Distillery of the year?

[Paddy]

Yes, yes and . . . . yes.

[MyOldKyDram]

And yeah, I'd kill for a 4R straight rye, but in the meantime I have plenty of OBSK to keep me busy.

[Tony]

Ok, I think I will chime in as well.

And surprise, surprise I will also go with Four Roses (Although admittedly I really do not like to say this to many people outside of this group, hard enough to get now as it is).

They are just a class act all the way around. Among the things I like-

The bourbon - all of it, Yellow Label to the Limited Editions.

The gift shop - what a great place to visit, and to have reasonably priced great gift shop bottles (the 17 yo from last September, WOW)

Jim Rutledge- a wonderful human being and a great master distiller (this does cause me a bit of a worry, what happens when he retires?)

The rest of the staff- from the gift shop, the tour guides and the people in the office, genuine happy people who enjoy what they do.

The bottling facility- This is a great place, come on it has cows wandering around and when you go through, you are really part of the facility.

The barrel selection program- To be able to go to TPS or Binny's and get any of the 10 recipes at a good price is very cool.

The mellow moments club- Birthday cards, Christmas cards, little gifts and emails with special events that make me want to do a quick trip to KY.

How about the bottles- the SmB and SB bottles are very well done

The Bourbon- should probably start and end with the bourbon.

I probably missed a thing or two but just great all the way around.

Best regards, Tony

[Yeti]

Ok, I think I will chime in as well.

And surprise, surprise I will also go with Four Roses (Although admittedly I really do not like to say this to many people outside of this group, hard enough to get now as it is).

They are just a class act all the way around. Among the things I like-

The bourbon - all of it, Yellow Label to the Limited Editions.

The gift shop - what a great place to visit, and to have reasonably priced great gift shop bottles (the 17 yo from last September, WOW)

Jim Rutledge- a wonderful human being and a great master distiller (this does cause me a bit of a worry, what happens when he retires?)

The rest of the staff- from the gift shop, the tour guides and the people in the office, genuine happy people who enjoy what they do.

The bottling facility- This is a great place, come on it has cows wandering around and when you go through, you are really part of the facility.

The barrel selection program- To be able to go to TPS or Binny's and get any of the 10 recipes at a good price is very cool.

The mellow moments club- Birthday cards, Christmas cards, little gifts and emails with special events that make me want to do a quick trip to KY.

How about the bottles- the SmB and SB bottles are very well done

The Bourbon- should probably start and end with the bourbon.

I probably missed a thing or two but just great all the way around.

Best regards, Tony

Tony, I'm drinking with you tonight! Cheers!

[Tony Santana]

Unfortunately, I cannot join the groundswell of support for Four Roses. Not that I dislike anything of theirs I've sampled, but - and this is admittedly a very provincial view - their promotions and distribution departments have fallen asleep at the wheel as far as I'm concerned. In Wisconsin I see the basic yellow label, single barrel and small batch. I've never seen the 125th, I think the whole state must have gotten about a dozen bottles. I can recall seeing two bottles of Limited Edition stuff on the shelves, unfortunately did not snap them up immediately and then it was like they'd never been there. I've yet to see a store selection even though some of the bigger outfits around here are definitely doing that with HH and BT products. So, while I like 4R, this year isn't any different than last year or the year before. Just the basics. I'd love to get my hands on some LE or 125th.

Heck, I'm thinking about springing for some of that seemingly overpriced Bulleit 10 year just because it's supposedly 4R juice.

As for HH, we're in the same boat, I've never seen the ECBP (almost) everyone's raved about. I had an easier time getting BTAC bottles this year than either ECBP or 4R premium products. So BT gets my vote.

[mbroo5880i]

I wonder how much of that is due to the distilleries or whether it is more on the distributors. For example, I know certain areas of Indiana get products that we don't get in the Indy area or get products sooner.

[White Dog]

Unfortunately, I cannot join the groundswell of support for Four Roses. Not that I dislike anything of theirs I've sampled, but - and this is admittedly a very provincial view - their promotions and distribution departments have fallen asleep at the wheel as far as I'm concerned. In Wisconsin I see the basic yellow label, single barrel and small batch. I've never seen the 125th, I think the whole state must have gotten about a dozen bottles. I can recall seeing two bottles of Limited Edition stuff on the shelves, unfortunately did not snap them up immediately and then it was like they'd never been there. I've yet to see a store selection even though some of the bigger outfits around here are definitely doing that with HH and BT products. So, while I like 4R, this year isn't any different than last year or the year before. Just the basics. I'd love to get my hands on some LE or 125th.

Heck, I'm thinking about springing for some of that seemingly overpriced Bulleit 10 year just because it's supposedly 4R juice.

As for HH, we're in the same boat, I've never seen the ECBP (almost) everyone's raved about. I had an easier time getting BTAC bottles this year than either ECBP or 4R premium products. So BT gets my vote.

[squire]

According to Jim when he retires he will leave the place in good hands.

[mbroo5880i]

I wonder if he will come in every Tuesday and select the single barrels? :cool:

[Tony Santana]

Tony, here's a little insider baseball for you. HH, Beam, and BT are all distributed by Badger(Also known as Badger Frank in the Madison area.) and they're the largest distributor of both wine and spirits in WI. Not saying that most of their employees understand Bourbon, as they don't, but you will see better distribution on those products because of that. FR is distributed by General Beverage, who is a powerhouse on the wine side, but when it comes to spirits, well, they suck. Until 3-4 years ago they couldn't get arrested with 4R, so I'm sure they've never asked Kirin for much in the way of specialty products. And General Beverage is so bad that they often mis-ship LE vs. regular all the time. I know of 2 retailers in MKE that ordered regular 1B, and were shipped LE1B instead, yet they were only billed for the regular. And they never caught these mistakes!

I would also lay some blame on retailers and restaurants. 4R, having been so little known in WI, was never asked for by accounts. Until about 2 years ago, when things started exploding, the LE were certainly not being requested, so GB had little to no incentive to try and secure much for our state. In fact, one retailer in MKE got the lions share of 2010 1B LE on a reduced price, and ran a fire sale just to move it.

To bring it back on topic, the mistakes of poor distributors are not really the fault of the producers, although the producers do choose who to get in bed with. (No one forces 4R to work with GB, as we are not a franchise state.)

And Tony, if you buy the Bulleit 10yr looking for a little 4R magic, you'll be greatly disappointed.

[Paddy]

According to Jim when he retires he will leave the place in good hands.

[TunnelTiger]

And Tony, if you buy the Bulleit 10yr looking for a little 4R magic, you'll be greatly disappointed.

[Brisko]

If you don't care about age statements, then Four Roses should be right up your alley.

It's funny, I care about age statements as much as anybody, more than most, maybe. But Four Roses is the one brand that I trust not to sell me immature whiskey under the guise of NAS. Hell, Jim Rutledge will tell you straight up the general age of all their brands, and it lines up what my palate tells me far more than what other distillers tell us (looking at you, BT and WT)

[JPBoston]

My vote goes to HH... for bringing EW White and 1783 to my area.

With quality and supplies dwindling... I'm glad to have several quality value pours available. $27 for a HANDLE of 100 proof, bonded juice? Tastes great to boot? Yes, please.

Sent from my XT907 using Tapatalk

[jwacky]

No matter how it shakes out I think we are the winners.