Biggest regret for not buying?

[kcgumbohead]

oh man yeah. I randomly picked up my 2013LE for under msrp, only got one because I was still coming around to the Four Roses style and a bit nervous about cost/quality of limited releases.

Should have cleared the shelf, was at least 4 deep, absolutely love that bottle, think it might be the best bourbon I've ever had. Still nursing on it 18 months later and I probably have one good pour left. Thankful for the store picks, and I'll pick up an OBSK in a heartbeat but the extra few years and the selection of the 2013LE was just amazing.

Edited November 14, 2014 by kcgumbohead

[HD 335]

I actually preferred the LE 2013 over PS OBSKs with the exception of one PS bottle. The 2013 LE SiB can still be bought from the UK if people really want them. It was good enough to me that I stocked up on a few. The recent OBSK from K&L was a bit of a disappointment.

There is not a lot of bottles I regret not purchasing, since I'm fairly new to American whiskey for just 2.5 years I've never experienced the BTAC and Pappy sitting on shelves. But I have seen JSP18s and Vintage bottles on shelves. The latest regret is not a bourbon bottle, but a Japanese bottle from Karuizawa whiskey from K&L. Released just a year and a half ago, I couldn't pull the trigger on a 14 year whiskey for about $150. Just last week, K&L threw up 2 bottles on their auction site and the final bid ended at $3,300 for both bottles...

[ramblinman]

That 2013 LE is wonderful and I certainly enjoy mine but in direct SBS with other BS OBSKs I don't mind finishing the LE. The PS bottles to my taste while slightly different certainly share the OBSK DNA and I find them to be just as good in fact some younger OBSK I have has, as you would expect, less of a wood element so I like it even a bit more.

[RepTucker]

I cannot count the number of times i held pappy 23 and 20 and said "i just cant spend 100 on whiskey". Kickin myself now. Whole cases of 12. Just thinking about it now hurts. I was 23 at the time.

[petrel800]

I can honestly say I regret very little when it comes to bourbon. I've been able to build up a nice library/bunker over the years and even if I regretted something, all I need to do is look at the shelves downstairs and realize that I want for very little. Besides, with the cask strength offerings available today from the majors, new products coming out left and right, it's hard to look back in my opinion. Sure some LE stuff was easier to get, but in my opinion, options for daily drinkers are vast and plenty right now still at great prices.

[squire]

Reflecting back I can think of a few (Yellowstone Mellow Mash, Benchmark single barrel, Old Taylor black label) I should've bought more of when I had the chance but I probably would've also cheerfully drank them before now. Truth is there was good stuff then and there's good stuff now so . . . no regrets.

[miller542]

I regret not buying more VROHHBIB10 and WTRR101 when I had the chance. Probably would have consumed it all by now, but thats ok.

I do have 1 each of a lot of good stuff bunkered but also regret not having the space for a second of each. On the plus side, I don't regret consuming that would-have-been-bunkered second bottle!

I agree, lots of good stuff now, but some stuff they just don't make any more.

[berto]

I don't have any regrets about bottles I left on the shelf. I didn't buy them at the time for a reason, usually financial, and at the time it was the right thing to do. It would be nice to have that bottle of 20 yr VW or a closet full of this or that but buying them at the time wasn't in the cards. I prefer to drink what I have instead of mourning what I skipped.

[Tony Santana]

There's a Subway restaurant a couple of miles from my house. Every time I drive by it I remember 10 or more years ago when it was a liquor store - decent sized, decent selection, and pretty much all I ever bought there was Jack Daniels and beer. God knows how many wonderful bottles of bourbon I walked by and didn't even think about twice. What's that speech Red gives in Shawshank Redemption when he's up for parole? Something about his younger self being so foolish and how he wishes he could go back and shake some sense into him? Rings true.

[Clavius]

There are a couple bottles I've had over the years where I wish I had a second one stashed away now. But that being said, I consider myself very fortunate to have gotten some of the bottles I did. And I enjoyed every one of them. I think that's what it's all about in the end.

[greatgoo]

I regret not picking up a bottle of the FR 2014SLE. I saw it sitting on the back shelf in the store with no price on it. This store have been overcharging for everything (GTS and WLW 599 for example) so I figured why ask. I heard it sold at MSRP so I was a bit disappointed. Oh well.

I also should have bought the other three bottles in the OFBB14 case, but my pregnant wife was with me and if I would have come back with 6 of those I would not be around to type this message.

Got a good laugh from this post. My wife is also pregnant. Gotta walk on egg shells when drinking, talking or buying alcohol.

[DogfaceSoldier]

I remember it clear as day - looking at the PVW 23 Decanter set and thinking to myself "who has $200 to spend on bourbon"? Live and learn.

[savagehenry]

PVW15 on my honeymoon in Tuscany in 2012. I already had 2 at home, so grabbed an EC12 instead. I probably could have convinced my new bride that it was a good idea at $130 or so, but oh well. We did have the last two pours of a VW Rye 1985 at a bar down the road, so that made up for it.

[tigerlam92]

First is not a regret but a little sad for not buying more ORVW 23/114. There was a stack of it and I purchased one only. Thinking back normally I would take 4 or at least three.

