Elmer T Lee

[fishnbowljoe]

6 minutes ago, starhopper said:

Well, it's better than Booker's upcoming insane increase to $100!

 

It's kinda funny you should mention Booker's. The place I stopped at today had a whole shelf full of Booker's priced at $43.99. I had a box/bottle in my hand, but just couldn't bring myself to pull the trigger. When I was buying my ETL, I told the manager what was going on with Booker's. She looked surprised and said she hadn't heard a thing at all from their distributor. Imagine that. 

[ratcheer]

!!!

 

If I found Booker's for $43.99, I would buy at least three. It is about $65, here.

 

Tim

[Special Reserve]

In SEMI the typical price is about $60/bottle.  In a store that I rarely frequent.  The store clerk suggested that I buy one as the price was soon to be raised to $100/bottle.  Sinc I'm not a fan of Booker's I let them stand.

[Clueby]

I finally found a couple bottles of ETL on the shelf last night...for $99 each! Pass.  Same store had floor to ceiling stacks of Booker's for $44.99. Passed on that as well.

[netboog]

Seems the allocation has dropped significantly this year in CO or I'm just getting lazier. I only snagged one ETL in 2016 and that was in a lottery, sad times. 

[raymoall]

Just getting my head round the mashbills, specifically RHF and ETL. They share the same mashbill from what I've read...so does age make the big difference here? I was so excited to open up the ETL I recently found here in Michigan, and I really don't think I can tell the difference between ETL and ER10. So, seeing I paid Premium for ETL, I feel a little let down after my first pour in a long time. I thought ETL had more of a rye kick. First sip, I thought it was a wheater!  Of course, my palate is still finding its way around this bourbon world...

[BottledInBond]

13 minutes ago, raymoall said:

Just getting my head round the mashbills, specifically RHF and ETL. They share the same mashbill from what I've read...so does age make the big difference here? I was so excited to open up the ETL I recently found here in Michigan, and I really don't think I can tell the difference between ETL and ER10. So, seeing I paid Premium for ETL, I feel a little let down after my first pour in a long time. I thought ETL had more of a rye kick. First sip, I thought it was a wheater!  Of course, my palate is still finding its way around this bourbon world...

BT doesn't disclose too many specifics but there are warehouse and proof differences for sure

[fishnbowljoe]

The individual and characteristic traits of ETL, as well as other BT offerings, is the specific rickhouse(s) and floor(s) that it's aged in. And yes, it does make a difference. The same mash bill aged in different rick houses and/or floors in said rickhouses can come out tasting quite a bit different. 

 

Cheers! Joe

[Paddy]

2 hours ago, raymoall said:

Just getting my head round the mashbills, specifically RHF and ETL. They share the same mashbill from what I've read...so does age make the big difference here? I was so excited to open up the ETL I recently found here in Michigan, and I really don't think I can tell the difference between ETL and ER10. So, seeing I paid Premium for ETL, I feel a little let down after my first pour in a long time. I thought ETL had more of a rye kick. First sip, I thought it was a wheater!  Of course, my palate is still finding its way around this bourbon world...

Yes, age and warehouse location do play a role in the product, but don't forget the major influence imparted by the specific barrel used. 

 

As to ER10 vs ETL, two similar yet different mashbills are in play here.  as ER is BT mashbill 1 (low rye), while ETL is mashbill 2 (high rye). 

[The Black Tot]

As to the differences between ETL, RHF, HPR, and Blanton's, I've heard it's mostly done by BT's tasting panels.

 

"this one tastes like ETL" - gets bottled as ETL, etc.

 

For me, apart from their similarities, ETL is vanilla forward, HPR has almost a pear like element to it - I'm too out of practice with RHF and Blanton's to give a confident profile assessment on those.

 

Love me some HPR. It seems to have slid under the ETL hysteria and just tasted good for great value throughout. I can live without that last 1.1 proof.

 

But I will definitely come back to ETL when the bubble bursts - particularly when they start allowing barrel picks again.

 

Time is on the side of the well-bunkered.

[musekatcher]

1 hour ago, The Black Tot said:

Time is on the side of the well-bunkered.

 

I think so too.  I give it a couple years, when demand drops back, but not all the way back, and we have an oversupply.  I wonder if prices will ever drop?  Seems like that never happens anymore.  I haven't seen ETL in a while, but waiting for it to re-appear.

[tanstaafl2]

On ‎1‎/‎29‎/‎2017 at 1:39 AM, Paddy said:

As to ER10 vs ETL, two similar yet different mashbills are in play here.  as ER is BT mashbill 1 (low rye), while ETL is mashbill 2 (high rye). 

 

We get a bit spoiled as to what constitutes a "high rye" mashbilll with the availability of the higher rye mashbills of MGP (36%), Four Roses (35% for the B's) and even OGD at around 27% according to the Whiskey tree. I don't know if there is really a clear definition for what makes a low rye versus a high rye mashbill.

