osco, louisville, etc.

[juliusrocco]

Hi folks. I've been away from the forum for a while. Work and a move have gotten in the way, but I've moved from New England to southern Indiana. That said, a couple of questions to those in the know. Louisville is within spitting distance--where do I go for the best retail bourbon selection? I've seen mention of Party Mart/Source/Etc. Does Louisville have Sunday retail sales for liquor?

Second: while in the Osco drug store, there was a 1.75 litre plastic jug of what purports to be Kentucky Straight Bourbon under the Osco brand (part of the Albertsons corp.). I'm not holding out hope that this would even be worth the effort of pouring it, but does anyone know if this is indeed legit bourbon and where it might be distilled?

And, I've FINALLY had Buffalo Trace (been drinking it ever since my move out here a month ago) and love it.

Julius

[bobbyc]

In Louisville I like Liquor Barn the best, Party mart or Source is okay too. Just on the high end Liquor Barn will have a few more items. Sunday retail sales, No . You can get beer after 12 or 1 , I don't think you can get wine , not sure. Look for a DSP number on the Osco , Post it here , somone can tell you it's origins. Hope that helps

[cowdery]

If the label says "Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey" then that's what it is. The Federal government guarantees that. As for the source, most bulk bourbon comes from Heaven Hill.

[bluesbassdad]

Chuck,

Have you ever tasted any of the private-branded bourbons? If so, is the similarity to Heaven Hill-branded products (perhaps EW7?) apparent to you?

I'm curious as to whether such bourbon is essentially leftover rather than rejected. On second thought, I suppose a more likely possibility is that it's produced with private-brand sale in mind from the beginning.

Yours truly,

Dave Morefield

[cowdery]

I don't know if Heaven Hill still does it this way but, historically, a private label customer would actually purchase so much of a given production run. Those barrels of whiskey were their property from the day they were entered, and then they paid Heaven Hill an additional fee to "tend" them during aging and, at the appropriate time, another fee to dump and bottle them. Ultimately, it was cheaper for the purchaser to buy new whiskey and age than it was to buy aged whiskey, but Heaven Hill also benefited because it didn't have to finance that production or worry about selling it in four or more years. It was already sold.