What bourbon did you purchase today? Winter/Spring '07

[Father&Son]

AAA 10 y/o
EW 1783 10 y/o
Highland Park 12 y/o (I know; not bourbon, but highly recommended by SB readers and on sale at VA ABC. $33.90.)

[cowdery]

Here's question for the archeologists out there. I had been reaching the bottom of my original dusty OT BIB. Distilled at DSP -19, bottled at DSP -14. No tax stamp or government warning, and with a UPC code on the label. These four pint bottles are clearly older, bearing tax stamps but no UPC code, and they bear the same distillery information - distilled at DSP -19, bottled at DSP - 14. But the newer bottle says Old Taylor Distillery, Frankfort, while the older bottles say Old Taylor Distiller, Frankfort and Louisville. Did Old Taylor at one point have a second distillery?

No Old Taylor was distilled at DSP-19 after 1972, and whiskey from 78, when that whiskey would have been sold, would have a real tax stamp on it. But I think when whiskey for Old Taylor was made at Old Crow, they were still able to call it DSP-19 because they were adjacent and, essentially, their DSPs were interchangeable. National had closed the bottling house at Old Crow by then, but they had bottling facilities in both Frankfort and Louisville. There had been a still at the Louisville site before Prohibition, but after repeal it was only used for warehousing and bottling.

The Louisville site was closed before the Frankfort facility, so it makes sense that the newer bottles would omit Louisville.

[Jazzhead]

Thanks for the information, Chuck. Here's a bit more I know. The four pint bottles say on the tax stamps that they were distilled in 1968 and bottled in 1976. So that's clearly from the original Old Taylor distillery. The newer bottle has "85" on the bottom, so assuming that's the bottling date and that the newer stuff is of a similar age, it would appear to have been distilled around '77 or '78. But that one's from the Old Crow distillery.

Funny thing is, I tried them both today and they taste and nose more or less the same. It surprises me that it's not the same whiskey, but I guess it just means that if the mashbill's the same, perhaps the physical place of distillation isn't as important.

So if DSP -19 (the place of distillation) is interchangably either Old Taylor or Old Crow, both of Frankfort, what is DSP -14 (the place of bottling)? Is that Louisville, but then why isn't Louisville listed on the label of the newer bottle but DSP-14 is?

[CrispyCritter]

I picked up a Jim Beam Black bottle, in the gift box with a flask. It's an open question as to whether said flask will ever be filled, but it could come in handy on occasion.

[cowdery]

DSP-14 is the Forks of Elkhorn Creek distillery that National called Old Grand-Dad and that Beam still uses for warehousing and bottling. It's in a completely different part of Frankfort.

It's my understanding that even when Taylor was operating the two distilleries (Taylor and Crow) were operated as if they were one. I'm not exactly sure how that would work, legally, or if what I was told is even true, but that's what I was told by the last master distiller at Crow.

[SBOmarc]

VW Lot B and 2 bottles of Weller 107.

[ggilbertva]

Negotiated a trade with a fellow SB'er and received these little gems in the mail today. Now I have to figure out when to open them.....

(Thanks Joe).

[CrispyCritter]

A backup bottle of ER101 (New Orleans version), and a bottle of Dickel #12.

[tango-papa]

Just back from a long weekend trip to Colorado and picked up one bottle of Stranahan's Colorado Whiskey, Batch #7.

Last week also found:
Two Eagle Rare 101's (New Orleans) with the "101" mid-neck label.
One Very Special Old Fitzgerald (L'ville).
Two Weller gold-veined BHC's still in the black velvet bag.

~tp

[TBoner]

Picked up a liter of ER101, New Orleans bottling.

Also a liter of Yellowstone 86-proof, tax-stripped, bottle date of 1984.