About All Things Pappy/VanWinkle

[jonhalter]

Great to hear Eric. Sounds like you found a way to please customers and benefit your store.

[Hop]

At a lottery event tonight in SC where Pappy was the most available item. However the prices if you won the opportunity to buy were high. Had 6 bottles of 23 at $500 each....

My name was called and I took the only bottle of WLW available.

[Auracom]

We will do it again next year.

I should plan my next distillery trip to line up with your LE release day .

[squire]

Glad it worked out Eric.

[t44tq]

Maybe a stupid question, but I'll put it here in the Pappy thread. Has anyone noticed a significant difference between various years of Lot B? I know the proof is lower than ORVW 10, but having tasted both, I don't like Lot B very much, while ORVW 10 is something I like a lot. I'm hoping I can get some more ORVW 10 so I can drink it without worrying about when I can get another bottle.

[Old Dusty]

Agree with your view. I don't hunt the current Lot B. 10/107 is much better, IMO and cheaper presuming you can find it and at MSRP.

[bicktrav]

Maybe this is particular to my area, but I have no clue how anyone gets anything Van Winkle anymore. Especially not at MSRP.

[danz]

From the various facebook and other groups, it looks like a small number of people clean out the systems in control states, so they get it at MSRP. A similar number seem to have made friends with store owners who sell them multiples, or they travel over multiple states to hit up many stores they have become friends with and clear them out. Some people get lucky in lotteries and some wait in lines overnight in Kentucky or Alabama, from the looks of things.

[bicktrav]

From the various facebook and other groups, it looks like a small number of people clean out the systems in control states, so they get it at MSRP. A similar number seem to have made friends with store owners who sell them multiples, or they travel over multiple states to hit up many stores they have become friends with and clear them out. Some people get lucky in lotteries and some wait in lines overnight in Kentucky or Alabama, from the looks of things.

I think you're right about people cleaning out certain allocations. As for making friends with store owners, at least here in LA, that won't do it. I'm very good friends with a buyer at a store and he'll get me just about any release there is, but when it comes to Van Winkle, his hands are tied. They just have too many high-roller clients (most from the wine world) who have become interested in all things Van Winkle. I'm just hoping those people don't start catching on to BTAC in the same way or Four Roses Limited or Parker's Heritage.

[danz]

You and I may have had a discussion about the "buddy up with a store" suggestion above in this thread. It's pretty much the same situation in NY. I asked a person in PA about his sizable haul this year, and it sounds like people who had made friends in the past in rural areas may still have good access.

[bicktrav]

Ahh, you're right. We already covered this. Long thread I guess!

[jeffrey r]

Maybe this is particular to my area, but I have no clue how anyone gets anything Van Winkle anymore. Especially not at MSRP.

I simply don't have time to go traipsing from store to store trying to find PVW and BTAC (or Four Roses LE's for that matter). So due to the fact that none makes it to the shelf around me anymore (or if they do, in a rare chance, it is for ridiculous prices), I have almost a 0% chance of finding any. I wasn't 'around' in the good old days when it was plentiful all over the place and sitting on shelves, but I do regret leaving decent amounts of BTAC, PVW and FR LE on shelves at or near MSRP just within the past couple of years. Crazy what is going on these days.

[t44tq]

From the various facebook and other groups, it looks like a small number of people clean out the systems in control states, so they get it at MSRP. A similar number seem to have made friends with store owners who sell them multiples, or they travel over multiple states to hit up many stores they have become friends with and clear them out. Some people get lucky in lotteries and some wait in lines overnight in Kentucky or Alabama, from the looks of things.

[danz]

I think some states, like PA, have policies to limit to one per customer. PA may even make it work. It sounds like NC and VA, however, just to name two, don't control the process enough to make that policy stick. I'm pretty well done with all of the limited releases, so it's becoming irrelevant to me, other than the entertainment value of seeing the behavior. However, bricktrav asked how some people are able to get limited bottles at MSRP.

[t44tq]

I think some states, like PA, have policies to limit to one per customer. PA may even make it work. It sounds like NC and VA, however, just to name two, don't control the process enough to make that policy stick. I'm pretty well done with all of the limited releases, so it's becoming irrelevant to me, other than the entertainment value of seeing the behavior. However, bricktrav asked how some people are able to get limited bottles at MSRP.

