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This evening is a healthy pour of Sagamore Rye Double Oaked. Wonderful stuff. I just wish it had a bit more proof. 48.3 ABV.... could stand a bit more, IMO. As always, Sagamore is quality whiskey... especially at it's price point.

Happy FRyeday!

I think this web site https://www.yelp.com/biz/jay-vee-liquors-el-cerrito confirms smokinjoe's theory as the store's sign design matches the design of the name on the bottle. It says the store is in El Cerrito rather than Pinole. They may have moved or have more than one store. El Cerrito is a few miles south of Pinole.

Spent yesterday in eastern Texas, tried to hit a few stores and maybe get lucky on one of these but they all said it's only made it to Dallas/Houston/etc big cities so far. I did score a Still Austin blue corn though so not a totally wasted trip. Nice snag Joe!

Welcome to 'the board', nhtn 12! Interesting bottle for sure. Does it have a 'backside label'? More information on such a label (the DSP #) could pin down the distiller. I imagine the Bourbon inside is at least decent, and maybe even better than that, depending upon what actually makes it up. As PaulO said, it may contain some "extra-aged" distillate along with the stated 6-year-old barrels.

Ol' markandrex needs to go get one of these.

Yes to everything Joe said. I can only add, back in those days, Heaven Hill was doing their distilling at DSP 31 in Bardstown (pre fire). Heaven Hill or Barton possible sources, but who knows. It was during the "whiskey glut". Could even be someone else, or more than one source. Same thing with the age statement. Maybe some much older barrels dumped into it. I think the L.A. connection must have to do with whoever was selling this brand.

Thank you for this information. The bottle is from 1977, never opened (still has the IRS tax paid sticker over the cap). Your information helps a lot! And thank you for the welcome.

Welcome to SB! Sleuthing around it appears this may be a private label bourbon for JayVee Liquors in Pinole, CA. It was a practice years ago, that distilleries would create an entire label for good customers at the retail or distributor level, and fill with their bourbon. While the label screams Heaven Hill to me, I think it might rather be Barton as the label references Los Angeles along with Bardstown. I believe Barton has/had a bottling facility in LA. Low level whiskey, as it’s their 80 proof, but interesting bottle, for sure. I can’t determine how old the bottle is. If it has a bar code and UPC, it would date it post 1983-ish. Pinole is in the Bay Area of California. If you are located there, you might stop by the store and see if anyone there has any knowledge of it. Thanks for sharing the pic! BTW, one of the most famous client name labels ever done was for the Berghoff Bar in Chicago, offered by Julian Van Winkle III. It was 14 year old Stitzel Weller, and I hear it was magnificent.

I recently came into possession of this bottle of Jay Vee bourbon, distilled and bottled in 1977. All the information I have on it beyond that is that it was a “private store label bourbon.” Does anyone have any other information about this? My research efforts aren’t finding anything. Thanks!

I recently came into possession of a bottle of unopened Jay Vee bourbon, bottled in 1977. I cannot find any information about this bottle. Has anyone come across this before and have any information they can share?

I wasn’t aware of this bottle (probably because I haven’t been going to stores lately,) I think I need to look for it. Just when I thought I’d found bourbon zen Cheers

A good one for sure. Cheers

To celebrate The British Open and the final golf major of the season (I still can’t used to that,) I’m having a wee bit of GlenAllachie 12yr. While Im not a devoted Scotch consumer, I’m a fan of this bottle. I hope this year’s British Open is a future classic. ️ Cheers

Big sobering reminder of the power of a state liquor monopoly. For the last seven years or so, my favorite Pennsylvania whiskey has been Manatawny Still Works in Pottstown, who make a unique malted whiskey with a mashbill of barley malt, wheat, rye and oats. They've been around long enough (I remember picking up their experimental bottles when they first got started) to release an 8-year BIB. It's motherlovin' delicious. Two weeks ago they shut their doors with just two days' notice to their employees. They paid off their debts and turned out the lights. The back-breaking straw appears to be a reduced order from the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board. In a state like Pennsy that insists on monopolizing the market, that's a death blow. Rather than struggle with little hope of regaining lost revenue through sales to privately-owned liquor stores in other states, they decided to pack it in. Guess I'll have myself a small pour and a good cry. Dadgum shame.

Bottle 111 /137 . I’m going to miss this one when it’s gone. Picked up in the good old days when you could go to the distillery first thing in the morning and occasionally they would put out the random well aged Family Estate. This day had a limit of two. I think about 2016 or so. Last of the two I got that day….

The Pennsy state stores appear to have purchased a crap ton of Stellum Rye and marked down the bottles to 27 bucks. Cask strength MGP rye for 27 bucks! Actually it's a blend which is 95/5 MGP- dominant, but the dill is tempered by some Kentucky style rye in the blend. It tastes more like Willett rye than anything else, but the smidgen of corn in the blend adds sweetness. Fred says this is hell of a cask strength blend for less than a pack of bully sticks!

My first shot at Cacio e Pepe, tonight. 3 freakin’ ingredients, but a ton of tension in the process. It’s good, but the sauce while flavorful and rich, was not as smooth as I would have liked. Next time!

My sentiments exactly!

Damn!!

I’m not really sure about the article posted. It could possibly be pics from when the ER 12 was released. Maybe, maybe not? I had a couple of buddies that went to BT not long ago. They had no problem getting in. They said the line getting in wasn’t bad at all.

Well said and I totally agree. When I visited the Buffalo Trace distillery several times in 2012-2017 what made me fall in love with the place was the bucolic scenery of the grounds. This would ruin it for me, and is one reason I haven't been drawn back to the "bourbon trail" recently post-covid. Huge turn off!

This has always been my favorite batch. Glad I was able to make some room on the shelf to open another.

Wow!