Never would have believed it.......

[birdie]

At a football party yesterday, and conversation turned to how hard it has become to obtain some the rarer bourbons around this time of the year, bought on by the fact we finished off half a bottle of the generous hosts Pappy 15yr.

 

A guy in the group, mid fifties and semi retired, told us his plan that he has run for 3 or 4 years......there are 6 guys, all in a similar position to him time available wise, in his 'team' , they all have the own route that they start to hit on a daily basis around mid October, any limited bottle they find gets put to one side, then at Christmas they have their own 'raffle' and the bottles are distributed.....most years he says they get 3 or 4 bottles each.

 

My thoughts went from "what a great idea" to "that is why its getting tougher to find a limited bottle around here".

 

What do you all think, by all accounts this has been going on for years in CO and they are not the only team doing this.

[squire]

I think if they want to put in the effort they deserve the rewards.

[Richnimrod]

Yeah, it's their time and treasure after all.    I wonder, however, if they actually ever see any BTAC on a shelf to scoop up????     That would be a major surprise any of the last four years or so in these parts.

[Paddy]

Yeah, that wouldn't work here either Rich.  But hey, if I were in Colorado... 

[elmossle]

2 hours ago, Paddy said:

Yeah, that wouldn't work here either Rich.  But hey, if I were in Colorado... 

 

I don't know Paddy. When I lived in KY, I knew a guy that I would see at all of the lotteries and limited releases. He had a "crew" of guys that each had their own area of town to hit in Louisville on delivery day for those stores. Most years they would end up with 5 or 6 bottles each as well. Some of the easier stuff like W12 and ETL, they would get cases. Now of course that was 3 years ago and lots has changed in the bourbon world since then.

[Paddy]

^^^Yep, a lot has changed in three years. 

[mosugoji64]

I say more power to them. I've been around long enough to have owned/tasted all of the LE's that come out at this time of the year and have come to the point where, while I think they are very good, I don't think the quality warrants the time and effort required to obtain them. They are not magnitudes better than what I can obtain by just walking into a store and selecting something off the shelf. I wouldn't hesitate to snap up a bottle if I found one and the thought of some WLW make me salivate, but I'm done with the hunt.

[miller542]

14 hours ago, birdie said:

... route that they start to hit on a daily basis....

 

Its the effort-to-reward ratio.   Walk in to any liquor store on any given day and find plenty of really good bourbon vs. go out on a daily basis and maybe find what might be a really really good bourbon.  If they want to live on the very far end of the "lots of effort for just a marginal increase in reward" side of the spectrum, more power to them.  Everyone has to have a hobby, their's is driving around looking for bourbon.

 

For me, the reward is great no matter what I buy, so any extra effort into a "hunt" throws my effort-to-reward ratio into the range where it just doesn't make any sense.  And less effort in hunting bourbon leaves me more time to enjoy my bourbon and my other hobbies.

 

But it is a bit silly it has come to this, people doing so much work just to buy alcohol.

Edited October 11, 2016 by miller542

[jvd99]

I say buy a bottle of Four Roses and go for a nice hike in the mountains instead.  Seriously though, I'd like to know if these guys are bagging Bload Oath or Orphan Barrels and just bragging, because the likelihood of PVW and BTAC actually being on the shelf or sold to store hoppers on delivery day at retail is minimal anywhere in the country nowadays.  Around Chicago, unless there's a @500% markup with a gouger, these bottles never ever see the light of day.  They're usually spoken for long before arriving at the store.  It makes no difference that a random guy shows up at the store on delivery day, because even if you know it was delivered that day, or even saw a guy unloading PVW from the truck, if you're not on their list, the store managers (Binny's in particular around here) will just tell you [lie] it came and went last week and that's the end of the conversation.  All of this begs the question: why would a store waste such a valuable commodity on a complete stranger when he's got a bunch of good customers he can reward with a limited edition bottle?  Makes no sense to me.  Maybe it's different out West, but I doubt it. 

[birdie]

To be clear, because I asked him, they have established relationships at the stores that hid it out back, they know the stores that just put it on the shelf (we have a couple in Longmont/Boulder that will do that, Wyatt's put the OF Birthday Bourbon on the shelf) and lastly they pool some cash to hit the stores that auction bottles off......all in all a pretty detailed operation.

[miller542]

19 hours ago, birdie said:

..all in all a pretty detailed operation.

 

yeah, not the way I'd spend my free time, but to each his own.

 

 

[petrel800]

When you figure the costs of the bottles, the travel and the time, those guys could all band together and go to KY to pick their own barrels.  I can assure you that the experience of doing that is far better than chasing a truck or bugging the hell out of your local liquor store to buy a LE.  

 

That said, if that's how they want to spend their time, more power to them.  Me, I think I may open up a GBS ETL tonight to and enjoy a real Limited Edition.

[berto]

I suppose if a shop or two is on the way home and it's no inconvenience it might be doable but it seems like a lot of time and effort to go every single day.  Not to mention you become "that guy" to the staff.  If a strong relationship exists there should be no need to go daily.  Time is money.  I'm far from rolling in dough at work but even my hourly makes doing a daily circuit for months a losing proposition.  At some point it starts to make sense to buy secondary.  If they have the time and are willing to burn it with daily visits more power to them.

Edited October 12, 2016 by berto

[sbsbsb]

1 hour ago, berto said:

... At some point it starts to make sense to buy secondary. 

 

This sums up my thought.  I'm not advocating buying secondary, but if they're doing this daily for a 3 month spell, and their return at the end is 3 or 4 bottles each, doesn't it just make more sense to work a part time job (seasonal help for a liquor store?), and earn substantially more than those 3 or 4 bottles would cost on the secondary?

 

To me, it's sadder than some guy ponying up $4-500 for a bottle.  At least he isn't spending months away from better things he could be doing, in order to score the bottle for $80.

Edited October 12, 2016 by sbsbsb

[garbanzobean]

I remember when driving to different liquor stores all over Maryland yielded decent results for rare or dusty whiskies.  And that was after the state had mostly been cleaned out by others.  I don't have time or inclination for it these days, but if others enjoy doing it, more power to 'em.

[mosugoji64]

5 hours ago, petrel800 said:

When you figure the costs of the bottles, the travel and the time, those guys could all band together and go to KY to pick their own barrels.  I can assure you that the experience of doing that is far better than chasing a truck or bugging the hell out of your local liquor store to buy a LE.  

 

That said, if that's how they want to spend their time, more power to them.  Me, I think I may open up a GBS ETL tonight to and enjoy a real Limited Edition.

 

VERY good point. Seems like a much better use of time and money.

[Harry in WashDC]

Some of us live in places allowing purchase and delivery of spirits from commercial resellers far away.  Yes, it has made me lazy, but I avoid traffic, multiple stops, wear and tear, and the frustration attendant to finding bupkus after being in the car for hours.  It also cuts down on, "Well, while I'm here, I might as well buy thishere instead," to which I have devoted one shelf just to remind me.

 

EDIT - It also cuts down on episodes of, "You're going bourbon hunting AGAIN??  What about the 20 bottles in the dining room?"

Edited October 13, 2016 by Harry in WashDC