No Rittenhouse Shortage in Chicago

[yountvillewjs]

Hard to find and at least $23/btl out here in CA.

[trumpstylz]

For the Chicagoland crew - I'm driving up on Saturday to attend a fishing Show in the Palatine - I90 and Rt 53 area.

Not looking for any secret honey holes - just someplace close-by that might have a Weller 12 or one of these plentiful Rittenhouse's you speak of... or at least just a larger than average bourbon selection.

I read alot about Binny's but I don't have time to get downtown on this trip.


Thanks!

There are binny's all over chicagoland. They have just under 30 locations. Schaumburg, Des Plaines, Buffalo Grove, and Mt. Prospect are all very close by.

[soad]

Holy crap! They have it on the PA LCB website!! A little pricey with shipping....no matter.....done!

[Old Lamplighter]

Good news: my favorite spot on the riding circuit just reloaded the shelves today after being empty a couple of weeks. Bad news: increase of $3 a bottle. At $18.99 that is why it was my favorite place to get it.

Our favorite best bang-for-the-buck rye has now gone from $13-14 (IIRC) to $21-22 in a short span of time. Heck, I even saw it for $30 in one store recently. How long before we lament "I remember when" and the shelf price hits $39? If so, it will soon join the crowd of a few other favorites I recall were in the $20 neighborhood just a few short years ago.

[cowdery]

Here's my recent Rittenhouse Rye BIB purchase history.

$12.99 3/8/2004
$11.99 9/4/2004
$11.99 11/23/2004
$12.99 12/21/2005
$11.99 7/29/2006
$15.99 11/26/2006
$11.99 2/21/2007
$12.99 7/23/2007
$12.99 11/7/2008
$17.00 1/29/2011 (Binny's January 15% off sale)
$22.99 1/3/2012

I think it started to go up, and get scarce, in 2009, which is why I didn't buy any for two years.

[Old Lamplighter]

So, if my math is correct, that is an increase of approximately 77% in slightly under 8 years. That puts it at almost 10% per year. Is that about normal for bourbon and/or rye over same period of time? Seems higher than the norm to me...but, my kids think I am the cheapest person they will ever know...lol

I guess once the scarcity factor came into the picture, that is where the increases began. Looking at the listing again, I noticed that I failed to note that fact on first glance. Over the first 5 years, the price was stable. Maybe I am just again....perhaps just another 'sign of the times' & I should be grateful I can get it without a lot of difficulty.

[bad_scientist]

So, if my math is correct, that is an increase of approximately 77% in slightly under 8 years. That puts it at almost 10% per year. Is that about normal for bourbon and/or rye over same period of time? Seems higher than the norm to me...but, my kids think I am the cheapest person they will ever know...lol

I guess once the scarcity factor came into the picture, that is where the increases began. Looking at the listing again, I noticed that I failed to note that fact on first glance. Over the first 5 years, the price was stable. Maybe I am just again....perhaps just another 'sign of the times' & I should be grateful I can get it without a lot of difficulty.

Maybe the big price jump came because of the temporary shortage (from HH or wholesaler markup, or both, I don't know) and everyone just decided to keep it that way when the spout came back on.

FWIW, it's $21-23 in DC. Montgomery County, MD has it listed for $16, but they haven't had it in stock since I started looking.

[cowdery]

They're in business to make money and most businesses base pricing on one criteria: what the market will bear. Due to the aging cycle, it's hard to take advantage of growing demand by growing supply, so you have to do some of it by raising prices. Rit BIB is still cheaper than any rye except Jim Beam and Old Overholt, and the beloved but limited Fleischmann's.

Maybe they'll move Rit BIB up to premium pricing and start to make Pikesville more widely available, as their value rye. I'm sure HH has been steadily increasing production, especially now that it's back home at Bernheim.

[bad_scientist]

They're in business to make money and most businesses base pricing on one criteria: what the market will bear. Due to the aging cycle, it's hard to take advantage of growing demand by growing supply, so you have to do some of it by raising prices. Rit BIB is still cheaper than any rye except Jim Beam and Old Overholt, and the beloved but limited Fleischmann's.

Maybe they'll move Rit BIB up to premium pricing and start to make Pikesville more widely available, as their value rye. I'm sure HH has been steadily increasing production, especially now that it's back home at Bernheim.

Now that supply is higher, pricing... oh, it's staying higher, as well. Good for them.

I read on this really obscure site that Pikesville was just Ritt 80 with a different label:
http://www.casacoctel.com/index.php?...les&Itemid=108

No source or anything, so it's just as if the guy next to me at a bar told me. Does that sound like it could be the case?

[cowdery]

You know how it goes. It starts out the same--same mash bill, same off the still--but it has a different flavor profile, which is a matter of barrel selection. I also seem to recall that although Pikesville is straight rye at 40% ABV, it's only 3 years old. So it's not the exact same stuff, but darn close. Both are Heaven Hill products. They also make Stephen Foster rye, which is even less widely distributed than Pikesville. Maybe that's the 3 year old.