BOURBON NEWS:
PGA Champ Steve Elkington names his three favorite bourbons. I won’t spoil it.
Why is Pappy Van Winkle so far hard to find? Here’s a good explainer.
Five people won TWICE in the recent Ohio bourbon lottery of the aforementioned Parry and Buffalo Trace Antique Collection (BTAC) bourbons. They should buy lottery tickets
Levee on the River in Louisville has reopened as a bourbon lounge
Woodford Reserve has released its limited supply double-double oak bourbon. The distillery is already sold out but you might get lucky and find one on a shelf (doubtful though)
Old Forester continues to annoy buyers by sending out emails for product that isn’t widely available. The latest --- Old Forester Master Taster Single Barrel was gone in minutes. Maybe just make it available at the distillery and don’t tease is all?
WHAT’S THE SECONDARY MARKET?
Bourbon, especially the good stuff, can be hard to find. The much sought-after Pappy brands produce about 7,000 cases, or 84,000 bottles, annually. Wild Turkey produced only 36,000 bottles of its Diamond bourbon. Buffalo Trace produced just 299 bottles of the Double Eagle Very Rare bourbon.
Unless you’re very lucky, you won’t find these on the shelf anywhere. That’s where the secondary market comes in.
Buyers lucky enough to find a bottle at retail can sell it on the equivalent of the bourbon black market. That Double Eagle Rare retailed for $2,000 but sells for $15,000 on the secondary; Pappy Van Winkle’s 23-year bourbon retails for $250 but fetches at least $5,000.
I’ve had good success with some of these markets. I’ve been able to secure all of the 1792 bottles except the 225th anniversary (I’m still searching). I’ve purchased bottles of the Belle Meade barrel strength reserve, Old Ezra 7, and the aforementioned Wild Turkey Diamond all at 25- to 50-percent markups, which isn’t bad given overall prices.
These markets are not easy to find because they’re hidden. Why? Shipping alcohol is still illegal and social media companies have really clamped down on alcohol sales. I used to buy all of my IW Harper Gold on eBay before it shut down all alcohol sales way back in 2012. Facebook followed suit in 2019.
There are still other avenues. Retailers like SipWhiskey often have very hard to find bourbons at those secondary prices (how about a 2005 Pappy 23-year for $8.999, which by the way just sold) --- and they sell. Fast. Supply and demand is a hell of a thing.
But most of the action happens on the hidden sites. You need a recommendation to get in, kind of like those old booze and gambling boot joints hidden in the basement of someone’s house. The rules are tighter than trying to get through TSA precheck, with certain words you can and can’t use. And no, I can’t (or won’t) list any of these sites because I don’t want to get banned from them.
These sites hold a great advantage because it really opens up buying opportunities —- assuming you’re OK paying $375 for a bottle of Old Forestor 150, which is $150 retail. I want one, especially since there are only 150 barrels in existence (an estimated 22,500 at 150 bottles per barrel). But at $375? I’ll pass. They also provide a really good idea of market value.
But if you play at the deep end of the pool, you have to get references from the seller and be as secure as possible. These sites will even put up “FBI Top Most Wanted” list-type announcements, outing a seller who has done a buyer wrong. The sites will screenshot your Facebook page with a cautionary “this person is a weasel” note in the hope no one else gets ripped off.
You also, in addition to the weasels, have opportunists. For example, local bourbon groups are far more community-oriented than the nationals. The locals delight in sharing bourbons, selling or auctioning hard to find bottles at retail or far smaller markups, and enjoying each other’s company. It’s not unusual, on these local groups, to get really good bottles at retail. The opportunists see this, buy, and then flip for a profit. Flipping tends to infuriate the locals because that’s not what those groups are about. And. no matter where you go, you have jerks, and I’ve run into some myself.
Still, I’m swimming in the deep end of the pool.
WHAT’S NEW ON MY SHELF:
William Larue Weller: Retail, $99. Secondary, $1,150
I’ve been chasing a bottle of WLW for a while now, and I finally got one. How? In a trade.
