BTAC dusty hunting

[BFerguson]

So i was out looking the other day to see if there was anything new in the local market to pick up that I haven't had before. Decided to go and had over to a store that I doesn't usually frequent in town, not a bad store, just not on the regular path that I travel on.

So I'm looking around to see what they have, and spy toward the end of the isle that ever so distinctive look of a BTAC bottle. I'm thinking alright, great find!

Walk down to the bottle, and low and behold it's a bottle of ER17. Great find!! Love the regular ER line, so this is a find. to make it ever better, it was not one, but three sitting one the shelve. A banner day indeed!! I'm getting really excited at this point.

Now this is the part that is really unbelievable. And no it wasn't the price-I can see you folks out there thinking that it was bought at a discount. Alas no.

At this point I picked up the bottle and did the double take at it..........as I scanned down the bottle to the release information, I think my heart nearly skipped a beat.

It was of the 2008 vintage.

I regained my nerves and looked at the other two on the shelf through the paper wrapping on them. 2008, 2008.

Now, i've been reading a lot of the posting on the site for awhile. And I realize how great the BTAC line is, and how many have a near impossible time of finding one bottle of the entire line, let alone having three bottles, of a release that long ago.

Well, the decision was not a difficult one at that point, not being the greedy person that I am, I grabbed two of the tissue wrapped bottles and ran to the checkout. I felt like I was stealing these. They just should not have existed.

Then, and yes, there is more.......

At the checkout, the cashier says "Yeah, ER is some pretty good bourbon", to which i agreed and said "Yes it is", still grinning from ear to ear with the magnitude of the find. As I am saying this, he is doing a manual lookup of the price because the tissue paper wrapping is preventing the barcode form being read, and is selecting the regular ER 10yr bottle, which is a fine bottle unto itself-and at about $25 less than the ER17, but being the good honest person that I am, ran back to shelf to pull the other bottle so that he could scan the barcode and ring it the proper price.

As much as I would like to have him ring up the lesser price, I just can not do that. I'm not a terribly religious person, but I do think there is something to that karma thing.

So at $59.99 a bottle, I'm walking out the door pretty happy with a great find.

As I walked out the door, it also got me to thinking. This past weekend I was at another store, or the same chain in town, and did see another two bottles in paper of ER17. Hmmmm, could they also be of '08 vintage. I have to check that out i think to myself.

Not a bad day at all........

[BFerguson]

So with some luck on my side I decided to see if I could continue the streak. I hopped back in the truck with previous purchase of the ER17 secured, and headed on down the road to my usual spot.

I wasn't expected much, since I had just been there this past saturday and picked up two Lot B bottles, but nothing else was really striking a cord that day. Well, besides the six Pappy 20's and three Pappy 23's, but that just wasn't going to happen.

Walk back the area, and give my usual pause and look at Pappy, and then turn around and look at the rest of selection. Take note that the remaining two Lot B are still there-good, good, a couple of new VW Family reserve rye-very nice, and then.......something new, Hmmm.... that Karma thing is working for me....

..more BTAC ER17, this time the 2010 version, and next to that, some Thomas H Handy, ohhhhh, getting excited again.

I'm starting to think that within the course of a four day time span, I've possible seen more bottles in the wild of BTAC releases than soe folks may ever see in a lifetime. Next time I"n in the store, which will probably bee this weekend, I really need to thank the manager for his selection. Stunning.

But back to the choice at hand. Actually, it wasn't much of a choice. The supply of the Handy was less than the ER17, so that is where I placed my demand and grabbed two of them. And yes, i did leave a bottle, or was it two, for the next lucky person to find. I'm going to hedge my bets that the 5-6 ER's will be there still in the near future to grab two of them.

There is nothing like the thrill of the hunt. And the memories to remember of it in the future when those bottles are broken out for the first time.........

[Virus_Of_Life]

Congrats on the find Brent, when out hunting last year I came across some 2008 ER17 as well. So for some reason there is still some out there.

[Parkersback]

Any BTAC for 59 is a good get, let alone a 2008. Congrats & enjoy.