Buffalo Trace - Experimental Collection

[Sweetmeats]

Is there a legal reason why Buffalo Trace could not sell these themselves? Or at least start a side division to handle it?

[Pharaoh]

I do remember reading about a barrel of Glenmorangie Single Malt Scotch that was being aged in Kentucky at BT. Anyone hear how that turned out?
Ed

I'd bet you meant Glenfarclas instead of 'morangie.

[barturtle]

Yes there is a legal reason: the three tier liquor system. Manufacturer, Distributor and Retailer must all be seperate entities, under seperate ownership

[Grant]

Now on ebay, a 3 bottle set of the experimental collection. Seller is "jakecollectibles" and starting price is 475.00. Anyone know who this guy is? It seems to me that maybe he owns a liquor store!

Thomas

Only $158 per bottle! Wait - you have to pay $9.00 shipping too. What a deal:

http://cgi.ebay.com/3-BUFFALO-TRACE-...QQcmdZViewItem

[TNbourbon]

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.

[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.

Very interesting. I got much the same response from the biggest retailer in Memphis today by phone. I am off work tomorrow and heading over there in the morning to talk directly to staff about it. This is the first place in town to look for just about anything coming out of BT. I got my Pappy 23 there before anyone else in town had even 1 bottle. Will check in tomorrow evening and update.

[cowdery]

Now on ebay, a 3 bottle set of the experimental collection. Seller is "jakecollectibles" and starting price is 475.00. Anyone know who this guy is? It seems to me that maybe he owns a liquor store!

Thomas

I'm not quite sure why, but it seems to me that a retail license holder just might be risking his license by trying to sell something from his inventory on eBay. For one thing, some states have maximum price regulations. So the license holder officially "sells" the valuable bottles to his brother-in-law, who puts them on eBay.

[Edward_call_me_Ed]

That sounds suspicously like what I read about on p. 140 of Waymark and Harris's Classic American Whiseys (1995), but it was being aged at Marker's Mark, who provides the bourbon barrels for Glenmorangie. At this point, that malt should be well aged (considering Kentucky climate vs, Scotland), but I haven't heard anything more about it, either.

Jeff

Hi Jeff,
Yep, you are right. I have the same book, but evidently I don't have as good a memory as you do.
Thanks.
Ed

[ProofPositive]

Getting nowhere fast around the Memphis area. Nobody seems to know anything about the Experimental Collection. One store clerk acted like he did and then proceeded to tell me that the BTEC is the same bourbon as the hand-picked single barrels from Buffalo Trace that he & many other retailers pick for their individual store bottlings-??? Also, he swears that all BT single barrels selected by retailers is 10 years old. I left before getting too far with him....hate to offend anyone in the business. Not a good idea to burn any bridges! Maybe like Tim, there will be at least a case available in the local area.....hopefully!

I will report back if I find anyone around here with anything close to reasonable knowledge about the EC. At this point, it seems that is a remote chance around here.....but, I have been here most of my life and am used to the slowness of mind prevalent in this town. IMHO, I think too much moonshine was consumed in this area for too many years and the gene pools got corrupted beyond repair!

[BSS]

Proof

If any store in Memphis got any, I would be very surprised if it was still at the store.

And I would cut the stores some slack. If they weren't ever told they were going to get any, and never expected to get any, I don't know how they would have really known much about it. It's not like it was some highly published release or anything. It might seem like it because people on here know about it, but that doesn't make it common knowledge, even to liquor store owners. We have owners here at decent stores within 25 miles of BT that didn't know anything about it. It wasn't ever offered to them, so they weren't really ever told about it.