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Jimbaround

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Looks like Irving had Michter’s 10 Year Rye well into Saturday evening. That’s a damn good bottle to last that long. I wonder what happened there? 

Also grabbing a Blanton’s Gold after 3 is pretty nuts. 

I believe they had Michter’s 10 Year Rye at the pick ‘em table. I went with the Old Forester Barrel Strength Rye because I’ve never tried it before. 

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6 minutes ago, billfromlaketravis said:

Looks like Irving had Michter’s 10 Year Rye well into Saturday evening. That’s a damn good bottle to last that long. I wonder what happened there? 

Also grabbing a Blanton’s Gold after 3 is pretty nuts. 

I believe they had Michter’s 10 Year Rye at the pick ‘em table. I went with the Old Forester Barrel Strength Rye because I’ve never tried it before. 

Good choice. 

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Specs drop scatter shooting: 

- Waiting out the line until there is no line in the afternoon is the way to go. 

- Almost everyone in front of me skipped the BT and Saz picks at $30. Great value to drinkers like myself. Worthless to flippers. 


- Many people had empty carts until the pick ‘em table, and they were all on their phones asking what they should grab/Venmo me the cash from their flipper overlords/cousins. 
 

- If I had to guess CYPB is flipper gold. Low MSRP entry point at $60, and they can probably sell it for at least $300. 

- Based on Reddit, people in the 1000s  at Irving were getting Blanton’s Gold. Insane. 

- I’d imagine the bottom has fallen out on Willett 8 purple tops. They might have a couple cases tomorrow morning. I know it’s overrated, but I’ve never tried it. I really enjoyed some of the early Family Estate SiBs at Hay Merchant, so hopefully I run into a good bottle. 

- The profit margins must not be good on OGD 16 either. I’d imagine it’ll make it into midweek. 

- The mysterious disappearance on Weller Antique continues. I don’t think BT will 86 it, but maybe it gets the Hancock treatment. Legacy brand that they don’t make very much of. 
 

- I don’t think I saw 1 bottle of Weller SiB in anybody’s cart shots. Pretty curious. 

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19 hours ago, billfromlaketravis said:

- If I had to guess CYPB is flipper gold. Low MSRP entry point at $60, and they can probably sell it for at least $300. 

I bought a GTS secondary and the guy offered me a CYPB for $400. That was an easy pass for me. But I mean, yeah. If others are willing to pay that much then it's a good play I suppose.

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29 minutes ago, NOMAAA said:

Good to know. Specs btac is entirely based on $ spent that year. So good luck. My store had several caterers that won out. Not me. 
 

f-

Yeah, the caterers, expensive wine guys, and one off restaurant/bar owners will bury you. I just keep my mouth shut, never complain, and buy whatever is offered to me. 

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Saw my first MNWD out in the wild, I didn’t buy it, I’ve only had it once and wasn’t all that impressed. They wanted $200, might have been good trade bait. I did buy two bottles of EHT’s Rye offering. 

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Every one of those is a different batch and they vary quite widely despite their efforts to control the variation. Have had some great and some terrible. Most have been average. Best one I had was at Willett. I’m sure that’s not an accident. 

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16 minutes ago, Bert Orange said:

Every one of those is a different batch and they vary quite widely despite their efforts to control the variation. Have had some great and some terrible. Most have been average. Best one I had was at Willett. I’m sure that’s not an accident. 

I think it’s time for another Nashville charity pick Bert.

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11 hours ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

Do you keep an infinity bottle? 

I’ve thought about it. I assume you pour a couple ounces from every bottle and track what you added? 
 

I hate to be that guy, but if it’s not BT, HH, or OF I’m probably passing for the foreseeable future. I keep trying new stuff and it’s disappointed me. Time to play the classics for awhile. 
 

Green River Full Proof has probably been the only new product I’ve enjoyed this year. 

Edited by billfromlaketravis
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On 1/3/2025 at 6:23 PM, billfromlaketravis said:

This one is odd. The Willett funk is there but it’s mild. I hate the Willett funk, but this is pretty crushable. I probably won’t revisit given the price tag, but I’m glad I tried it.

IMG_2751.thumb.jpeg.0df025d1ec9e39ab9404b1075dc8ad97.jpeg

i have that one too and paid a pretty penny for it.  its not the purple tops the distillery has but its as close as you're going to find on the shelf.

