Haha, you know everyone asks that when I talk about my collection. In truth, I do give away a lot of bourbon. It's my go to gift for people. Also if I run across something that I know someone else likes, I'll pick it up for them. Or if I buy something that doesn't really suit my tastes, I'll donate it to a buddy's home bar. I'm all for sharing, but most of the stuff I have I would like to be able to enjoy it myself. I just don't drink that much anymore, and when I do, it's only a few drinks at a time. At the pace with which I was buying bottles over the last few years when I was really chasing rare things, I was accumulating far quicker than I could drink the stuff. It comes down to determining if you are collecting just for the sake of collecting. I know a guy that has a collection three to four times as big as mine. That's just not something I wanted to end up with.

Elijah Craig Barrel Proof is in Wake County.
133.4 proof

CMcWolfpack said:

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Elijah Craig Barrel Proof is in Wake County.
133.4 proof

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Ugh, that's too high. I probably wouldn't like that one very much.

walstylez said:

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CMcWolfpack said:

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Elijah Craig Barrel Proof is in Wake County.
133.4 proof

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Ugh, that's too high. I probably wouldn't like that one very much.

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What's not to like? It does EXACTLY what you want it to do!

I picked up some Breckenridge last night for the first time. Good stuff; pretty smooth taste.

NatePait94 said:

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walstylez said:

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CMcWolfpack said:

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Elijah Craig Barrel Proof is in Wake County.
133.4 proof

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Ugh, that's too high. I probably wouldn't like that one very much.

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What's not to like? It does EXACTLY what you want it to do!

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Yeah, but that's too high for me to sip and enjoy with a cigar. Need something under 100. Call me weaksauce I guess.

AlleyPack said:

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I picked up some Breckenridge last night for the first time. Good stuff; pretty smooth taste.

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Yeah, Breckenridge really is very good. Last year at our annual beach trip, I sat outside and finished nearly a whole fifth by myself. I was WASTED. Passed out real early, lol.

Ya see man, that is definitely not weaksauce. You and I would get along with that whole "drinking a fifth thing"

I was just gifted a bottle of Bowman Brothers single barrel. I have never tried it before nor did I know it is made in Virginia. I am not opening yet since i hav too many already open. So, have any of you ever tried it and if so, what are your thoughts?

SSBPack said:

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I was just gifted a bottle of Bowman Brothers single barrel. I have never tried it before nor did I know it is made in Virginia. I am not opening yet since i hav too many already open. So, have any of you ever tried it and if so, what are your thoughts?

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Had three of their expressions, most recently their cask finish. It actually starts life in Kentucky at Buffalo Trace. They distill it, and ship it to Virginia, where it is distilled another time on their smaller still so that they can legally say it was distilled in Virginia.

The Bowman brothers small batch I thought tasted a bit young still, with a lot of strong corn still present in the after taste. They say it is six to seven years old, but the bottle I had seemed closer to younger bourbons I've had in 2-3 year range. Could've been just that bottle, I haven't gotten around to buying another.

The John J. Bowman single barrel had a peppery spice to it that I would normally associate with a high rye bourbon, even though I know that's not what it is (supposedly same mash bill as BR, Eagle Rare, EH Taylor, etc). For something that is supposedly around ten years old, the oak flavors were pretty low, maybe due to the difference in climate between Virginia and Kentucky. Good, but in the $50+ range there are others I'd buy first.

The version finished in Port barrels I only tried at a friend's house, I've never bought a bottle. Wine cask finished bourbons aren't really my thing, but it was ok. Not much different from other cask finished ones I've tried, like Angels envy. Good for a drink, but probably not something I would sit and drink all night.

For as much as I like Buffalo Trace, and in particular that mash bill, overall the Bowman stuff has been a disappointment for me. Not bad by any means, just not as good as I would think.

Today was National Bourbon Day. I celebrated with several glasses of Old Weller Antique. Cheers!

