Old Blowhard

[nd2005]

I think Id tell him that he has my repeat business just for doing that. Clearing A shelf for your own personal consumption is one thing, clearing a whole regions shelves is most likely done to try to monopolize the 'limited' stock of this item. Then again, Id love to see a flipper jump on the bandwagon and buy up everything he can find only to discover that it really isnt a limited supply.

I hope they all go broke speculating on stuff like this, Widow Jane, and other "high end" offerings that I have little to no interest in.

[P&MLiquorsEric]

I think Id tell him that he has my repeat business just for doing that. Clearing A shelf for your own personal consumption is one thing, clearing a whole regions shelves is most likely done to try to monopolize the 'limited' stock of this item. Then again, Id love to see a flipper jump on the bandwagon and buy up everything he can find only to discover that it really isnt a limited supply.

I find it hard to believe anyone clearing the shelf "sight unseen" is buying for personal consumption. Buying to trade is not personal consumption.

[nd2005]

I find it hard to believe anyone clearing the shelf "sight unseen" is buying for personal consumption. Buying to trade is not personal consumption.

My memories of 2008-2012 are filled with many a shelf I wish I'd had the foresight to clear...

[joboyd]

Indiana's largest chain is getting around 15 bottles of Old Blowhard; under 100 of Barterhouse.

[393foureyedfox]

I find it hard to believe anyone clearing the shelf "sight unseen" is buying for personal consumption. Buying to trade is not personal consumption.

[BFerguson]

So today my whiskey monger tells me that he isn't going to be getting any, and that none is making it to the state. I hope it isn't true.

I do have a soft spot for aged product.

If the bottling numbers are true, it ticks me off even more. M gut tells me that somebody somewhere is not playing nice in the sandbox with this.

oh well...

B

[sutton]

Sounds like a way to clear out cats and dogs at a high price - at least on the Barterhouse. Will wait to see - consistency in 39K bottles seems a bit improbable unless all barrels were batched together. Want to make sure the early reviewers didn't get the best of the best to review.

[RepTucker]

I was told by one of the diageo reps that blowhard, orphan, and rehtoric wouldnt release in my area until at least july. I wanted to at least have a shot at getting one of them, unless they jack the price way up.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[TunnelTiger]

One of my whiskey mongers is going to Chicago to visit relatives and is going to try and bring me back a bottle since it doesn't look like she is getting any. Can't beat that!

[joboyd]

I still can't imagine any way that there are 39,000 bottles of this stuff.

[BFerguson]

snippet taken from the end of doc in the Q&A section

http://www.diageo.com/Lists/Resources/Attachments/1598/North%20American%20whiskey_transcript.pdf.

Tony Bucalo --Could you get into a Van Winkle situation where you just can't get it anymore if you --

Larry Schwartz

That's a great brand, Pappy Van Winkle. We won't get into that kind of situation. Thesituation we're going to create that's going to mimic Pappy Van Winkle is the Orphan Barrelprogram that Peter touched on. That's going to be -- we're going to be the number-one craftdistiller in North American whiskey in the US. I know that sounds really hard to understand,since we're such a big company. We will be the number-one distiller. Why? Because wehave the whiskeys. We have 27-year-old whiskey, 21-year-old whiskey, so we have a bunchof different whiskeys.

The good news is, we're going to charge for it. We're going to charge $100 for it, $150 abottle, $75 a bottle. That's the way we're going to try to create the mystique that Pappy VanWinkle has. Bulleit, we're not going to go mass market, but it will be a million cases. Wecan't stop it.

At least they are honest about what they want to do......Frankly, I think I just puked a bit.

B

Edited March 5, 2014 by BFerguson

[Old Dusty]

Ummm.....yeah. I was already on the sideline on these and now I am in the stands. Maybe even outside the stadium selling peanuts. Or down the street at the bar enjoying a pour of something affordable produced by an actual distillery that sells what it makes. Mr Schwartz must be using the Schwartz with Dark Helmet to dream up this pile of "craft"

[mbroo5880i]

I don't mind a publicly-traded trying to maximize shareholder value. I don't even mind them overstating their market position to key investors. However, it is a bad long-term strategy thinking you can create "mystique" and make something into something it is not by charging more for it. Yes, you will make short-term profits but you risk pricing the average buyer out of the market. Of course, the average buyer isn't their target. But, they will be when the bubble bursts, and it will.

[jvd99]

TunnelTiger - Have your friend go to Binny's - they have it in the stores but its not listed on their website. Call first, they always tell you if something is in the store. They usually don't put "allocated" items online unless they don't sell out quickly, and Barterhouse/Blowhard are not online as of the moment.

[P&MLiquorsEric]

Not much for Kentucky. I seriously question the authenticity of the 30000 bottle number. I'm guessing human error or they aren't using a linear numbering system.

[tigerlam92]

With many people starting to purchase these, more tasting notes would be great.

I also heard it is quite limited. Also Old Blowhard, it was stated at the tasting is a one time release and Barterhouse may have two.

Anyhow, if it is good, more would be a welcome change but if not so good, then it doesn't really matter.

[jvd99]

Here's some photo verification of the not so "limited" Barterhouse. This was the highest number 33,881 I could find sitting on a shelf in my town. No one really knows how many bottles are in this "limited" release b/c Diago won't fess up that this isn't really that limited. I think this stuff will be sitting on shelves for a long time. I'm sure as time goes by, we will see pics of even higher bottle numbers. (Sorry for the sideways picture)

[theglobalguy]

Not much for Kentucky. I seriously question the authenticity of the 30000 bottle number. I'm guessing human error or they aren't using a linear numbering system.

Given we're not talking about Julian date codes or production info...would think skip numbering the product would be far more hassle than it'd be worth.

[P&MLiquorsEric]

Given we're not talking about Julian date codes or production info...would think skip numbering the product would be far more hassle than it'd be worth.

Barter house is not a one time release so it's feasible that they bottled it all at once and some of the higher numbers were mixed in.

[jvd99]

Barter house is not a one time release so it's feasible that they bottled it all at once and some of the higher numbers were mixed in.

[jvd99]

With many people starting to purchase these, more tasting notes would be great.

I'll be opening a Barterhouse next week & will let you know

[P&MLiquorsEric]

I guess that's possible, but why? If the angle is to try and manufacture a Pappy type product/demand, one would think that releasing bottles in thirty thousands would be counter productive. When I see a number that high, I immediately think that it will be available for months or minimally that it's not a purchase on sight type of deal. That store where I took the picture had about 6-6 cases of it on the top racks and several Blowhard cases as well. So it just doesn't scream "allocated" or "limited."

Must be nice. Was told 150 cases of barter house and 100 of old blowhard for all of Kentucky. If allocation is directly tied to bulleit, it would make sense that Kentucky gets less because Bulleit lags behind due to sheer variety and competition amongst bourbon distillers.

Diagio has made sure bulleit is damn near everywhere.

[kjbeggs]

I wish we had some more tasting notes on these as well. I'm headed to Illinois on Saturday, and spoke to a retailer there who has the old blowhard and Barterhouse available. He offered to hold both for me, but I'm just not sore I want to spend that much on the OBH. i did ask him to go ahead and set aside a bottle of Barterhouse.

[compliance]

I wonder if we can expect piles of this at Trader Joe's, as they appear to sell all of the Bulleit

[garbanzobean]

I feel like Diageo has ruffled a lot of feathers with the marketing behind these releases. The Schwartz quote alone gives me a good reason to ignore everything from the Orphan Barrel project. If he had discussed building a legendary brand via quality instead of gouging the customer, things might have been different.