 

I tend to arbitrarily draw a line between low rye (up to about 12-13% rye, mid rye (13-25% or so) and high rye above 25%. But that is my definition only!

 

And while as noted BT/Sazerac has chosen not to say I think the general consensus is that both BT rye mashbills (standard Barton has been suggested to be around 15% in the whiskey tree) are relatively low rye in content. Mashbill #1 is maybe 8% (similar to Dickel and JD!) and Mashbill #2 is maybe the low teens at best (similar to HH?). So perhaps not surprising that one might find that neither mashbill has a rye forward flavor as they are more like low rye and even lower rye! Both are lower than the "low rye" mashbill of MGP and Four Roses for example. Indeed the BT mashbills might well be lower even if they were combined!

[bourbs bro]

12 hours ago, The Black Tot said:

As to the differences between ETL, RHF, HPR, and Blanton's, I've heard it's mostly done by BT's tasting panels.

 

"this one tastes like ETL" - gets bottled as ETL, etc.

 

For me, apart from their similarities, ETL is vanilla forward, HPR has almost a pear like element to it - I'm too out of practice with RHF and Blanton's to give a confident profile assessment on those.

 

Love me some HPR. It seems to have slid under the ETL hysteria and just tasted good for great value throughout. I can live without that last 1.1 proof.

 

But I will definitely come back to ETL when the bubble bursts - particularly when they start allowing barrel picks again.

 

Time is on the side of the well-bunkered.

 

I've never had RHF...found a case of dusties of them in a store near me for 65$ in an area that doesn't seem like the type of place anyone would spend 65$ on a 750 of bourbon would go to...so I passed.

 

But I just bought my first bottle of HPR which is readily available around me...so I've always kinda passed on it, just cause it's always there...well i feel like I had messed up.  I'm really pleasantly surprised with HPR and it has shot up to the $40 price point standards bearer.  The nose is great on it.  I took a deep sniff and was like man this is reminding me of something very closely and it was blantons... which is my $50 price range standard bearer (a spot near me has blantons for 48 usually...but I feel like that could change, most other blantons i've seen are 60 range).  pear is a good note for HPR, I was thinking a little sharper sweetness and couldn't put my finger on it.  I agree with the vanilla for ETL, and blanton's is make a little more "quiet oaky" but you can definitely tell these are related.  It's making me curious to go grab one of those overprice RHF to compare and do a blind SBS.

 

out of ETL, HPR, and blanton's...I think I prefer ETL...but I've only ever found 2 bottles, one was 31...the other I paid 40 for... and these were on "hunts" where I get a hair up my butt and just go for a drive...I honestly probably like blanton's a hair more than HPR... but it's pretty close. Close enough that I'm not sure blanton's justifies the price.  And I can usually get blanton's...but I could see maybe having to hit a few stores if looking for it specifically.  maybe the availability of HPR and price near me makes me a little more excited about it than I should be...I really hate the feeling of trying something and thinking, "I don't know when I'll be able to find this again." 

 

if HPR is not available around you, and you can get blanton's or ETL easily for retail, it's probably not worth hunting down to try. 40 bucks on HPR is probably just right.  anymore probably find blantons.  any less and it'd be clenched in a death grip with eagle rare for my low 30's standard bearer.

Edited January 30, 2017 by bourbs bro
added comments on notes

[Charlutz]

A friend just texted me this pic from Delaware. At least there's no sales tax on top of that price...

 

[JoeTerp]

3 minutes ago, Charlutz said:

A friend just texted me this pic from Delaware. At least there's no sales tax on top of that price...

 

I'm curious what the PHC next to it is priced.  Would be pretty amazing if it's at MSRP and less than the ETL

[bourbs bro]

what in the hell....

[emr454]

When $40 bottles start going for  $300 plus, we can assume the boom won't peak for a while yet. Lunacy all around

[tanstaafl2]

6 minutes ago, emr454 said:

When $40 bottles start going for  $300 plus, we can assume the boom won't peak for a while yet. Lunacy all around

 

When they finally start sitting on the shelf for awhile at that absurd price then hopefully it means we are getting a little closer. Whether that is the case yet I can't say. I do feel like I am starting to see a few overpriced things starting to malinger on the shelves a bit longer so I am ever so slightly hopeful!

 

Unfortunately when it comes to the pappiez, still not so much.

Edited January 30, 2017 by tanstaafl2

[BigRich]

 
When they finally start sitting on the shelf for awhile at that absurd price then hopefully it means we are getting a little closer. Whether that is the case yet I can't say. I do feel like I am starting to see a few overpriced things starting to malinger on the shelves a bit longer so I am ever so slightly hopeful!
 
Unfortunately when it comes to the pappiez, still not so much.

