Bottled In Bond

[fishnbowljoe]

I bought a few BIB’s amongst other things while I was at the KBF last week. I finally had some time to add my recent purchases to my cabinet. I did some rearranging and cleaning, and while doing so, I decided to take an inventory of my BIB’s. When I got them all separated, I found out that I had a few more than I thought I did. I had to smile a little. It brought back some memories from a number of years ago when I was fairly new to the site. I remember in chat a few times when Mozilla talked to me a lot about BIB’s. At the time, I gave BIB’s mostly just passing thoughts since I was more interested in other things. I received some samples and bottles from various sources, and bought a bottle or two here and there to start with. Now, over the years, I’ve become more and more interested in them. I can see where Jeff was giving me some good advice on the taste and value of BIB’s back then. Next to wheaters, BIB’s have become some of my favorite bourbons.

We’ve talked about a lot of things when it comes to BIB’s. There’s been talk of specific bottlings like Old Fitz BIB and JW Dant BIB, label changes like VOB BIB, BIB’s no longer being produced such as AA BIB, and talk of old and new versions. We’ve discussed BIB’s in chat, and this months BOTM is HH and EW BIB. So here’s a new thread just for BIB’s. Let‘s have some fun. Please remember to be civil. I’d hate to have to delete my own thread. Just kidding. Cheers! Joe

The pic below is my 100 proof heaven.

[Clavius]

I'm a big fan of VOB BIB. HH White Label BIB is also pretty good for less than $10.

[soonami]

I like the history of how BiB was developed and knowing that in general BiB whiskeys are very good values for the juice inside

[GOCOUGS2002]

Old Fitz BIB is one of my all time favorites...and Jeff, while dusty hunting in Houston, pointed me in the right direction when it came to BIBs. I thank him and this board for opening my eyes and draining my wallet in search of present and past treasure.

[darylld911]

I picked up my first VOB BIB at the KBF, and hope to give that a try this week. I don't have that many BIB in my stash, but the scant few comparisons I've done leads me to wonder why!

[p_elliott]

I like the BIB unfortunately I think they are going the way of the dinosaur. The new bourbon drinker just doesn't understand what BIB means or get the implication that "It's the good stuff". So I think the distilleries are moving away from BIB. There are so many bourbons out there that could be labeled as BIB that are not.

[HighInTheMtns]

I have not had much BIB because there isn't much available to me. I did just order (thanks largely to the current BOTM thread) a HH6 BIB and a VOB BIB. I've also had OGD BIB. Drank my first pour of the HH6 last night.

In general, I am pretty enamored with the concept of BIB whiskeys; I like knowing where the whiskey was distilled and where it was bottled. In the cases of both the bottles I just got, the BIB information combined with a 6 year age statement gives a lot of knowledge about this whiskey that isn't available on a lot of other bottlings.

I am a sucker for high proof and so that aspect works well for me. I think 100 proof is a great bottling proof for standard releases; it's low enough that there probably aren't many barrels whose proof ends up lower, and so it gives the distiller the maximum flexibility possible when it comes to barrel selection while still maintaining a high proof for the consumer (who of course can subsequently cut it to his desired drinking proof.) The value of HH6 BIB for $10 at 100 proof is just much greater for me than EWB at the same price.

Sadly I have to agree with Paul that these are going the way of the dinosaur. Even when the brand and proof point doesn't go away (Old Forester Sig, VOB) the BIB label does, relieving the distiller of the requirement of disclosing distillation and bottling locations. For Brown-Forman and Sazerac, this makes sense (from an operations perspective at least) considering that each is operating multiple DSPs; unfortunately it means less information will make its way to the consumer. The only distiller that seems to me to have any commitment to BIB is Heaven Hill. Sazerac is bottling the high-end Old Taylor releases as BIB while simultaneously removing the BIB label from their value brands. Here's hoping HH doesn't rethink things!

[Flyfish]

Does anyone know if KC qualifies as a true BIB? It's 100 proof, all from same year (9 YO), and the same distillery. There is no DSP # on the label, though. Is that because KC isn't BIB or because their marketing people wanted to create a more elitist image with this small batch, "limited quantity" thing? (Is it possible that BIB drinkers are just not a cool demographic in the minds of 28-year-old marketers?)

[callmeox]

The rule is same distilling season, not the same age. It is possible that it contains 9yo bourbon from multiple distilling seasons.

[sutton]

The rule is same distilling season, not the same age. It is possible that it contains 9yo bourbon from multiple distilling seasons.

I thought age stated (vs BIB) was a minimum age - so 9 yo could contain older bourbon. By definition, isn't a given BIB the same age?