Picked up a bottle of Buffalo Trace last week in S.C.
Tonight will be my first time trying it, as nowhere local carries it.

I've been enjoying Eagle Rare here lately, so hoping the B.T. matches up.

AlleyPack said:

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Picked up a bottle of Buffalo Trace last week in S.C.
Tonight will be my first time trying it, as nowhere local carries it.

I've been enjoying Eagle Rare here lately, so hoping the B.T. matches up.

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Eagle Rare is the same liquid as the namesake BT bourbon, just aged a bit longer. Neither carry an age statement, but BT is supposed to be 4-5 years old, and ER is around 7. In general, the different expressions from BT are a good way to examine how barrel time and locations affect the finished product. They only have three mash bill recipes, and all of their many expressions come from those three. BT>ER>EH Taylor is a good flight for comparison, and Ancient Age>Old Charter>Blanton's is another. The namesake BT is my favorite bourbon when quality and price are both taken into consideration.

Bump. Looking for recommendations for a good 90+ degree humid day pregame bottle

wolfpack1437 said:

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Bump. Looking for recommendations for a good 90+ degree humid day pregame bottle

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I'm not sure that's possible. I would bring Buffalo Trace...but that's like wasting it, since out there, taste shouldn't matter, haha.

walstylez said:

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wolfpack1437 said:

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Bump. Looking for recommendations for a good 90+ degree humid day pregame bottle

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I'm not sure that's possible. I would bring Buffalo Trace...but that's like wasting it, since out there, taste shouldn't matter, haha.

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It's possible. Makers 46 was great last Saturday

Evan William's is a great pregame half gallon for ten bucks. It's the taste of adolescence.

I don't drink before these noon September games. If I we're going to, I'd probably go something cheap and low proof to mix with soda. Since I'm a Buffalo Trace guy, I'd say Benchmark or Ancient Age.

wilmwolf80 said:

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I don't drink before these noon September games. If I we're going to, I'd probably go something cheap and low proof to mix with soda. Since I'm a Buffalo Trace guy, I'd say Benchmark or Ancient Age.

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Ancient Age was the go to whiskey for my roommate and I in college. Lots of memories from my old days tied up in that bourbon. Might be worth me picking up a bottle for Sat

Bought my bottle of AA, Makers 46, and EH Taylor single barrel. As much as I want to drink AA at the game..... I've been thinking about our win last weekend and realize there's no option but the 46. I don't want to be responsible for a loss

(ducks....wilmwolf probably throwing a bottle at me )..... What's up with Blanton's in the last year or so? My last 3 bottles, all from different states at different times, have been subpar. I thought it was just me but did some searching online and realize others have had the same experience.

Honestly, Eagle Rare has been much better of late

wolfpack1437 said:

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(ducks....wilmwolf probably throwing a bottle at me )..... What's up with Blanton's in the last year or so? My last 3 bottles, all from different states at different times, have been subpar. I thought it was just me but did some searching online and realize others have had the same experience.

Honestly, Eagle Rare has been much better of late

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With increased demand, there are two options. Continue to put out the same product at the same rate and quality and have people angry that it's never available. Or you can lower the standards a bit and put out a little more to meet the demand. If I had to guess that, along with the passing of Elmer T. Lee who oversaw the selection of Blanton's barrels, has probably resulted in a product of slightly less quality making it to market. Also must consider that Blanton's is a single barrel product, and therefore there will always be some variation from one bottle to the next. The current bottle of Blanton's I have open is from 2015. The previous was from 2017. I couldn't detect a drastic difference between the two. Honestly, because of the popularity boom, I feel that the quality of all bourbon has suffered. There is also some revisionism amongst bourbon die hards, that things were better "back in my day" before everyone was into bourbon. It is true to an extent, but we tend to remember things we like as being better than they were. The first bottle of Blanton's I ever bought, back when you could just walk in the store and it was always on the shelf, was the best bourbon I'd ever had to that point. It was also by far the most expensive, even then when it was in the $50 range. Was it really that great, or was it just so much better than Jim Beam or whatever else I had at the time? Probably a little of both.

wilmwolf80 said:

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wolfpack1437 said:

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(ducks....wilmwolf probably throwing a bottle at me )..... What's up with Blanton's in the last year or so? My last 3 bottles, all from different states at different times, have been subpar. I thought it was just me but did some searching online and realize others have had the same experience.