[tanstaafl2]

There are still a few enlightened owners, often ones who have a passion for whiskey themselves it seems, who recognize that making an extra few hundred dollars on a handful of bottles isn't worth potentially alienating fellow whiskey aficionados who buy from them throughout the year on a regular basis and don't just cherry pick. They have continued to sell the few bottles they get to people they feel are truly interested in whiskey, aren't likely to flip, and in some cases share their whiskey with the owners themselves (not that I am naming any names or anything...). They continue to sell their minuscule allotments at or near MSRP to these fellow whiskey geeks sometimes even to the exclusion of their biggest paying customers who they know only want the whiskey for its notoriety and have no real understanding or passion for whiskey. You know who they are. The kind that usually drinks wine, Johnnie Black and soda or maybe Jack and coke. They take a sample of some delightful whiskey offered to them, gulp it down in one swallow, squinch up their face and allow as how that was really smooooth...

Really, it happens. Not often I suspect but it does happen!

:cool:

[nd2005]

There are still a few enlightened owners, often ones who have a passion for whiskey themselves it seems, who recognize that making an extra few hundred dollars on a handful of bottles isn't worth potentially alienating fellow whiskey aficionados who buy from them throughout the year on a regular basis and don't just cherry pick. They have continued to sell the few bottles they get to people they feel are truly interested in whiskey, aren't likely to flip, and in some cases share their whiskey with the owners themselves (not that I am naming any names or anything...). They continue to sell their minuscule allotments at or near MSRP to these fellow whiskey geeks sometimes even to the exclusion of their biggest paying customers who they know only want the whiskey for its notoriety and have no real understanding or passion for whiskey. You know who they are. The kind that usually drinks wine, Johnnie Black and soda or maybe Jack and coke. They take a sample of some delightful whiskey offered to them, gulp it down in one swallow, squinch up their face and allow as how that was really smooooth...

Really, it happens. Not often I suspect but it does happen!

:cool:

I'm increasingly thankful that I've got a store that continues to hook me up with every limited release of the year, at state minimum price.

Also thankful that Michigan split up the PVW and BTAC allocation for the first time this year.

Last year at my main store I had the ultimate Sophie's choice between WLW and PVW. This year I got a GTS in October and a PVW in November.

[Hop]

At the event I was at last night at least 50% of the PVW went to people who had no idea what it was, the ages, proofs, etc... They were asking questions of others and even many of those that answered were giving wring information. I tried to help a few but after a while it gets old trying to help the hopeless.

[TunnelTiger]

At the event I was at last night at least 50% of the PVW went to people who had no idea what it was, the ages, proofs, etc... They were asking questions of others and even many of those that answered were giving wring information. I tried to help a few but after a while it gets old trying to help the hopeless.

You know that is just sad, real sad.

[portwood]

You know that is just sad, real sad.

Maybe so, but it is the way of the world.

Plenty of desirable products available in very limited quantities (luxury cars, houses in posh neighborhoods, fancy watches, tee off times at Augusta National or Pebble Beach, etc, etc, etc) often go to people that know nothing about such products/services but acquire them, BECAUSE THEY CAN. Money and/or connections talk.

I'm not sad some people can play golf at Augusta National but I can't;

I'm not sad some people live in multi-million dollar houses but I can't;

I'm not sad some people own Ferraris but I choose not to; and

I'm not sad some people buy (overrated) Pappy van Winkle, EVEN THOUGH, they may not have any clue about the provenance of what they are buying

[flahute]

Paul W beat me to posting the link to this story (in a different thread) but I'll post it here because it's primarily about the cigar smoking man.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/12/03/the-hunt-for-pappy-van-winkle.html

This is perhaps the most reasonable article about PVW I've read in a non-whiskey related publication.

How often do you get to read about the concept of "Veblen goods" and the "conspicuous consumption utility" in an article about bourbon?

[Paul W]

Paul W beat me to posting the link to this story (in a different thread) but I'll post it here because it's primarily about the cigar smoking man.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/12/03/the-hunt-for-pappy-van-winkle.html

This is perhaps the most reasonable article about PVW I've read in a non-whiskey related publication.

How often do you get to read about the concept of "Veblen goods" and the "conspicuous consumption utility" in an article about bourbon?

[mbroo5880i]

Great, now we are going to have a run on Old Grand Dad!

[danz]

Paul W beat me to posting the link to this story (in a different thread) but I'll post it here because it's primarily about the cigar smoking man.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/12/03/the-hunt-for-pappy-van-winkle.html

This is perhaps the most reasonable article about PVW I've read in a non-whiskey related publication.

How often do you get to read about the concept of "Veblen goods" and the "conspicuous consumption utility" in an article about bourbon?

[bicktrav]

Great, now we are going to have a run on Old Grand Dad!