Willett WFE price increases

[The Black Tot]

On 1/17/2017 at 3:58 PM, wahlct said:

Was at Willett yesterday.  14yr is $204.

 

Now and again I think to myself "Gee, I should have bought it at $140 when I had the chance."

 

Then I calm down and realize that I have enough 10 and 11yr Willett that I bought at $100 and under in the bunker, and they'll totally do me just fine.

 

Furthermore, there are probably 100 bottles at least that I have to drink out from the bottom end of my bunker before I work my way up to them Willetts, which sit pretty high in the pecking order.

 

Nervosa -> Zen in less than 10 seconds.

Edited January 20, 2017 by The Black Tot

[mark fleetwood]

On 12/2/2016 at 7:37 PM, mbroo5880i said:

I can safely say that I will never pay more than $200 for a bottle of bourbon.  I don't care if it was bottle especially for Pappy Van Winkle himself and comes with a Cuban cigar rolled personally for Fidel Castro.  To date, I have never paid over $100 for a bottle, close but not over, but I can never say never on that threshold.  I guess I won't be buying any more WFE from the gift shop, oh wait.  I don't pass on LE's but quickly lose interest when they hit three figures.

what if it was a personally rolled cigar OF Fidel Castro? ????

Edited January 20, 2017 by mark fleetwood

[flahute]

3 hours ago, The Black Tot said:

Nervosa -> Zen in less than 10 seconds.

Man, it's good to have you back here Paul!

[namadio]

On ‎1‎/‎17‎/‎2017 at 10:58 AM, wahlct said:

Was at Willett yesterday.  14yr is $204.

Was at willett on the 19th and 21st.  The 14 year was long gone.  15 year was put out at 1300ish Thursday at $225.  104 bottles out of the barrel per the #ing on the label.  Gone by the time I was back Saturday at open with friends. 

Edited January 23, 2017 by namadio

[JT3NSB]

4 hours ago, namadio said:

Was at willett on the 19th and 21st.  The 14 year was long gone.  15 year was put out at 1300ish Thursday at $225.  104 bottles out of the barrel per the #ing on the label.  Gone by the time I was back Saturday at open with friends. 

and most listed probably on bottle spot .....

[namadio]

1 hour ago, JT3NSB said:

and most listed probably on bottle spot .....

our group of ten on Thursday all bought 2 each so theres at least 20 for consumption (we were barrel picking before the bardstown detour)

[Hop]

Heard they just released one today/yesterday at $750 - not sure what it was but man....

[Auracom]

Something 26 years old. Makes PHC10 an absolute steal.

[Hop]

Heard this morning the $750 bottle released this week was $2500 on secondary - this is craziness!

[Kyjd75]

Went to Willett this morning to celebrate my birthday.  Thought I'd purchase a bottle of whatever WFE they had available.  they had NOTHING.  Told me they had 26 bottles of 14 yr available when they opened, sold out in 30 minutes.  Amazing.  Then drove over to HH.  NOTHING.  Employee told me that middle of Feb. they might have some VSOF 12 yr to sell, but at $149.95/bottle.  WHAT!!!  I have bought many bottles of VSOF 12 yr, never at more than $30.  Still have one in the bunker.  Now it is $149.95!?!  Then I turn to my HH 6 yr. BIB for $10.99 and realize that there is still sanity in some parts of the bourbon world.

[Old Dusty]

27 minutes ago, Kyjd75 said:

Went to Willett this morning to celebrate my birthday.  Thought I'd purchase a bottle of whatever WFE they had available.  they had NOTHING.  Told me they had 26 bottles of 14 yr available when they opened, sold out in 30 minutes.  Amazing.  Then drove over to HH.  NOTHING.  Employee told me that middle of Feb. they might have some VSOF 12 yr to sell, but at $149.95/bottle.  WHAT!!!  I have bought many bottles of VSOF 12 yr, never at more than $30.  Still have one in the bunker.  Now it is $149.95!?!  Then I turn to my HH 6 yr. BIB for $10.99 and realize that there is still sanity in some parts of the bourbon world.

Unfortunately that description of the gift shops is true more often than not these days. They are a completely at the mercy of the flippers-especially Willett. Was at HH a year and a half ago and a poor worker trundled out a small cart w VSOF on it. Jacknuts were grabbing bottles off his cart as he rolled past. He had two to "stock" the shelf with by the time he got there. And I bought one of those for $40 IIRC. They (sadly) will sell out in a flash even at $150. 