Honestly, Eagle Rare has been much better of late

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With increased demand, there are two options. Continue to put out the same product at the same rate and quality and have people angry that it's never available. Or you can lower the standards a bit and put out a little more to meet the demand. If I had to guess that, along with the passing of Elmer T. Lee who oversaw the selection of Blanton's barrels, has probably resulted in a product of slightly less quality making it to market. Also must consider that Blanton's is a single barrel product, and therefore there will always be some variation from one bottle to the next. The current bottle of Blanton's I have open is from 2015. The previous was from 2017. I couldn't detect a drastic difference between the two. Honestly, because of the popularity boom, I feel that the quality of all bourbon has suffered. There is also some revisionism amongst bourbon die hards, that things were better "back in my day" before everyone was into bourbon. It is true to an extent, but we tend to remember things we like as being better than they were. The first bottle of Blanton's I ever bought, back when you could just walk in the store and it was always on the shelf, was the best bourbon I'd ever had to that point. It was also by far the most expensive, even then when it was in the $50 range. Was it really that great, or was it just so much better than Jim Beam or whatever else I had at the time? Probably a little of both.

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So much good info there wilmwolf! I agree that the "better" stuff from "the old days" is likely a combination of nostalgia and a certain amount of truth. Obviously when there wasn't any demand at all 15 years ago for higher end/aged, it is likely that many distilleries mixed in older aged barrels into their standard offerings bc they didn't need to hold many of them for their low demand top shelf offerings. If you have them and need to use them before they taste like sawdust, it would make sense to use them to improve your best selling/most popular middle shelf offerings.

I do think that we are only a few years away from there being enough aged product to meet the rising demand. The big distilleries have been expanding and increasing production exponentially since about 2012.

I do question what BT is trying to accomplish with the recent ER and BSB. ER is half the price while the taste has been impressive and consistent. The respective prices of each would suggest that those qualities be found in the BSB. It might be that Blanton's is getting bottled younger now while ER still carries its 10yr age statement. Sad thing is that I have a feeling they know with current demand/social trends that BSB will sell just on name (and looks) so it might be the one that suffers from quality shortcuts the most (bc they aren't afraid the demand will weaken.....unlike ER/BT which have a ton of competition in a similar price range)

One thing I will say about Blanton's is that it's a small operation. The Blanton's bottling "warehouse" is about this size of my two car garage. They roll the barrel in there, dump it, and a few ladies bottle it, put the handwritten labels on there, put a little paper collar on to protect the bottle, and then do the wax around the top. Really cool process to watch. There are also a lot of Blanton's products not available stateside, like green label, gold label, straight from the barrel, etc. Also, a significant amount still goes to Japan, where it was introduced and marketed originally. Like you I think it probably sells no matter what is in the bottle just based on reputation.

I agree about Eagle Rare, it is consistently one of the best out there. They did take away the single barrel designation for it a few years back, said that because of the automated bottling they couldn't guarantee it was single barrel. That and moving the age statement to the back of the bottle has made a lot of folks suspicious that they are setting it up to no longer be a ten year product. We'll see. It's abundant in NC of late, and if I don't see anything else in the store that jumps out, I'll always grab a bottle of it because it's so solid.

I didn't know that about the bottling of Blanton's. We did the Trail several years ago and had to cancel our BT visit bc of time-- it's first on my list next trip.