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On 1/4/2025 at 7:37 PM, billfromlaketravis said:

I’ve thought about it. I assume you pour a couple ounces from every bottle and track what you added? 

Yep, except I don’t keep track. I just add some of whatever comes through the cabinet and seems like it would be interesting.

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21 hours ago, billfromlaketravis said:

Please, tell us more. 

There were some brokered barrels floating around, it’s apparently Wild Turkey mashbill and yeast distilled by Buffalo Trace.  I’m not sure if anybody knows where it was aged, but it definitely tastes more like Wild Turkey than any BT product.  I haven’t had the Seelbach’s version, but had one from the Whiskey Blendery private labeled at barrel proof.  It’s all good, but I’m a sucker for most things high aged.  

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3 minutes ago, Irwin F Fletcher said:

Would agree with that assessment. I'm a bourbon novice, thought the Weller white label had too much of a sweetness.

I really like Bourbon I particularly love Weller, and the whole CYPB project feels like suckerbait to me. 
107 is great, though.
 

Edited by Bozo_Casanova
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48 minutes ago, RMac5 said:

Weller fan as well, need to revisit the 107, wasn’t a huge fan the first time I tried it. Had two bottles and gave one to a buddy who was looking for one. Will probably love it now that I gave one away.

i use it in cocktails. If I'm sipping it, I cut it to about 90 first or use heavy ice. Too hot for me otherwise. 

Edited by Bozo_Casanova
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37 minutes ago, RMac5 said:

That is my exact issue, I’m not a fan of the high proof bourbons. I typically drink bourbon OTR or neat, maybe I need to let it sit for a minute and let some ice melt.

High proof wheaters are tough to dial in. Heaven Hill especially. The big guys usually do pretty well with corn, barley, and rye.

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There were some brokered barrels floating around, it’s apparently Wild Turkey mashbill and yeast distilled by Buffalo Trace.  I’m not sure if anybody knows where it was aged, but it definitely tastes more like Wild Turkey than any BT product.  I haven’t had the Seelbach’s version, but had one from the Whiskey Blendery private labeled at barrel proof.  It’s all good, but I’m a sucker for most things high aged.  

They were indeed WT mashbill, distilled and barreled at BT and shipped back to WT to age.
It was a contract order that the buyer backed out of. So they just sat and aged.
Wild Turkey didn’t want to release them due to Buffalo Trace distilling for them and Buffalo Trace didn’t since it wasn’t their mashbill.
Sold off.
Bardstown used a bunch of them in their Discovery Series.
Rest went to independents.
The secondary group I run did 3 barrel picks of them at The Whiskey Blendery and they are fucking great.
Pricey but great.
Blendery did a bunch of barrels with a good number of whiskey clubs.
These are the ones I did.
009864ae916b0740afa29637c7631fb7.jpg
1046aff0105cd4755b3d75f9f303eff6.jpg
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https://www.wsj.com/business/americas-bourbon-boom-is-over-now-the-hangover-is-here-3e9961d7

 

“When Rob Masters listed 400 barrels of two-year-old bourbon for sale online at $900 apiece, he expected them to be gone within days.

Eight months later the barrels are still there. "We aren't even getting a sniff," said Masters, head distiller at The Family Jones distillery in Denver.

Just two years ago Masters could rake in $2,000 for similar barrels. "Back then two phone calls and I could have them gone," he said.

America's bourbon boom is over and businesses big and small are starting to hurt, with distillers cutting jobs and shelving expansion plans.

Liquor sales soared during the pandemic as Americans flush with cash splashed out on booze, making cocktails at home and drinking more frequently. Now drinkers are cutting back, plowing through bottles they accrued in recent years and trading down to cheaper brands.

The growing popularity of anti-obesity drugs, cannabis and low- and no-alcohol drinks is increasingly hurting sales, too. The U.S. Surgeon General recently said alcohol should carry cancer warning labels, a recommendation that if enacted could hurt sales for an industry already contending with a pullback in drinking by younger people.

Sales volumes of U.S. whiskey -- including bourbon, Tennessee and rye -- dropped 1.2% in 2023, marking the first fall since 2002, according to industry tracker IWSR. That drop steepened last year, with volumes down 4% in the first nine months of 2024.

