Horn21

Don’t know how far out they’ve made it, but they’ve been on the shelves of Austin TW’s for a while.

Except for the GTS and WLW, every one of those bottles has an opened version on the proper bar.

I’m listening.

Haven’t cracked it open yet, but it was pretty damn good at the distillery. Aside from the distillate itself, the grounds out there are incredible. Best tour in KY of the ones we visited, IMO.

This 14-yr Dickel is pretty damn tasty.

Ask for the mini spatula before your first course. There’s no shame in sending back each plate as clean as it came to the table.

Yeah, it’s not the best pic as I couldn’t get any closer due to the iron gate under lock and key. Seeing that many BTAC bottles in one location was almost surreal. I’ve never wanted to be a successful heist man more in all of my life.

By the way, first trip to Kentucky. Castle & Key is far and away the best distillery tour that we took. It’s fairly new...they are aging their bourbon, but only produce gin and vodka currently. Look them up if you don’t know their story. On top of all of their bad assery, they have the first female master distiller in the history of bourbon production. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Sigh

Don’t let@chitwood fool any of you, his game is closer than close. His 6 iron might end up in the Louvre some day. Been meaning to post a few pics from the last couple bucket list rounds over the past 6 weeks.@BTW and I played Valhalla this past Tuesday for his 40th, and played Shadow Creek first week of March. Of the two, SC gets the nod as everything was perfect. From the drive in, to the service, to our forecaddie, to every inch of the course. Valhalla was incredible, but our forecaddie was meh and the course just recently opened from the winter and wasn’t in tip-top shape. It was still an awesome round, though. I love this game. And I love it even more getting to play it with friends new and old. Valhalla: Shadow Creek:

Headed to Kentucky 4/15-4/19 for [mention=1802]BTW[/mention] 40th. Hitting up some distilleries, horse races, Louisville Slugger HQ, and Valhalla. Any can’t-miss recs? I know we’re doing Makers. Others are up in the air at this point, I believe.

I like it. The ~115 proof is kinda my wheelhouse. I know [mention=129]capnamerca[/mention] is a huge fan of Belle Meade.

TxTower was the one who asked if it was worth a c-note. And you and ck both responded.

You fellas who don’t enjoy sipping top shelf whiskey with your wife are missing out. Whiskey is for drinking and wives are for porch-drinking with.

Yeah, admittedly I went into conspiracy mode as soon as the episode ended and blanked on some recent scenes. Thought about deleting my post, but decided to let my lack of awareness stand. I might go back and watch because I honestly can’t remember how much of the interview was Roland and how much was Wayne.

For sure. I guess I'm just expecting a twist regarding Wayne's 2015 imagination/deterioration as it relates to someone in his life. Roland and his son are the two major characters in 2015, so just wondering if it could be a twist. His son seems to be on the periphery in 2015..like he only really engages with Wayne, but it'd be an even bigger stretch to have him be a part of Wayne's imagination in 2015.

I don't think Harris would necessarily know that Roland was dirty. That could be a direct line between Roland and Hoyt. I haven't read all the theories on this thread, and this is way out there, but do we have evidence of 2015 Roland communicating with anyone other than old Wayne or his son? I can't remember. Any chance Roland is dead in 2015 and he's just another person from Wayne's past who shows up and weaves between reality and his imagination?

Not sure what the Houston market is, but ER10 is pretty attainable in Austin for ~$30. As is BT for ~$25.

I've lived in Austin for 20+ years and have never been for some reason. Oddly enough, wife and I have a standing date night across the street at Julio's every Friday. Guess we need to stroll across the street.

It might be nectar of the gods, but it is odd to me that a low to mid-tier whiskey producer would jump straight to a scarce high-end bourbon. The "history" tab on their site is 3 paragraphs discussing Sam Houston the man with something like "and this bourbon mirrors his legacy" thrown in as an afterthought. I suppose if it's no good, the market will reflect that. I'm curious to read your thoughts on it.

Speaking specifically in Austin, Spec's had a great opportunity, IMO. They had a captive market and had a lot of people going to them first for their needs. Whatever decisions have been made higher up the chain the last few years have really brought them down in the eyes of the more discerning boozehounds. It might not hurt them in the short-term, but I have to think looking out 10+ years, Spec's is going to regret the path they have chosen. Granted, a shitload of folks just want their Popov or Early Times or High Life and they want it as cheap as possible and that's all they care about, but it's crazy to me that Spec's is willingly and purposefully creating a shit experience for what seems to me to be a rather not-insignificant part of their market. CSB. Spec's is garbage.

I think everyone on this thread is already well aware of HM10, but I could be wrong. I agree with the sentiment of pay what you want to pay. I also don't think it takes some elaborate scheme to do what BC does for his purchases. I do the same thing, and it's pretty damn easy. I think BC and I have scored some incredible bottles at the same location. It's part relationship and part luck. I typically use the same store when I pick up my 1-2 bottles a week of gin/vodka/tequila/wine that I'm going to purchase anyways, ask for recs on new stuff, and talk bourbon for a few mins. Over the last year or so I've purchased a couple THHs, GTS, and WLW in addition to several bottles each of harder stuff to nab like ER, W12, Blanton's, ETL, and MWND through them, all at MSRP. Some were luck and some were favors for a customer who spends a chunk of money in that store on a regular basis. Again, spend what you want to spend, but it doesn't take the lengths of which you describe to score some fantastic bottles at standard retail pricing. In fact, I'd argue that hunting down bottles for $300+ takes more effort in many cases, beyond just paying 3x retail. A lot of the store managers/owners appreciate and are excited to sell their product to customers they know aren't in the flipping game.

@chitwood 's or nah? <ducks>

I don't have a ton of them, probably ~10, but I only vividly remember about half of them. I definitely remember the 2 kick-ins from 3" though: #2 at Crenshaw BCCC & #7 at Forest Creek. The hole-in-one is still elusive for me.