I've eyed the Blanton's gold and straight from the barrel online for a few years now-- from the barrel is unbelievably pricey. Maybe I will need to bite the bullet and order one of them.

Have you tried the Joseph Magnus? Sourced and then finished in DC. I never see it here but I see it often in VA and have thought about picking it up but the price is around $100

Haven't had that one, but I've seen reviews. Similar product is Belle Meade from Nelson's Greenbrier distillery in Tennessee. They are coming out with a Tennessee whiskey, but to make money they started the bourbon label as well. They source and then do cask finishes there. If you like the flavor profile of MGP high rye bourbon, that's another to look for. The single barrel and various cask finishes are 80-100, but not available in NC last I checked. I picked up a few bottles from them when I visited while on a trip to Nashville.

^great recommendations, thanks! The story behind the Joseph Magnus has almost been enough to pick it up......Great Grandson finds bottle of 100 year old bourbon after cleaning out parents home and it turns out that his great grandfather made it. He gets several bourbon experts to help him recreate a similar taste profile bourbon

wolfpack1437 said:

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^great recommendations, thanks! The story behind the Joseph Magnus has almost been enough to pick it up......Great Grandson finds bottle of 100 year old bourbon after cleaning out parents home and it turns out that his great grandfather made it. He gets several bourbon experts to help him recreate a similar taste profile bourbon

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Actually the stories of the two brands are very similar. Two brothers discovered that their family used to make whiskey and traced down the history of it. Since they were direct decedents, they were able to resurrect the brand under the same distillers license number.

Looks like I'll have to get some Belle Meade too. I'm a sucker for a good story!

Picked up the new Old Fitz 9-year today

Now that makes me jealous. Don't even know when the liquor stores will reopen here. Not that I'm at risk for running out with ~85 bottles.

wilmwolf80 said:

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Now that makes me jealous. Don't even know when the liquor stores will reopen here. Not that I'm at risk for running out with ~85 bottles.

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Don't be too jealous-- there was only one bottle left and I can't decide whether to drink it or keep it for a later date. I tried several counties after finding that bottle and it appears nobody else has gotten it yet

ETA-- having read 4 reviews, 3 of the 4 rated it a better bottle than the 11 year. Fred Minnick said it was the bourbon he was expecting with the original spring release (11 year). I almost hate to even open it since it's clear while looking for a bottle of the 11 year that this is going to be similar to the BTAC--- impossible to find and outrageous on the secondary market. If I find another bottle (hopefully 2) I'll pick you up one and and you can grab it from me at a home game.

Angel's Envy Cask Strength in Cameron Village. Only a couple left

That's a more than generous offer. Thank you. Whenever the stores finally opened up this weekend I stopped in a few, but not much in the way of anything special. Did pick up a bottle of Smooth Ambler Big Level. I'm a fan of wheaters, so I figure I'd try it, despite some underwhelming reviews. I've had Old Scout, which was a bourbon they sourced, but Big Level is their own juice. Most reviews mentioned it tasting young, and there definitely is a lot of young corn taste there. I think five years just isn't long enough for a wheat bourbon to really mature, but it definitely isn't bad. After a little time in the glass, the corn nose went away, and I found it to be a very pleasant bourbon. For $50 it is overpriced compared to other wheater options out there like Maker's or Larceny (or even Old Weller Antique, which I have managed to accumulate a lot of), but that price is probably in line with the market I guess. If they ever get to a point where they can let it age to the 7-8 year mark I think it would be excellent.

^no luck yet on the search for more Old Fitz, however did stumble upon a Weller 12. I've got one more store to check tomorrow -- they get delivery in the am.

As for the Old Fitz/Weller, there's still plenty in the NC warehouse which means they held back the coastal stuff until they can get trucks there easily. Luckily for you guys the next truck should be absolutely loaded EC Barrel Proof/Parker's Heritage/Old Fitz/Weller/Angels Envy Cask Strength/Blanton's/BT