Drinking to Drink

[B.B. Babington]

It's easy for people that have sampled lot's o' stuff and have a stash that would take two semi's to move to say "naw, I don't chase it anymore" especially when chasing it used to mean waiting till the fall release you knew you would get. Internet hype and savvy marketing are driving price and demand up. Collector forums are good for raising demand, look at guns, guitars, and ... beanie babies.

[fusion210]

I almost feel like he's talking about me!

Today's spirits customer is more excited about drinking than collecting—at least today's K&L customer is. Most of the new drinkers I've met over the last year are buying bottles, emptying them, then coming back wide-eyed for more. I have become one of these drinkers, and I've been taking my queue from the passion this younger generation is bringing. I'm still interested in old whisky, rare whisky, and new whisky—it's just that I'm interested in drinking it and then moving on to something else. I don't pine for the old days, I don't wish things were back to the way they used to be, and I do not give a flying fuck about batch numbers. I simply look forward to the next glass and I love that more and more drinkers are adopting this mentality.

I've bought random bottles in the past. Jack here, WT101 there, but never got into it. Until on a whim from some talk on a different forum about how good FRSB was. With other stuff I had no idea what I was doing. I'd try it neat, it smelled bad and I'd shoot it. I actually kind of dug the WT101, it had a nice aftertaste but I never followed through in enjoying it. This was 10 years ago when I suppose it had an age statement too.Then it was a decade of beer. I've had some great beers, but wanted more. Bought my first bottle of Four Roses single barrel from a NC ABC store, no barrel selects, standard recipe. It was delicious! Seriously good stuff! I didn't want to follow my beer mistake of just trying what's on the shelves with no idea what it tasted like. So I searched the internet and came to the best bourbon forum, this one. You may have more people lurking than you realize, if bouron's popularity is what they say. I've been doing a lot of reading, the 30 different acronyms you guys are enough to make a newbie's head spin.There's a wealth of info on here and I appreciate all of you typing it out. And I'm still reading.

[OscarV]

In an earlier post someone said David is always an enjoyable read when not selling something.

That article is a sales pitch.

It sounded like those talk radio guys who say they have the best informed audience on radio, selling with flattery.

I have the greatest customers now that they are buying average to mediocre whiskey which there is a never ending supply is what he's saying.

I would rather be a collector (and drinker) of good whiskey than a pompous pretentious self labeled hipster who buys a 20 dollar bottle of liquid grass like Buffalo Trace just to get "whiskey street cred" from the gang at the Apple iPhone store.

The past two years I have drank more beer than I have the previous ten years because of the young mediocre bourbons that the distilleries and retailers are glad to supply to the new young "happy" whiskey drinkers.

Edited July 13, 2014 by OscarV
TO CORRECT SPELLING

[garbanzobean]

Is it so wrong to want something to be good, reasonably priced, and to also have an idea of what it's made of/where it came from/roughly how old it is? I am absolutely thrilled to give any brown spirit that meets these requirements a try.

[OscarV]

No not at all, I get defensive before I have a couple of cups of coffee in the morning.

[PaulO]

Oscar, I agree with you flipping down: salespeople, the knuckle-heads they sell to, and Buffalo Trace. BT suffers from the same problem as Jim Beam. Both distilleries have a few good brands, but their flagship brands are very lame. Over time, I've decided that I don't particularly care for any permutation of BT mashbill #1.

[garbanzobean]

No not at all, I get defensive before I have a couple of cups of coffee in the morning.

[OscarV]

He blogs and has a website to promote his business and there ain't nothing wrong with that.

But it is good to see that people are picking up whiskies for their themselves but we knew it was coming.

How long can you stay with vodka, whisky is the new vodka but that is bad news for us that like a proper aged 8 years and up in the barrel.

Also trumpeting the fact that whiskey collecting/hoarding is over doesn't speak to well of what's out there to buy.

I didn't build my bunker as a portfolio or a "I got more toys than you" thing, I bought bottles that I loved and knew they would never be available again.

A few years ago I bought the first EH Taylor special release and it's been down hill from there.

Last year I passed on BTAC because the drop in quality, there just ain't much on the shelves worth picking up today.

But I'm OK, my bunker will last another 15 years.

[dSculptor]

Past few yrs. did the chasing and calling ,but now it has diminished, I still like to stop in at some Ls if I am passing by and never been in it before just to see the selection. However those few yrs. did establish some connections, to the point now where I get a phone call from a few of them so it was well worth it. I love to drink,but I like to have choices,like to have many bottles open at a time. When I first started getting into the more collectible bottles a few yrs. back, I thought of them as a possible future investment....Which indeed they turned out to be..for my liver .