Buffalo Trace - Experimental Collection

[OscarV]

If these Experimental's are priced at $50.00 per 375ml and everyone is mad at Buffalo Trace,.... then where is the howling for their Pappy Van Winkle 20yo at $100.00 and the 23yo at $200.00 per 750ml?

Oscar

[ProofPositive]

If these Experimental's are priced at $50.00 per 375ml and everyone is mad at Buffalo Trace,.... then where is the howling for their Pappy Van Winkle 20yo at $100.00 and the 23yo at $200.00 per 750ml?
Oscar

Throughout the thread, it was not always the price. Yes, initially there was reaction that weighed in against price alone. As the response unfolded though, it seems to me that the availability factor joined in and become as much, if not more, important than the price. I think more anger was present due to the fact that many felt they had absolutely zero opportunity to buy any of them.

The sheer numbers of the Van Winkle products you mentioned were released in much greater number than this first or test round of the BT Experimentals. That is not true of the VW bottles. They were/are limited in number but not nearly as much as the BTEC.

Ironically, you use the Van Winkle bottles as an example of what many have and will continue to gladly pay. IMHO, that will be the same with the BTEC bottles as they are produced in larger numbers. This is America......we love to fuss & fume about price - but, once the venting is done we go ahead and pay the price for quality. The old maxim 'you get what you pay for' continues to hold true. Of course, there will be the hardliners who will never pay the premium price......and, they will be the ones who will continue to bluster about it far into the future - both of which they have every right to do.

Now, don't get me wrong - $45-50 is expensive & quite high for me as well to pay for a 375ml bottle of anything.....and, I probably would not buy a bottle for a while. At the same time though, there will be plenty of folks who will pay that price without looking twice and most who do will be some of those who said they never would.

[JeffRenner]

Chuck listed some reasons that BT might have produced this experimental collection, and then wrote that there were

maybe some other things that haven't occurred to me yet.

It was my impression, perhaps from something Ken Weber wrote here, that part of it was just the chance to have fun. Sort of, "Hey, wouldn't it be cool to try ... ?" Just big kids playing in a big sand box.

Hats off to BT for allowing that kind of unleashed creativity with the company dime. I'm happy that it seems to have paid off. I think Ken has implied that there are more surprises aging in the BT rickhouses.

Eventually these kinds of experiments will make it onto the mass market at reasonable prices if they are worthwhile. I think it's kind of like cool, new electronic toys. Does anyone remember the price of a Texas Instruments TI99/4A or a Commodore 64 25 years ago? Or an Apple IIe? (I do - I paid $1400 for a IIe in 1983 - that's $1400 in 1983 dollars, and a monitor was extra!)

Jeff

[pepcycle]

What happens when we get to the little ones

[NorCalBoozer]

I think Ken has implied that there are more surprises aging in the BT rickhouses.
Jeff

according to this, BT has around 1500 barrels of experiments....

http://www.straightbourbon.com/forum...ead.php?t=5295

[cowdery]

What happens when we get to the little ones

50 ml bottles.

[ProofPositive]

I got curious today, so contacted the liquor manager for the area distributor which handles BT products directly -- and learned that Middle Tennessee got exactly ONE 12-bottle case (presumably, four of each bourbons), which went to Frugal McDoogal's, a Nashville liquor 'superstore'. A phone call to the store got me absolutely nowhere -- the person I talked to knew nothing about it, and couldn't find it in his database. Not surprising, I guess. It probably went directly to 'best customers' or the store manager's personal collection. Still, I may make a stop in there to question staff face-to-face sometime this week.

Any luck at McDoogal's? Or, have you heard of any surfacing anywhere else in & around Nashville?

[Brennan77]

Yall are right about the bottles going to special customers and employees. Here in New Orleans we got one case for the store. So far, I'm getting one as an employee, the spirits buyer is getting whatever he wants, and the rest is going to "special" customers. It's a way of saying thank you to good customers and to keep them coming back for the expensive and hard to get items. This is very common in the wine industry. For example, we just got allocations of Turley Zinfandel, which is hard to come by but not terribly expensive at list prices. These bottles never hit the shelves. They are used as a form of currency to please the good customers.

[ProofPositive]

Local rumor has it that a case or perhaps even two has arrived in town. Now, if I can find out where! If only 1 case is coming into the Nashville area, I find it hard to believe more than 1 is coming into the Memphis area. We have 2 large retailers here who have very close ties to BT as I understand it. If anyone here gets any, it will be one or both of them.

[BourbonSteve]

I should have my 3 bottles by the end of the month, I'll let y'all know how they taste! And to think, only 9 hoops to jump through to get them........