My only regret is really not buying the VXOF 15 when I could have.

[tylermke]

I passed on a lot of JPS17 in my early days of hunting. I just remembering thinking I didn't want to buy one JPS17 when that money could get me 4 bottles of ER10 instead.

I also passed on a number of Willett bottles over the years. It was always a gamble for me, since a lot of the WI-based picks had no reviews and I was gun-shy on pulling the trigger on what usually was a $60-$80 bottle.

Lastly, I passed on many, many High West 16, 21, and Bourye bottles. Should have bought more, especially the 16 year. Live and learn!

[sutton]

Just before I joined this board and started to learn a bit, I was looking for a bottle of rye to try to make the Sazarac I had at a bar. The bartender made it with Baby Saz, so that is what I went looking for, along with the 100 pf Herbsaint.

I was happy when I found Baby Saz having no idea what it should be worth, but I think I paid $25 and thought the bottle was pretty neat, since you could so clearly see that red rye hue. There were another couple of bottles next to it, VW Family Reserve Rye, which I had not heard of, but couldn't believe it was $79.99 ... so I happily took my Herbsaint and baby Saz to the register.

Later that same year, I passed on a BMH 16-yr for $125, again not believing something could cost more than that VW Rye I had seen a few months back. Christmas shopping a few months later, I found some ORVW 10/107, WLW, GTS, THH, and ER17 all sitting on a couple of upended display barrels. I took 2 of the ORVW 10/107 for $33 each, leaving the other dozen or so there, and passed on all the rest because it was between $70-$80 (and there were at least 2 or 3 of each sitting there) ...

Regrets? Probably the BMH and VWFRR ... never saw those again. The others, I just get a chuckle thinking about it. Live and learn ... of course, had I bought the VWFRR, I probably would have used the bottle completely in Sazaracs, and then I'd really have something to regret!

[WhiskyRI]

I regret not clearing a shelf of Pappy 3 years ago while on vacation- the store had a dozen bottles of 12 year and some GTS and WLW - and they'd been there at reasonable prices for over 6 months. I bought 3 of the Pappy but stopped because I didn't want to explain to my wife why I was buying a case of expensive bourbon. Live and learn - I just didn't know how insane the world would become in bourbon. I also regret not buying BTAC and PVW while on vacation to London 2 years ago - I walked into a store and they had a full selection of BTAC and PVW including the PVWFR Rye - and the markup with pound conversion was probably 30-40% more than retail here. But I'd already bought 7 bottles of Single Malt and again was worried about spending so much on something that I could get back at home. The best lessons are those learned through experience, I guess.

[Special Reserve]

Not buying more PVW when I could.

About a decade ago, there was a local store that had 23, 20, and 15 on the shelf. I bought a 15. A month later still on the shelf. I bought a 20. In another month no change. Over the course of a year a bought a 15 every month or so and another 20 and a 23. Why didn't I buy 2 or 3 times what I did?

Three years ago I was in a store with 4 ORWV 10/107 on the shelf. I bought 2. Don't know why I didn't buy all. Must not have been greedy that day.

I've passes on many good to great bourbon and rye whiskey over the years. In the end I should not be complaining.

[DBM]

I passed up a bottle of High West 21 while traveling in Texas a couple years ago. I decided I didn't want to spend that much on a 375ml bottle. Oops.

[bjhowell]

Remember going into a local store 4 or 5 years ago and picking up V17 and Van Winkle 12 off the shelf whenever I wanted. Could have bought a case of each if I had known better. Same place had PVW23, 20 and 15 in the glass case at retail for over 2 years. Kept thinking why would I pay that much for a bottle when I can get this really tasty V17 and VW12 "whenever" I want. Crap!

[GerryM]

We all regret not stocking up on Pappy before the craze but aside from that what really makes me sad is not cleaning out the shelf all the times NH had EC18 on sale for $25/Btl. Urrhhh, it still hurts.

[B.B. Babington]

We all regret not stocking up on Pappy before the craze but aside from that what really makes me sad is not cleaning out the shelf all the times NH had EC18 on sale for $25/Btl. Urrhhh, it still hurts.

that's right. ya can still get weller/pappy if ya lucky, but only get EC18 if ya know somebody.

[nd2005]

We all regret not stocking up on Pappy before the craze but aside from that what really makes me sad is not cleaning out the shelf all the times NH had EC18 on sale for $25/Btl. Urrhhh, it still hurts.

I bought the last bottle of EC18 in town...

But had I been a month or so earlier I could have had a case...

[Trey Manthey]

Countless bottles of PVW, BTAC, JPS, BMH age stated, PHC, AHH in 2011/2012. Those don't bother me too much. We only fret about it now because they are harder to get and more valuable.

The one that always bugs me is a bottle of Lagavulin 21 year that I passed on for MONTHS in 2008 or so. It was a ridiculous sum to pay for whiskey at the time, but I came so close so many times.

[AaronWF]

Sam's was a great Chicago liquor store that was eaten by Binny's. They had their own 1B of ORVW 15. It was around $40, I believe, which was a lot to pay for bourbon at that time. I never even considered it. That's a shame.