What bourbon did you purchase today? - Winter 2012/2013

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Originally Posted by Wryguy

Went to my local today, and picked up 4 different Julio's Loch & K(e)y society private selections: ETL, 1792, ERSB, and HM BiB. Pretty excited to crack these and see how they stack up to the standard distillery releases.

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Late catching up this thread..

The L&K crew really knows how to pick them. I went to Go Whisk(e)y Weekend at Julio's and managed to pick up quite a few bottles before it was all over. I did some serious tasting and took notes, ranked everything and after the smoke cleared the majority of what I purchased were L&K barrel selections. I think I brought home 2 bottles of "regular" stuff.

As a side note, if you are a regular there, I hope you got a Dram Card. It'll help you get the limited release stuff, those with full dram cards get theirs before any "lottery" people.

~SW

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Originally Posted by squire

Wryguy the way I see it an outfit like High West is limited in the amount of 21 year old whisky they can source/afford and that's the end of the run. They also have to bottle it all and they don't get to choose the honey barrels from their supplier.

Heaven Hill has many, many, many barrels aging (over 50 million gallons) and they have the luxury of picking and choosing only the best barrels for their high end bottlings. This easily makes Rittenhouse 25 the better choice.

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Unfortunately, that is not the case with Rittenhouse 25.

Heaven Hill had a very limited number of the same ultra-aged barrels from which to bottle the one-off 21/23/25 expressions. While HH could pick some honey barrels for the 21 and 23 and leave the rest to age, they had to bottle what was left for the 25. I have spoken with a couple guys that have tried multiple bottles, from different barrels, of the Rittenhouse 25 and they said there were pretty large variances in quality. In their opinions, the barrels ranged from "phenomenal" to merely "decent" - I think this is the result of bottling what they had. For $200 a pop, I would want to be assured of a phenomenal bottle every time.

Business trip last week resulted in me coming back with some Fighting Cock, Rebel Reserve, and my jackpot find was some PHC Wheated.

~SW

Not a one off, HH makes rye every year and has increased their volume to ten times more than in years past.

On topic I'm pursuing a rumor one of our locals has some Evan Williams White BIB in stock.

Been reading a lot here lately about OGD 114... so I went and picked up a bottle. Looking forward to trying it tonight.

I picked up a Squire Cowdery special. VOB BIB and OGD 114.

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Originally Posted by LostBottle

While HH could pick some honey barrels for the 21 and 23 and leave the rest to age, they had to bottle what was left for the 25.

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That's one way to look at it, but I don't think they were forced to bottle the 25. A barrel can impart negative characteristics at any point of the aging process. A 21 year might be over the hill where a 25 year might have room to grow. Rather than seeing Ritt 25 as the leftovers, I see it having the same "risk" that is involved when purchasing any single barrel whiskey. You have to have some trust in the taste of the people who select the barrels.

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Originally Posted by squire

On topic I'm pursuing a rumor one of our locals has some Evan Williams White BIB in stock.

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If the rumor turns out to be true squire, I'd be interested to know if it still has an age statement

Phil the white label Heaven Hill BIB may or may not retain the 6 year age statement. The Evan Williams White label has been NAS for as long as I have been seeing it on the shelves.

Lost Bottle my point is Heaven Hill does not have to buy any rye whisky, they make it themselves. HH spokesman Larry Kass refers to the sheer number of barrels of 20+ year old whsiky on hand (some of it 30+) currently aging as an "embarrassment of riches". They keep the pipeline flowing and if HH is a little short of 25 year old Rye they will have more soon and won't have to leave their own warehouse to find it.