I recently obtained, at retail ($159!) a second bottle of Van Winkle Family Reserve Rye, which has a secondary market valuation of $1,550 to $1,600. So I flipped my new bottle for a WLW and an EH Taylor Barrell Proof ($450 secondary value). That’s a fair trade with a local guy. (I would NEVER trade on the national level. Too much of a headache when it comes to shipping.)
That really was the only way I was going to get a WLW and complete my Weller set.
WLW is one of five bottles that make up the storied Buffalo Trace Antique Collection, a group of higher-end product. The other bottles --- George T. Stagg (I have one!) Sazerac Rye 18 year, Eagle Rare 17 year, and Thomas E. Handy.
There’s a reason this stuff is so highly sought after. It’s among the best there is and it’s nearly impossible to get at retail. Buffalo Trace no longer releases barrel information on its fact sheets so you can’t even estimate bottle availability. Back in 2018, BreakingBourbon estimated Buffalo Trace released less than 2,500 bottles each of the Saz and Eagle Rare, about 17,000 each of the Handy and Weller, about 37,000 bottles of the Stagg.
Being named the 2019 World Whiskey of the Year only drove demand more. (Don’t you hate when some group comes out and names a bourbon best? Just drives up the price, like when McKenna 10 went from $30 to $60 and became hard to find after it won the best whiskey at the San Francisco whiskey competition in 2019.
My 2017 WLW clocks in a 128.6 proof of pure gold. It’s uncut and unfiltered. That means it hasn’t been diluted with water and the distiller doesn’t chill the juice to filter out impurities. Without the filtering, this wheated bourbon takes on a deep, rich amber color. (BTW if you’re lucky enough to get a 2020 bottling, that one comes in at 134.5 proof, WLW’s highest ever).
So what is this like? Make sure you breathe through your mouth and not your nose because the heat hits hard. But right after that alcohol, oak and brown sugar come right on through. While I prefer my bourbon neat, in this case I use a couple of drops of water to bring out the intense caramel and cinnamon. It has a big, long, deep finish that brings out dried cherries and what tastes to me like homemade caramel that lingers on the palate long after you’re consumed the juice.
It’s a shame that the bourbon market is such that this isn’t more widely available. I’ve said before I have a hard time dropping $100 or more on a bottle of bourbon, but in this case, I’d buy this all day, every day. It’s on the shortlist of bourbons worth the money, a list that includes the BTAC collection, Wild Turkey Diamond, and Wild Turkey Master’s Keep.
You may not be able to get a bottle of WLW but you might luck into a bar that’ll sell you a shot for $100.
Proof: 128.6
Mash Bill: Undisclosed
Age Statement: 12 years
BOURBON PICKS
Affordable bourbon that would be good on your shelf
Evan Williams Single Barrel: $29.99
I think Evan Williams tends to be dismissed because of the big, black-labeled bottle that tends to reside on the bottom of liquor store shelves. But Evan Williams makes a few different variations of its product, including the very nice single barrel. Sweet, vanilla, caramel, oak, long finish
Mashbill: 78% corn, 10% rye, 12% malted barley Heaven Hill distillery
BOURBON EVENTS
Note: There are lots of scheduled bourbon events coming up but, due to Covid, I’m only listing events happening after April and will adjust as I go along.
Whiskey Fest is scheduled for April 17 in Hollywood FL.
The Bourbon and Bowties fundraiser for Children’s Hospital in Prospect, KY is scheduled for June 10
The Bacon, Bourbon and Brew festival is scheduled for July 8-11 in Cincinnati
The Bourbon on the Banks festival is scheduled for August 27 and 28 in Frankfort, KY
The Bourbon Burn, a bike tour of distilleries and horse farms, will be Sept. 24 in Kentucky
The Kentucky Bourbon Festival plans to hold its event Sept. 16-21 in Bardstown. More info to come
The Edge Bourbon Festival in Northern Kentucky is scheduled for October 1.
First Capital Bourbon Dinner is scheduled Nov. 5 in Chillicothe, OH
Whiskey’s of the World in San Francisco has been postponed a couple of time. We’ll see how that goes.
Whiskey Fest in NYC, Chicago, and San Francisco are all TBA
Bourbon and Bubbles, the premier annual event of the Dayton (OH) Art Institute is on hold