Most rare bourbon made today is rare because they want it to be. The Van Winkles bottle as much product as they want to bottle. They could easily sell more, and could, and probably should raise their prices to whatever they want. They don't, because they like the prestige they have now, IMO. In some ways, the unicorn bottles drive the market for other things, and the interest in bourbon in general, so there's no incentive to make them more available. We're at a point that even non drinkers know about Pappy. Because of the success of those hard to get bottles, pretty much every company now essentially have created their own unicorns. Since there is a correlation in the minds of the consumer between scarcity and age and perceived quality, people are willing to spend the money. The fact is that because of evaporation, and just the time in general, it's not economical for companies to make large amounts of very old, premium bourbon. Pappy 23 has something like 10 gallons left from 50 by the time it gets that age, and there's only that much because they are very careful about where it is aged in the rickhouse. So for the true unicorn bottles, the only way they'll become more available is if interest in bourbon falls off.
There is a correlation in the relative scarcity of things and the huge boom in popularity, but that mostly has to do with distilleries being purposefully cautious as much as anything. In the "glut period" as it's known, when bourbon was overtaken by vodka following a long period of being the most popular spirit, lots of bourbon distilleries went out of business, and lots of bourbon sat in barrels in rickhouses that couldn't be sold. That's why bottles from that period are so sought after in the dusty market, because you had distillers putting 10-12 year old product in bottles of 8 year bourbon just to get rid of it. I've even read of barrels being dumped and the bourbon being put through the still again to make it into vodka. Given the time involved to make a quality product, some companies were reluctant to lay down a bunch of product worrying that the boom would drop off and they would be left holding the bag again. There's not many industries where you spend money to make something that you won't be able to sell for 4+ years.
My hope is that in the future, with the increase in production, you see age statements return, and more quality product on the shelf. In the old days, you even had things like Ancient Age on the bottom shelf with a 10 year age statement. That was better quality product more easily available to the consumer. There was a time when 8-12 years was standard, and I think that was because that's when bourbon is in its sweet spot to my tastes. Hopefully we get back there.
Just a guy on the sunshine squad.
The Gatekeeper.
Homer Dumbarse.
StateFan2001 will probably respond to this because he doesn't understand how ignore works.
