ECBP more abundant ?

[flahute]

9 hours ago, EarthQuake said:

The only way to know any of this for a "fact" is to be the person who made the decision or have been in the meeting that concluded in the decision being made. Everything short of that is speculation. Speculation is not necessarily incorrect though, so it's possible that everything flahute has said is 100% correct, but it's condescending and disrespectful to pretend like one person's speculation is a concrete fact and everyone else's speculation is invalid when there is no clear evidence to prove this is the case. Even if flahute's source is the head of HH who made the call, it's still speculation, as it's an unsubstantiated rumor at this point and the source could have had various motivations to convey this information. Again, rumors are not necessarily incorrect - but let's call a spade a spade here. Let's say HH's head comes out and states in no uncertain terms that a certain narrative is correct, it is still a statement rather than a fact. For something to become a fact it has to be independently verified, something which is virtually impossible to do when it comes to situations like this.

As I've said numerous times in this thread, the person i spoke to was indeed in those meetings.

We can quibble all day about what is or isn't a 'fact'. Once we get past the nitty gritty of the semantics about that particular word choice, we are left with the words from someone who was actually there, versus the speculation and assumptions of everyone else about HH's motives. Until someone comes up with something better than their assumptions from the outside, I'll go with what I heard from a trustworthy source.

[Bbstout]

On 7/2/2017 at 8:33 PM, FredBear said:

Ever since Elijah Craig introduced the new bottle w/ batch stated I feel that my local stores have a steady stock of the barrel proof. I'm sure this is all secondary to the introduction of the NAS regular juice & new surplus of 12 year. I feel it's more of a prize now days to find a few of the old style bottles. Also, I like the B517 much more than the A117. I have a few bottles of the 136 & a few bottles of the 139.4 in my cabinet. (Prices have all been between $45-57)

 

Has everyone else been seeing alot more of the ECBP since the new release?

 

Everyone has different tastes.  I prefer the A117. I posted my amateur thoughts in the ECBP thread in the premium bottles thread. IMO the B517 picked up too many tannins in the wood giving it too much astringency. 

[Insanityabounds]

On 7/2/2017 at 11:59 PM, BottledInBond said:

This is a fairly condescending reply. And your answer isn't really a definitive fact the way you want to portray it. If they chose to bottle EC12 with lower quality barrels to meet current demand, that was their choice. They weren't forced to do anything. They could've easily stuck with the quality they wanted, and had shelves go empty of EC12, just like Weller 12 has gone.  But they wanted to keep their sales up. Again, that was their choice, nobody forced them to produce enough Elijah Craig to keep it on all shelves at all times with younger juice. The motive to go NAS with EC might not have been to specifically hold barrels for ECBP/18, but it certainly was profit driven, and consumers weren't reaching out to HH asking them to do it for better consistency. I'd be willing to bet nobody ever once contacted HH asking them to go NAS

 

I agree with your assessment. The age statement does tie their hands a bit on what barrels they can use but as you say, nobody forced them to keep the supply as high as they seem to want to. Heaven Hill also stated in the press release that removing the age statement from the small batch would have the added benefit of having more barrels to choose from for BP and SB offerings. As far as consistency the small batch as it sits today has slipped quite a bit for me from where it was a few years ago, so,  to be fair it may have started when the twelve was on the back of the label. Cheers. 

[kevinbrink]

Interestingly we cracked an older Round label 12 yr at a friend's house a few weeks ago, and i have to say it was not so good, it was a BITTER over oaked mess, more so than the bottle of 18 year that he had. Obviously time could have also been not particularly kind to it but the fill level was good and the labels didn't look faded at all so it didn't look light struck.

Edited September 6, 2017 by kevinbrink

[Nm0369]

I'd say the newest batch of ECBP at 124.x seems to be lingering on shelves.  I've passed at a few different places for under $60.  Today I actually saw a few bottles of BP mixed into the regular EC NAS slot on the shelf.