Elmer T Lee

[mosugoji64]

Cork and Bottle in KY used to have some fantastic store picks of ETL for around  $25 making them an excellent value. That was then. The insanity surrounding the brand now just boggles my mind. It's good but not worth the hunt or current asking prices. I've moved on. 

[Canarse]

Just opened an ETL I purchased last summer.  Good whiskey.  No earthy taste.  Paid $30 something for it.  Not a bad price.  I agree that it is damn near impossible to find the stuff anymore and may be more trouble than it's worth.  Story I heard is they don't want to jack up the MSRP in the US, but are shipping a lot to Japan where they can charge a big number.  Who knows.  I like the stuff if I can get it.

[fenderbender4]

Thanks for all the input.  I guess I'll pick up a bottle if I find it, but not worry too much.  I did find it odd that I can still find Blanton's and RHF for around $50 but for ETL, the only time I saw it was for $99 at a liquor store.  The odd thing about it was that RHF and Blanton's were priced higher than ETL, so theoretically Buffalo Trace initially had RHF and Blanton's in a higher price bracket, so theoretically better quality/more time intensive.  Then it just seems the secondary market/bourbon reviews/lore took it from there.

[flahute]

^^^^Buy the Rock Hill Farm and skip the ETL at those prices. Easy choice.

[jsrudd]

On 5/12/2016 at 11:10 AM, Canarse said:

Just opened an ETL I purchased last summer.  Good whiskey.  No earthy taste.  Paid $30 something for it.  Not a bad price.  I agree that it is damn near impossible to find the stuff anymore and may be more trouble than it's worth.  Story I heard is they don't want to jack up the MSRP in the US, but are shipping a lot to Japan where they can charge a big number.  Who knows.  I like the stuff if I can get it.

I haven't seen any ETL in Tokyo for more than a year, so I don't think its "being all shipped to Japan." In fact, I rarely see any BT#2 but Blanton's and AA. 

[mortre]

If you think Elmer's prices are bad, I saw a bottle of Weller Antique the other day for $60 for 750ml.

[Josh]

On 5/11/2016 at 10:38 AM, Canarse said:

The original story I had heard about ETL was that it was barrels picked by the man himself.  Since Mr. Lee has been gone for a while maybe it's made a difference.  Who knows how long it's been since he picked barrels, if he ever did at all?  I have a couple unopened ETLs.  I'm hoping I don't have the same earthy experience as I have enjoyed ETL quite a bit in the past and thought it was a bargain in the high $30s.

It was never the case that the barrels were all selected by him and only him. There was and is a team selecting them. He was a part of it, but he wasn't the only member. The other members are still alive.

 

 

Earthy was long a characteristic flavor of Ancient Age/Buffalo Trace bourbons. We may not ever know what exactly caused it but I suspect is was related to the low-lying location of their warehouses, close to a river that floods from time to time. Maybe the this encourages the growth of certain fungi that give it that earthiness. At any rate, it went away for a while but does pop up still from time to time. Some people actually like it.

[fenderbender4]

23 hours ago, mortre said:

If you think Elmer's prices are bad, I saw a bottle of Weller Antique the other day for $60 for 750ml.

 

Ugh...and I have a feeling there are some that buy it at that price.  Definitely not a $60 whiskey in my book.

[smokinjoe]

2 hours ago, Josh said:

 

 

 

Earthy was long a characteristic flavor of Ancient Age/Buffalo Trace bourbons. We may not ever know what exactly caused it but I suspect is was related to the low-lying location of their warehouses, close to a river that floods from time to time. Maybe the this encourages the growth of certain fungi that give it that earthiness. At any rate, it went away for a while but does pop up still from time to time. Some people actually like it.

 

Thanks for bringing that up, Josh.  It has long been speculated that the earthiness can go overboard on some BT whiskies for the river proximity reason Josh provides.  Several discussions in the SB archives about the "The Great BT Funk".    There are markings on some of the buildings at BT showing how high the flood waters have reached in some years.    I find it prevalent in both BT rye bourbon mashbills, and enjoy that "house" signature.  I have seen it go beyond even my tolerance though, particularly on several bottles of BT a number of years ago.   I suppose some folks tolerance levels for it might be somewhat lower, and that's where the "problem" shows itself.

[Harry in WashDC]

Joe & Josh - I got here after that thread and previously thought that was just my particular palate picking that up.  THANK YOU!

[Louisiana]

Elmer is still one my favorite bourbons. This particular whiskey was never meant to break any records. It was available, affordable, and very good.

