there the day they dropped and noticed the liquor section buzzing.  Walk in and holy crap, they got in some good whisky!  This store never, and I mean NEVER has anything decent whisky-wise.  Checking out what was left and again, two dude grab a Blantons.  "Holy shit, I can't believe they have a Blantons."  They saw me and said "Dude, you better grab one you don't see this stuff ever, and at retail".  I look, and Albertsons...a giant chain, grocery store, marked Blantons at $109.  So even the big guys are playing the secondary game now!  I told those dudes what MSRP actually is for it, they were like "Really?" and they still bought it.

I wish those people would go away!

tempo_n_groove

mca47 said:

tempo_n_groove said:

Bentleyspop said:

tempo_n_groove said:

Gern Blansten said:

https://www.buffalotracedistillery.com/our-brands/benchmark/full-proof.html

Here it is....Full Proof

I will look for that and hope the savages haven't ran up the pricing.

It should be a $20 bottle everywhere and easy to find.

Dear God that would be amazing.  Is it actually good?  Something like this will make the bourbon snobs shutter.

Well, it's Buffalo Trace, it's going to probably be allocated soon and hit the secondary at $120.
Screw caps and MSPR be damned, Buffalo Trace can do no wrong in the minds of the whiskey horde. 
Weller Special Reserve, a $20-25 bottle, I've seen marked up to $150.  I was at a liquor store not too long ago.  It was a store well known to mark up and play the secondary game, but I was just poking around seeing what they had.  Two dudes come in "Oh man, they got a Weller (Special Reserve).  How much?  Only $120.  Can we get more than one?"  I wanted to walk over and slap them both.
What shocked me more than that dude and his dumb fn comment is that the store only would sell him one at a time.  They said he could come back in a week and get another if he wanted.  Goddamn store owner could have sold him his entire supply if he wanted at $120 ea, but he knows the game.  Gotta get more idiots like that guy in and they'll ALL be coming back and falling for that bullshit.  

Another quick one.
My local Albertson's (Kroger) for some reason got in a supply of BT products last fall.  I was there the day they dropped and noticed the liquor section buzzing.  Walk in and holy crap, they got in some good whisky!  This store never, and I mean NEVER has anything decent whisky-wise.  Checking out what was left and again, two dude grab a Blantons.  "Holy shit, I can't believe they have a Blantons."  They saw me and said "Dude, you better grab one you don't see this stuff ever, and at retail".  I look, and Albertsons...a giant chain, grocery store, marked Blantons at $109.  So even the big guys are playing the secondary game now!  I told those dudes what MSRP actually is for it, they were like "Really?" and they still bought it.

I wish those people would go away!

I believe the slang for those people are "taters"?  On a good day I can find Blantons at $65.  I had my honey hole go corporate and all the good stuff gets marked up too now.  The Mgr knows me and asks if I want any of it but if it's not at or around retail I pass.  I told him I'm not chasing bourbon.  There is way too much inexpensive and good bourbon to try.

Cliffy6745

Picked this up. Any good?

bbiggs

^ Yep. Very tasty in my opinion. Enjoy! 

mca47

bbiggs said:

^ Yep. Very tasty in my opinion. Enjoy! 

Agreed.  It's good stuff!

exploderball

mca47 said:

tempo_n_groove said:

Bentleyspop said:

tempo_n_groove said:

Gern Blansten said:

https://www.buffalotracedistillery.com/our-brands/benchmark/full-proof.html

Here it is....Full Proof

I will look for that and hope the savages haven't ran up the pricing.

It should be a $20 bottle everywhere and easy to find.

Dear God that would be amazing.  Is it actually good?  Something like this will make the bourbon snobs shutter.

Well, it's Buffalo Trace, it's going to probably be allocated soon and hit the secondary at $120.
Screw caps and MSPR be damned, Buffalo Trace can do no wrong in the minds of the whiskey horde. 
Weller Special Reserve, a $20-25 bottle, I've seen marked up to $150.  I was at a liquor store not too long ago.  It was a store well known to mark up and play the secondary game, but I was just poking around seeing what they had.  Two dudes come in "Oh man, they got a Weller (Special Reserve).  How much?  Only $120.  Can we get more than one?"  I wanted to walk over and slap them both.
What shocked me more than that dude and his dumb fn comment is that the store only would sell him one at a time.  They said he could come back in a week and get another if he wanted.  Goddamn store owner could have sold him his entire supply if he wanted at $120 ea, but he knows the game.  Gotta get more idiots like that guy in and they'll ALL be coming back and falling for that bullshit.  

