Where to shop in Colorado (front range)?

[DowntownD]

I'm relatively new to town and haven't yet found the best stores; any other locals here able suggest the best places to shop?

My favorites include:

- Elmer T Lee
- Pappy 15
- Lot B
- BTAC (all of them)
- ORVW 10/107
- VWFRR
- Baby Saz

I'll go to Denver-metro if I have to, but I'd rather do my Bourbon and Rye shopping in and around Boulder / Longmont / etc, so any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

[fishnbowljoe]

PAGING DANE! FRONT AND CENTER! Joe

[Rake]

I am not Dane, but I have been to his house.

Liquor Mart in Boulder is pretty good, but my favorite place near the Republic is Total Beverage on 92nd and Sheridan, which stocks much of what you've listed. Superior Liquor has a good selection although I think their prices are a tad high. North Boulder Liquor has solid stock for a relatively small store.

I generally buy my BTAC at Daveco (Hwy 7 and I-25), but I haven't been there in a few months, so I'm not sure how much they have left.

If you feel like venturing south, there are a couple gems in Lukas Liquor and Davidsons. I find that Lukas has the lowest prices around, although the selection is not as deep as that at Davidsons.

I'll leave the Longmont area to the other folks.

[Klepackage]

DowntownD,

I'm local to the Boulder/Longmont area and here are my suggestions.

Liquor Mart really is the best place for bourbon in Boulder. It's a bit more expensive, but they've got the best selection (in Boulder). For the most part, the Boulder liquor stores just have the regular stuff as they're catering to the college crowd. You can stock up on the Baby Saz and ETL here. Liquor Mart is a bit light on the top shelf bourbons. Again, the college crowd doesn't usually drop more than $30 on whiskey.

I don't do much of my shopping in Longmont as there are closer stores (I live in Lafayette) with better selections. However, Twin Peaks Liquor (near the King Soopers off of Hover is a step above the run of the mill local stores. Decent selection and prices, but the shelves are kind of thin. They don't seem to replenish the empty shelves very quickly.

Based on your favorites, I would recommend the extra drive time it takes to get to the following stores.

DaveCo is located at Highway 7 (Baseline) and I-25. It's the Guinness World Records largest liquor store. Their selection has the most breadth among all of the Colorado liquor stores. Unfortunately, their location and pricing lends to heavy traffic. Van Winkle products fly off the shelves there. At my last visit, they were well stocked on the Lot B, but cleaned out of everything else. They have the cheapest BTAC pricing I've seen in CO too.

TotalBev in Westminster and Total Beverage in Northglenn also have some great bourbon selections. They're not related, but they're eerily similar in what they carry. The TotalBev in Westminster is the only place that I've seen any ORVW 10/107. As of late last night, they still had a few ORVW 10/90s and 2 PVW 15s. I picked up four of the PVW 15s and was only charged $33 for them because they mixed up the pricing too.

Superior Liquors is located in Superior and their selection is great, but they can be a bit expensive. They've got more high end stuff than Liquor Mart, but less variance among the lower shelf bourbons. They've also got a million of the Rock the Vote MM left if you have to have one. I haven't been in a while, but I recall them having stock of all the 2008 BTAC at the time.

Van Winkle is a tough sell. There are clearly a lot of local fans because PVW 15 and 20 hardly last on the shelf. After that, the ORVW lines go quickly as well. The best bet is to frequent those stores and hope you get lucky when the whiskey comes in. As you'll soon learn, the majority of the stores just carry the usual suspects + Jim Beam Small Batch.

You'll have to meet up with Dane sometime. He's in Longmont and has an amazing bar/bourbon selection at his house. An excellent host too.

Those are my shopping places. Happy hunting!

=Chris

[Klepackage]

One thing to note. Many of the CO liquor stores have some form of online shopping/catalog. You'll quickly find that these are never up to date.

[fishnbowljoe]

Please accept my humble apologies Chris and Traver. Silly me, I forgot. Joe

[Rake]

Please accept my humble apologies Chris and Traver. Silly me, I forgot. Joe

No worries. I'm sure Dane will chime in on Longmont and the surrounding area.

I should add that Wilbur's is the best place I've been for bourbon in Ft. Collins, if you're up north. My hometown of Greeley isn't very well stocked, but Gordon's is probably among your best bets. (They did get the BTAC this year.)

[DowntownD]

thanks for the intel guys, I really appreciate it.