[mosugoji64]

1 hour ago, Kyjd75 said:

 Then drove over to HH.  NOTHING.  Employee told me that middle of Feb. they might have some VSOF 12 yr to sell, but at $149.95/bottle.  WHAT!!!  I have bought many bottles of VSOF 12 yr, never at more than $30.  Still have one in the bunker.  Now it is $149.95!?!  Then I turn to my HH 6 yr. BIB for $10.99 and realize that there is still sanity in some parts of the bourbon world.

 

YIKES! I picked up 3 at HH a couple of years ago for about $40 each. Nothing there last year but passed on one at a Louisville LS for about $50. Still have 2 left in the bunker and I guess I will be sipping those VERY SLOWLY.  Hopefully, Larceny will show up here soon.

[Old Dusty]

46 minutes ago, mosugoji64 said:

 

YIKES! I picked up 3 at HH a couple of years ago for about $40 each. Nothing there last year but passed on one at a Louisville LS for about $50. Still have 2 left in the bunker and I guess I will be sipping those VERY SLOWLY.  Hopefully, Larceny will show up here soon.

Brian, what do you think of the VS Old Fitz? For me $40 was an overspend. But then again anything wheated with a double digit (or any)  age statement is a rarity these days. 

[mosugoji64]

20 hours ago, Old Dusty said:

Brian, what do you think of the VS Old Fitz? For me $40 was an overspend. But then again anything wheated with a double digit (or any)  age statement is a rarity these days. 

 

Oddly enough, I think the flavors are muted in VSOF compared to their other wheated expressions. It needs to be bottled at a higher proof.  I still enjoy it and am glad I picked them up, but the price had hit the ceiling for me. There's NO WAY I would pay $150 for it but I'm sure they'll sell out at that price with all of the people out there chasing unobtanium.

This may be better suited to another thread, but as a fan of HH's wheated bourbon, I'm disappointed in what they've done with the classic OF labels over the past couple of years. While I enjoy Larceny and am happy to see a line extension, I wish they would do more with the legacy labels. They were hitting their stride with 1849 when it got the axe and the recent popularity of BIB labels is a great opportunity to push OFBIB, but they scaled back instead. It may be just geekery on my part, but I wish they would do more to showcase the history of the brand.

Edited January 28, 2017 by mosugoji64

[smokinjoe]

36 minutes ago, mosugoji64 said:

 

This may be better suited to another thread, but as a fan of HH's wheated bourbon, I'm disappointed in what they've done with the classic OF labels over the past couple of years. While I enjoy Larceny and am happy to see a line extension, I wish they would do more with the legacy labels. They were hitting their stride with 1849 when it got the axe and the recent popularity of BIB labels is a great opportunity to push OFBIB, but they scaled back instead. It may be just geekery on my part, but I wish they would do more to showcase the history of the brand.

 

I'm with you on this, Brian.  But, in reference to our "geekery", I'm sure there are internal struggles within each of the legacy distillery marketing departments on how/whether to leverage the established (read "old") label names in this boom, versus the need and desire to attract a whole new segment of consumers that are and might come over to bourbon and who may be seduced by a different image.  When I think of this conundrum, I find myself arguing both sides with equal efficacy and enthusiasm!    Larceny attempts to bridge this with a tie in to Fitz, and they play it up in the story.  But, it's not the same as those classic Old Fitz labels which sing to me.  We geeks will probably lose out in this battle, I'm afraid.  But, we can be comfortable in the end that our buying decisions will be made on the whiskey, and not necessarily the label.  

 

[mosugoji64]

21 minutes ago, smokinjoe said:

 

I'm with you on this, Brian.  But, in reference to our "geekery", I'm sure there are internal struggles within each of the legacy distillery marketing departments on how/whether to leverage the established (read "old") label names in this boom, versus the need and desire to attract a whole new segment of consumers that are and might come over to bourbon and who may be seduced by a different image.  When I think of this conundrum, I find myself arguing both sides with equal efficacy and enthusiasm!    Larceny attempts to bridge this with a tie in to Fitz, and they play it up in the story.  But, it's not the same as those classic Old Fitz labels which sing to me.  We geeks will probably lose out in this battle, I'm afraid.  But, we can be comfortable in the end that our buying decisions will be made on the whiskey, and not necessarily the label.  

 

 

I'll defer to your marketing expertise and agree, but it's still sad. I guess we can console ourselves annually by looking at those labels behind glass at the BHC! 

[Old Dusty]

I join in the sadness at the wreckage of the Old Fitz line. Brian, I agree that the VSOF suffers at 90 proof. Just look at what Luxco did at 10/100. Imagine a 12/100 from HH to echo the history of the line. But if they are going to hit us for $150 for 12/90 I shudder to think what they'd charge for 10 more proof points. 

