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Father’s Day arrived a day earlier for me. My daughter sent me a couple Lou Malnati’s Italian Beef and Hot Gardianara pizzas. Can’t wait to try them.

Hard to find a better value than the Benchmark. I think I paid $25 for it:

Nor are they displayed for the general public in a case, or behind the counter

Scooped a pair yesterday and drinking same, yesterday and today. Chattanooga Whiskey Founder's. I can't believe how much I like this!!!

Watching golf at a local bar and tried this. Quite tasty and my first time seeing a barrel proof toasted barrel!

I agree. Regular BT always tastes bland to me as well. However, I've had some stellar BT store picks, including two from local supermarkets.

Today I passed a bunch of BT 750ml and handles. The sale price was like $20, and $35 for the big one. I know some people might go in their pants if they saw this. I passed. The truth is, even at those prices, I prefer to drink other brands: WT101, Old Fo 100. JW Dant... Oh, I think regular BT is ok (just ok). It always seems to come across to me as sort of bland.

WT101 8yr. Is available on the shelf here in the Bay Area: $43 at K&L, $50 at Bev(pay)Mo.

Took this one home today. I've heard good things about it. We'll see.

That's because they never see the shelf.

Thank you all for the suggestions so far! Please keep them coming. I have adjusted our schedule slightly. I read that if you have a tour booked at BT they will let you skip the line at the gift shop up to a full hour before. If this is true, we can get in at 9, do our shopping then be on the road after the 10am tour. That should allow us time to fit in a quick lunch then a walk around the grounds and maybe a cocktail and Castle and Key before the Woodford Tour at 1:40. Friday afternoon we are going to try for a late tour at MM. That evening BBC has an event with food and live music. One thing I’m regretting not scheduling is the You Do Bourbon at HH. That looks really cool but there really aren’t any available times that work for us. I was hoping that could be the last thing we do before leaving town on Sunday morning but the first one is at 1:30. I could do one for Saturday afternoon after his BBC blending class but I also want to make sure he has some down time to relax and hit for some bottles around town.

It's true. The building and grounds are beautiful.

Sure, that said, the number of times I can find allocated bourbons there are very limited. I would submit that is by design

They get quite a bit but the number of people in Grand Reserve is enormous and includes all of the big wine buyers.

I've heard the same about Castle and Key!

I like the variety Total Wine offers. What I don't like is that for some of the allocated products you have to be in their grand reserve category, and that only gets you entered into the lottery. I would rather just go to a liquor store that places its allocated in a case or behind the counter at ridiculously inflated secondary prices and one can decide whether they wish to buy or not. With the volume Total Wine has, I can't imagine they don't have access to more allocated.

Opened a fresh bottle of EH Taylor Single Barrel last night. I found it to be very enjoyable. Maybe my favorite of the EH varieties so far, with the Barrel Strength a close second. Off to start run some errands and make a few bourbons stops to see what I can find here along the way.

Last night the regret was immediate and severe but today is the road to recovery. Last big meal of vacation. Starting the morning with some overnight oats. Fried clams paired with a pale ale.

Opened this one tonight and it has a lot going on and is a definite Sherry-bomb! First impressions are very good with hints of raisins, chocolate, subtle pepper spice, and honey.

Glenfiddich is not peated so you must be reacting to something else. Glenfiddich is Speyside scotch as are most of the other Glens. They are not peated in general. I don't like peated Scotch but I love every Glen that I've tried.

The RRSiB was very good, as always. This one is even better!

Round two JDSBBP-Rye.

RRSiB in the glass....

Benchmark Bonded to start the weekend. For under $20, this is a solid pour. And, one of the few bourbons of this era that can take me a bit back to the nice butterscotch notes of ND Old Taylor. I ain’t sayin’ those notes are as good as those ND OTs, as the OTs were simply made differently in the old school way. But, these Benchmarks scratch that itch for me.