I'm only seeing Beam and Turkey products malingering. HH, BT, and 4R limiteds still seem to be moving with gusto. Although I'm curious about the fate of that$300 ETL.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Paddy]

 

5 hours ago, tanstaafl2 said:

 

We get a bit spoiled as to what constitutes a "high rye" mashbilll with the availability of the higher rye mashbills of MGP (36%), Four Roses (35% for the B's) and even OGD at around 27% according to the Whiskey tree. I don't know if there is really a clear definition for what makes a low rye versus a high rye mashbill.

 

I tend to arbitrarily draw a line between low rye (up to about 12-13% rye, mid rye (13-25% or so) and high rye above 25%. But that is my definition only!

 

And while as noted BT/Sazerac has chosen not to say I think the general consensus is that both BT rye mashbills (standard Barton has been suggested to be around 15% in the whiskey tree) are relatively low rye in content. Mashbill #1 is maybe 8% (similar to Dickel and JD!) and Mashbill #2 is maybe the low teens at best (similar to HH?). So perhaps not surprising that one might find that neither mashbill has a rye forward flavor as they are more like low rye and even lower rye! Both are lower than the "low rye" mashbill of MGP and Four Roses for example. Indeed the BT mashbills might well be lower even if they were combined!

Yes, very similar, yet different mashbills.  I should have clarified that neither of the BT mashbill's are really what we'd consider to be high rye content, as both are relatively 'light' on the rye component when compared to many others. 

[emr454]

13 hours ago, tanstaafl2 said:

 

When they finally start sitting on the shelf for awhile at that absurd price then hopefully it means we are getting a little closer. Whether that is the case yet I can't say. I do feel like I am starting to see a few overpriced things starting to malinger on the shelves a bit longer so I am ever so slightly hopeful!

 

Unfortunately when it comes to the pappiez, still not so much.

My hope is that the newcomers to the bourbon world are doing their research and are beginning to understand how much they are being gouged and look elsewhere. Certainly wouldn't hurt for the flippers to get tired of chasing LE's and unicorns either!

 

As for all things Pappy/Van Winkle, I've personally written them off as ever being obtainable. After a liquor store owner recently admitted selling ORVW10 for $300 (up from $40), I can honestly care less. Oh well, plenty to keep me happy in the $20-$60 range.

[tanstaafl2]

18 hours ago, BigRich said:

I'm only seeing Beam and Turkey products malingering. HH, BT, and 4R limiteds still seem to be moving with gusto. Although I'm curious about the fate of that$300 ETL.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

True, BT and FR do still seem to be largely immune for now although maybe the lack of "Rutledge-ness" of FR going forward may help slow that one down a bit. Maybe.

 

The recent PHC's that were "less desirable" like the 8th (Wheat whiskey) and 9th (Malt whiskey) seem to still pop up now and then. The 10th Edition "elderly" bourbon was certainly more difficult to come by and because it was pretty limited and priced so high that it had a perceived high value it served to make it a flipper's wet dream so I am not too surprised by the popularity of that one.

 

I still can't fully comprehend the Willett mania but I guess it is good for them since they decided to get their cut of the secondary market. The few bottles of their older stuff released recently that I have been able to try weren't particularly good to me. Perhaps it goes well with Mountain Dew...

[flahute]

2 hours ago, tanstaafl2 said:

I still can't fully comprehend the Willett mania but I guess it is good for them since they decided to get their cut of the secondary market. The few bottles of their older stuff released recently that I have been able to try weren't particularly good to me. Perhaps it goes well with Mountain Dew...

The only good thing about this is that its allowed them to expand without taking on any debt while resisting the buyout offers. I suspect like many here that the best of the older barrels have long since been picked from when the barrel program was still active. The prices they get now are allowing them to transition into their own distillate more comfortably.

[FL bourbon]

New here!

 

A year ago my sister brought a bottle of Elmer T. Lee to me in FL that she purchased for <$40 in CT.  Thought it was a pretty darn good bourbon.  She enjoyed it, too, and bought another bottle at home.  She hasn't laid eyes on a bottle in CT since.  Kept my eye out for it in FL, never being able to find it, until this past weekend.  First bottle I laid eyes on walking into a local discount shop I hadn't been to in awhile.  So happy, until I saw the price tag - $79.99!  I passed on it, but the owner brought the price down to $70, and my sister told me to get it.  Apparently folks are paying $100+ for it in her neck of the woods.  The owner said that he buys a lot of the BT offerings, and that is how he is able to get it.  He was also selling PVW10 for $500 and EHT Single Barrel for $80.  Outrageous!

 

I'll explore other options until the prices come back down.

[graftonbc1]

I went to a large chain store as they were showing they had Elmer T Lee in stock. I drove 20 miles to the store to find that it was not on the shelf. I asked one of the employees and he checked. Yes, it was in stock. He got a ladder and checked some boxes up high, and low and behold, he pulled the last bottle down for me. He said someone must have been hiding it. 

 

The place ace sells their liquor at MSRP, so I got it for 22.99. The last time I saw it elsewhere, it was fetching 40. 

 

I also picked up a bottle of Four Roses Small Batch for 22 bucks. It will be fun to taste them over the next few weeks.