 

Joe, I can see your point on the internal struggle. I'm sure the Larceny rollout was seen as a fresh new way to generate interest in their wheated line which was probably pretty stagnant at that time at least on sales growth. But man, the decision to ignore and deemphasize such a celebrated label is puzzling to me.  Heck you can't even find Old Fitz merch in the gift shop. I'd buy a tshirt or hat. None to be had. 

[mosugoji64]

22 hours ago, Old Dusty said:

Heck you can't even find Old Fitz merch in the gift shop. I'd buy a tshirt or hat. None to be had. 

 

Good point and a glaring omission. I was just thinking the same thing looking at the pic of Joe's HH shirts in the T-shirt thread. 

[PaulO]

Since Old Fitz came up -

VSOF used to be available sometimes when I visited KY @ ~ $40.  This was 10 - 15 years ago.  Meanwhile W12 was close by @ $26.  I wouldn't say one better than the other just different house styles.  

I'm not too happy about the BIB getting scarce now.  I wish the opposite.  I would have loved to see a 6 or 8 year old bond. 

[The Black Tot]

VSOF when I tried it was a pleasant bourbon, but no great shakes. I don't think I'd be a buyer even at $40.

 

I agree with Brian that it would likely benefit from an uptick in proof.

 

If they're going to charge $150 for it, it's certainly worth their while even if they back off on the dilution.

[Hop]

Three years ago I bought 3 bottles at the gift shop for somewhere around $35, the next year I got one for the same price, last year I got one (the limit) for $45 or so.  I like it but there's some family history there with Stitzel where family worked for lots of years and I drank it as a kid - little did I know what I had at the time... I also like the Old Fitz BIB but the only place I see it is in KY and most of the time only in 1.75's which is fine with me as the value is better.  

 

As long as I can get it for around $50 or less I'll add a bottle or so a year of the VSOF for those reasons

[Whiskey Dick]

wow. found and bought two VSOF 12 year at a louisville store last year for $30ish each. stumbled into it on a main highway. I bought them just cause I knew they were d/c'ed or highly limited, and I hadn't had any in years. Opened one at a party last week and half the bottle magically disappeared overnight......or something

 

I'm not a huge 'wheater', but found it a very 'smooth' option at 90 proof. I did forbid any mixing with it though.....

[namadio]

On ‎2‎/‎7‎/‎2017 at 11:34 PM, Whiskey Dick said:

wow. found and bought two VSOF 12 year at a louisville store last year for $30ish each. stumbled into it on a main highway. I bought them just cause I knew they were d/c'ed or highly limited, and I hadn't had any in years. Opened one at a party last week and half the bottle magically disappeared overnight......or something

 

I'm not a huge 'wheater', but found it a very 'smooth' option at 90 proof. I did forbid any mixing with it though.....

I haven't seen one of these recently.  I did manage to trade for a 1994 BHC VSOF recently.  Looking forward to that guy on a special occasion!

[fishnbowljoe]

5 hours ago, namadio said:

I haven't seen one of these recently.  I did manage to trade for a 1994 BHC VSOF recently.  Looking forward to that guy on a special occasion!

 

Open and enjoy it Nick. It's pretty darned good IMHO. I was lucky enough to stumble on a few of them a number of years ago. FWIW, the bottling(s) that HH did shortly after they acquired the brand weren't all that great. One member here actually gifted me a bottle because he wanted to know if my take on it was the same as his. It was. It wasn't very good. It then disappeared for a few years. When it reappeared, it was much, much better, but still not as good as the original BHC version. 

 

Cheers! Joe

[namadio]

19 hours ago, fishnbowljoe said:

 

Open and enjoy it Nick. It's pretty darned good IMHO. I was lucky enough to stumble on a few of them a number of years ago. FWIW, the bottling(s) that HH did shortly after they acquired the brand weren't all that great. One member here actually gifted me a bottle because he wanted to know if my take on it was the same as his. It was. It wasn't very good. It then disappeared for a few years. When it reappeared, it was much, much better, but still not as good as the original BHC version. 

 

Cheers! Joe

What are your thoughts on the later 90s early 2000s bernheim juice in the Old Fit BIB?  I'm working on a trade for that one right now.  Then I'll have an early 90s Old Fitz Prime (SW, Bernheim, some blend of both, or who knows what else), the 1994 SW VSOF12, and a 2001 Old Fitz BIB that I presume would be 100% pre HH bernheim juice.  Very excited to try them sbs and compare to the modern day offerings.  Regardless they are different than what I can buy now and as I wasn't of legal drinking age then I am always interested in different.