Another quick one.
My local Albertson's (Kroger) for some reason got in a supply of BT products last fall.  I was there the day they dropped and noticed the liquor section buzzing.  Walk in and holy crap, they got in some good whisky!  This store never, and I mean NEVER has anything decent whisky-wise.  Checking out what was left and again, two dude grab a Blantons.  "Holy shit, I can't believe they have a Blantons."  They saw me and said "Dude, you better grab one you don't see this stuff ever, and at retail".  I look, and Albertsons...a giant chain, grocery store, marked Blantons at $109.  So even the big guys are playing the secondary game now!  I told those dudes what MSRP actually is for it, they were like "Really?" and they still bought it.

I wish those people would go away!

Only BT can turn NAS bottom shelf offerings into allocated bottles that people hunt. Fuuuck. How long before Benchmark reaches Weller status? I've still never seen a Weller FP in the wild; wouldn't be surprised if I never see a bottle of Benchmark FP either.

I like to think distilleries have been laying down extra barrels of allocated products as they've expanded their capacities over the last 5+ years. But I also wouldn't be surprised if they keep everything rare to maintain the craze. Why meet demand when you can just create new rare brands? That's basically what's happening.

Paid $90 for an ECBP batch A121 today. I normally get it for $60, so that price hurt. But I haven't seen a bottle since 2019, so I didn't even hesitate. It's so delicious, I would do it again. Weller SR and Blanton's are not worth a markup, but ECBP might be...

mca47

exploderball said:

mca47 said:

tempo_n_groove said:

Bentleyspop said:

tempo_n_groove said:

Gern Blansten said:

https://www.buffalotracedistillery.com/our-brands/benchmark/full-proof.html

Here it is....Full Proof

I will look for that and hope the savages haven't ran up the pricing.

It should be a $20 bottle everywhere and easy to find.

Dear God that would be amazing.  Is it actually good?  Something like this will make the bourbon snobs shutter.

Well, it's Buffalo Trace, it's going to probably be allocated soon and hit the secondary at $120.
Screw caps and MSPR be damned, Buffalo Trace can do no wrong in the minds of the whiskey horde. 
Weller Special Reserve, a $20-25 bottle, I've seen marked up to $150.  I was at a liquor store not too long ago.  It was a store well known to mark up and play the secondary game, but I was just poking around seeing what they had.  Two dudes come in "Oh man, they got a Weller (Special Reserve).  How much?  Only $120.  Can we get more than one?"  I wanted to walk over and slap them both.
What shocked me more than that dude and his dumb fn comment is that the store only would sell him one at a time.  They said he could come back in a week and get another if he wanted.  Goddamn store owner could have sold him his entire supply if he wanted at $120 ea, but he knows the game.  Gotta get more idiots like that guy in and they'll ALL be coming back and falling for that bullshit.  

Another quick one.
My local Albertson's (Kroger) for some reason got in a supply of BT products last fall.  I was there the day they dropped and noticed the liquor section buzzing.  Walk in and holy crap, they got in some good whisky!  This store never, and I mean NEVER has anything decent whisky-wise.  Checking out what was left and again, two dude grab a Blantons.  "Holy shit, I can't believe they have a Blantons."  They saw me and said "Dude, you better grab one you don't see this stuff ever, and at retail".  I look, and Albertsons...a giant chain, grocery store, marked Blantons at $109.  So even the big guys are playing the secondary game now!  I told those dudes what MSRP actually is for it, they were like "Really?" and they still bought it.

I wish those people would go away!

Only BT can turn NAS bottom shelf offerings into allocated bottles that people hunt. Fuuuck. How long before Benchmark reaches Weller status? I've still never seen a Weller FP in the wild; wouldn't be surprised if I never see a bottle of Benchmark FP either.

I like to think distilleries have been laying down extra barrels of allocated products as they've expanded their capacities over the last 5+ years. But I also wouldn't be surprised if they keep everything rare to maintain the craze. Why meet demand when you can just create new rare brands? That's basically what's happening.

Paid $90 for an ECBP batch A121 today. I normally get it for $60, so that price hurt. But I haven't seen a bottle since 2019, so I didn't even hesitate. It's so delicious, I would do it again. Weller SR and Blanton's are not worth a markup, but ECBP might be...

A121 is a really good batch!  I believe the MSRP on ECBP has gone up $10 over the last year so $90 isn't too bad.
Almost grabbed the B521 at a store over the weekend.  Was at MSPR, but heard this batch is a little "meh" compared to the last handful of releases.  Oddly enough, for this being a shitty whiskey town, I have no problem finding each release of ECBP and for retail.  

Bentleyspop

Just got to try this....

mca47

Bentleyspop said:

Just got to try this....

How was it?