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yes indeed. Lou's is always a treat for me. You can get them shipped but they're not the same. I expect we will get a Lou's here at some point as they tend to follow Portillos. On that note, I think it's probable you will see Portillos come your way. The Lou's in Schaumburg was about 5 minutes from where I grew up, and I've been to the one in Elk Grove countless times as I used to work there. The reference to Nancy's was interesting. When I lived in Chicago, we'd hit Nancy's for dinner before a Sox game. There was a restaurant not to far from Comiskey, and Teddy's is legendary too. I think they would throw the freshly cut fries in withe hot dogs. Just awesome.

I'm just amazed at how challenging it is to find buffalo trace products. I see this from many you tube influencers. While I don't have all of the Buffalo Trace offerings, I do have the 4 EH Taylor varieties, All of the Weller's minus Single Barrel, Eagle Rare, Stagg Jr, and a couple Benchmarks. At the same time, one can buy Elmer T Lee, George T Stagg, Sazerac Rye, Rock Hill Farms fairly easily, and much below the typical secondary market. At the same time, there are many bourbons that are easier to find elsewhere that I have been thus far unable to find. As the commercial used to say, location, location, location

I can still find Bowman products, and their Bowman Bros small batch is an effective substitute for BT. Their single barrel is hard to find but not impossible. And they make a good port cask version which considering price and quality is unique in the market. I get that the "villains" may more fairly lie with the middlemen and the retailers, although making money off a shortage in supply (or a surge in demand) is not villainy. Surges in demand happen because of cultural factors, including manipulation by influencers. It's refreshing that there is, nowadays, ready access to influencers not in the pay of, or the recipient of advertising by, the distilleries and the companies that own them. Resources like this board. Shortages in supply, however, are still susceptible to corporate manipulation. Here the three tier distribution system presents a problem. When a retailer buys its product from the manufacturer, the manufacturer can, if it gives a darn, effectively police a retailer that would sully its products' reputation by price gouging. But can a distillery have any influence over a price gouging retailer when it can only sell its product to a middleman distributor who doesn't give a darn? I understand why things are as they are with the allocated stuff. But why is BT unique with respect to the unavailability of its mainstream producr?

Sadly, I don’t think they do 90p picks anymore. You might stumble upon a dusty if you look hard in the backs of shelves in out of the way places though…

Texas had long been Sazerac’s largest market for the Weller brand. Sounds like that may still be the case!

so strange as they're almost always available in my part of Texas..

Thank you for responding and for the recommendations. Cask Strength is more than okay! I like rich whiskey/ bourbon. I've been debating the concept of Single Malt whiskey's. Stranahan's keeps coming to mind. Having never tried them before, I don't know if I will like them or not. The Sherry cask or bourbon cask seems intriguing.

BT hasn’t created an artificial shortage. The are many reasons for the “artificial shortage”. One reason is people perpetuating the myth of a shortage so they to won’t lose their cash cow. The taters buying in large quantities just to sell on the secondary market. Also with that are the people that buy products just as trophies. Believe me, I’ve seen pictures of some collections on different FB pages. Part of the blame also lies with “questionable” distributors. They might fill, or partially fill an order of allocated items, but you’ll have to buy a bunch of “other” products that don’t sell very well. I see this all the time at one store I frequent. After sitting on the shelf for too long a time, these bottles end up on sale in clearance carts. One local distributor won’t sell stores cases of a product so they won’t have to give a case discount. Then there’s the tater stores. They get allocated items, but mark them up at two or three times msrp. Other stores have allocated items, but not out on the shelf. You have to ask if they have anything. In many instances they’ll have them, but say they don’t. In order to purchase allocated items, you have to be a “preferred” customer. I know these to be facts. I have a friend that used to be the liquor manager at a grocery store. He tried to be fair and above board with his pricing, but kept getting pressured by the store owner/manager to keep raising prices. He finally had enough and quit. I also had a couple of other friends that used to work at a high profile liquor chain. On more than one occasion I asked assistant managers if they had anything good. I was told no. I later talked to my friend(s) that worked there and found out I was lied to. Even though I spent a lot of money there over the years, I wasn’t good enough. Thank goodness there’s one local store that is honest and above board. It’s pretty much the only place around that sells allocated items at or just above msrp.

Do you prefer smooth or rich (you can have both) and, I assume from other things you appear to drink, cask strength okay. What is your price range? I would recommend a sherry cask finish and also a bourbon cask aged single malt to try. I love both, but I'd be curious to see what your preferences are. For readily available sherry casks: Macallan 12 (not cask strength), the Glendronach Cask Strength (Batch 10 and 11 are out now I think), or the Aberlour A'bunadh Sherry Cask. For Bourbon Cask: Aberlour A'bunadh Alba Bourbon Cask (which is cask strength) is a great place to start. There are also many independent bottlers that bottle amazing single malts, but hard to recommend one bottle since they are often single barrels. I do like Blackadder and Single Cask Nation as well as many other independent bottlers. I can discuss this more if you are interested.

I did know that, but I get your point. When the products we consume are all made by multinational corporations, the same company can produce both the brands I love and the brands that rub me the wrong way. While I have nothing against BT's bourbons other than the artificial shortages they inspire, I will say that the stuff coming out of Sazerac's Bardstown distillery is singularly delicious. So count my protest as ultimately silly; I'm not about to stop giving Saz my money

Isn't that always the way? How many times I went in for Sagamore Rye or Widow Jane and left with neither but picked up a harder to find offering instead. Back to your point about Old Forester Statesman, it's very easy to find here, but many are soft on it. I tried it in a bar a few weeks back. It was a lighter bourbon for sure, but at its price point, it would be worth adding to my collection.

I sipped this last night. I was hearing quite a few who were cool on McKenna. I had not sipped it in a while, so I thought why not as I was watching the hockey game. I picked up a smokey flavor which I had not recalled the first time. At +/- $55 it is worth it to me. I recall finding it well over a year ago and I think I paid double that.

I could not agree more. I found many bottles on the shelf of my local total wine last month. I was shocked, I paid just under $60 for this and thought to myself, it’s still a bargain at this price given what the secondary market has these prices at. That aside, I remember when it was $40 not too long ago. Then just this weekend, I was at a specs in another part of town. They had 37 cases on hand.

Great value in bourbon.

How is it? I have been thinking about this one for a while.

Great picture. Love what you did with the cork

One of my favorites. The 14 year is also very good

A bottle of the 13 year arrived this week. I plan to open mine this weekend. I haven’t seen the other bottle before. What is different about it?

I am still looking for this. Found the barrel proof variety which was quite good

Nice Pic!!!! Fine composition, elegant decanter, great depth of color, neutral background... not to mention fine choice of subject(s)!!! Good On Ya', Thomm!!!

JW Dant in the glass last night from a KY trip a few years back. Nice sipping HH BIB goodness.

You know that Sazerac owns BT and Barton, right?

Gramps retains his rightful and well-earned place in the best chair in the house. Why don't they put this stuff in a handle?

I would welcome any suggestions. Thank you in advance

No, many are not peated. I usually prefer unpeated scotch/single malts. Bourbon cask can be amazing, but I have a lot of sherry/port/wine cask stuff. Unpeated and cask strength single malts can be great for bourbon drinkers, especially those who do not like peat. They can be rich and flavorful and take on a lot from the casks they are aged in and/or finished in. If you want some suggestions, just ask.