Brown-Forman, which makes Jack Daniel's and Woodford Reserve, noticed the U.S. whiskey market deteriorating sharply a year ago. "To be honest, it's not really getting a lot better," Chief Executive Lawson Whiting said last month after the company reported a 3% fall in net U.S. sales for the six months to Oct. 31.

While big players aren't immune to the downturn, smaller distillers are being hit hardest because they lack the financial clout to ride out the turbulence. The American Craft Spirits Association said in August that the rate of craft distillery closures had accelerated from the year before.

Liquor makers of all stripes are contending with waning demand: In 2023, the volume of spirits sold in the U.S. declined for the first time in nearly three decades, IWSR said. However, makers of aged spirits have the added challenge of taking a punt on future demand by laying down barrels to age years in advance.

"It is bourbon -- there is no right here and now," said Tom Bard, co-founder of the Bard Distillery in Graham, Ky. "You're trying to forecast the market five, six, ten years down the road."

Tariffs threaten to pose additional challenges. A deal between the U.S. and the European Union that paused proposed 50% tariffs on imports of American whiskey into Europe -- a response to steel tariffs levied by the first Trump administration -- is set to expire at the end of March. President-elect Donald Trump has also said he plans to slap new tariffs on goods from Canada, Mexico and China, which could raise packaging costs and spur retaliatory tariffs.

Distillers fear that tariffs will hurt exports and that American whiskey that can't be sold abroad will find its way back home, adding to an existing glut.

"The one thing that has everyone here scared to death is tariffs," said Eric Gregory, president of the Kentucky Distillers' Association.

Bourbon started growing in popularity in the early 2000s after a long stint in the doldrums. Its comeback was helped by television shows like "Mad Men," which featured 1960s advertising executives sipping on bourbon through the day. By 2015 the industry was so hot that barrels were in short supply, bourbon enthusiasts were stockpiling and distillery workers routinely pulling 80-hour weeks went on strike complaining they were overworked.

Over the past decade production has kept climbing. Kentucky alone produced 3.2 million barrels of bourbon in 2023 and had a record 14.3 million barrels aging at the start of last year, according to the KDA.

While a decade ago bourbon makers couldn't keep up, now there is a consensus that they have overproduced.

"We're in a very serious correction right now which is perhaps overdue," said Ken Lewis, who owns Newport, Ky.-based New Riff Distilling. The Kentucky bourbon industry is making nearly three times as much as it is currently selling, Lewis estimates.

Some investors who jumped into bourbon to make a quick buck when times were good are now dumping stock, exacerbating the glut of barrels.

"The bourbon boom brought a tremendous amount of money into the industry and a lot of that was for the wrong reasons," said Lewis. "In some ways it's good riddance."

Alarm bells rang in the industry back in October when MGP Ingredients, a major contract distiller that makes booze for other brands, warned that some of its smaller customers were struggling to make good on their obligations to buy whiskey.

MGP said slower growth and higher inventories were leading to lower prices and that in response it was reducing production and putting less whiskey away to age. The company warned that it expects "even more pressure" on whiskey sales and profitability in 2025. It has since replaced its CEO.

In Colorado, The Family Jones began slowing its rye and bourbon production a year ago, ending its contract with an outside distillery that made some of its alcohol. It has since laid off a distiller and two salespeople from its 24-strong workforce.

Smaller distillers are also suffering as wholesalers run down the pandemic-era stockpiles they amassed to protect against supply disruptions. Brown-Forman said last month that distributors are buying less than usual and favoring the big brands that are more likely to sell.

Some distillers are shifting gears. Statesville, N.C.-based Southern Distilling has paused plans to open a new contract distillery to make whiskey. Instead it is doubling down on bottling and packaging services.

"We've been in a post-Covid hangover where everyone was home day-drinking and you had this hockey stick increase in consumption that was not normal," said CEO Pete Barger.

Not everyone is pulling back. Bardstown Bourbon, Kentucky's largest contract distillery, added a new still at the end of 2023 and recently expanded its sales force. The company sold out its contract capacity in 2024 and expects to do so again this year, said President Pete Marino.

"We've had to show up at more trade shows than we have ever in the past, " Marino said. "But every period of disruption provides opportunities. We're investing through the downturn."”

 

 

lololol

Edited by GreenspointTexas
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