 

I still haven't seen a profile change, but availability & price have. I knew a store that had 30 cases 2 years ago. Still had a 10% case discount as of last year. This year they received 1 case. What a tragedy!

 

[lukehalee]

ETL is $100 in Wichita! I passed.

[Radsman13]

Saw 2 bottles on the shelf today and passed at $80 a piece...

 

Just so happens that I finished the only bottle that I have left.

 

Moving on to something else

[jaxn slim]

Opened up my 2nd bottle in the B1526 series, and this one is also great.

[wildcatdon]

Just bought two bottles yesterday and paid more than I wanted to.  After reading this thread I might want to get rid of them.

[Thig]

49 minutes ago, wildcatdon said:

Just bought two bottles yesterday and paid more than I wanted to.  After reading this thread I might want to get rid of them.

I wouldn't, I have tried several bottles and never had a bad one.  I am not saying it may not be good to some people's taste but I think they have all been good so far.

 

[starhopper]

My local liquor store just got in three bottles, but they're all batch B15265. Strange... why are they still shipping a batch made in fall 2015 - especially one that they admittedly had issues with?  Anyways, at $38.00, they were priced a little higher than they were last year ($34) - but I bought one anyways. Opened her up when I got home, tasted "ok" - but not as good as the ETL that was bottled in early 2015.

Edited May 19, 2016 by starhopper

[RepTucker]

Passed on several at 39.99 yesterday and today. I have about 6 left from a couple years ago. 10 dollars a bottle higher today than the last time I bought any.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[fenderbender4]

I must have literally showed up an hour and a half late for 3 bottles of ETL that came in.  Priced at $34.99.  Luckily they got in a shipment of RHF as well.  Snagged another bottle of that.   Kind of fed up with "hunting".  If I can find RHF easily, I'll keep that secret to myself.  Although I did say I preferred it over Blanton's to one of the reps and another customer who was curious about it.

[MTNBourbon]

I have 3 bottles of it. Still available in GJ.

[garbanzobean]

The conundrum I have with ETL is that I really only think of it as 'pretty good', but the market has decided that it's amazing.  I have one bottle of ETL left, purchased a bit before Mr. Lee passed with no plans to purchase more of it.  I expect I'll just gift it to a friend who will appreciate it more than I would.

[fenderbender4]

1 hour ago, garbanzobean said:

The conundrum I have with ETL is that I really only think of it as 'pretty good', but the market has decided that it's amazing.  I have one bottle of ETL left, purchased a bit before Mr. Lee passed with no plans to purchase more of it.  I expect I'll just gift it to a friend who will appreciate it more than I would.

 

Yeah, I always wonder how much the market conflates "amazing" (in objective quality) and "value" (a whiskey whose quality was better than its original price).  So if ETL was $30, yeah I can maybe see it being great.  But when it's priced at $99...no way.  I can find a 17 year old Arran (CS and NCF) for less.

[flahute]

1 hour ago, garbanzobean said:

The conundrum I have with ETL is that I really only think of it as 'pretty good', but the market has decided that it's amazing.  I have one bottle of ETL left, purchased a bit before Mr. Lee passed with no plans to purchase more of it.  I expect I'll just gift it to a friend who will appreciate it more than I would.

Totally agree. Took me a while to get that place because Elmer was one of the bourbons I found early in my journey and I liked it a lot because of the quality to price ratio. When it trended upward in price and down in availability, I made it a point to hunt for it and bunker it. A recently opened bottle (after not having one open in a long time) confirmed for me that it just isn't that big a deal relative to current prices and demand for it. I'm happy to have a few in the bunker, but I no longer worry about finding more. The more this happens, the easier life gets..

[The Black Tot]

ETL was a bottle I bought a while back while I was basically trying everything.

 

It was wonderful - had this great vanilla thing going on, and took water like nothing I'd ever tasted before.

 

Enter the ETL frenzy. The commemorative.

 

After that, I found some others. I know it's a single barrel, but I found two and they were hot and not at all like my first one.

 

My current strategy is to hold off on this bottle until they stabilize supply and demand. I do think they're rushing this one out the door at present.

[whiskey buyer]

On ‎4‎/‎25‎/‎2016 at 8:32 AM, Canarse said:

Has anyone seen a new shipment of ETL hit the stores this month?  Nothing here in NC that I can confirm.

We got a shipment of 6 the week of June 30. It sold out in two days.