Favorite Bourbons to Hunt

[alcoholica]

I am fairly new to the bourbon scene. Never had a good experience with bourbon until this year, when I tried a Willet Reserve. Since then, I've gone a little crazy collecting for future drinking. I've already been able to cultivate a couple of good relationships at a couple liquor stores and have a pretty decent inventory getting built. I was promised a WLW, but we'll see. I'm also supposed to have 1st shot at a GTS, but again, we'll see. My source for the WLW has already come thru on two fifths and a handle of W12, a fifth of WA107, and a birthday bourbon. The GTS source got me a few bottles of Blanton's and a few bottles of Bookers at $60 each. So I remain optimistic. All that being said, my favorite hunting is for discontinued items.

 

I've had a lot of luck finding the Beam 8 y/o black label and Austin Nichols WT 101. I have also found a few bottles of EC12. Add to that some Beam Choice which has been discontinued and a couple old vintages of EWSB. Maybe I enjoy hunting this bottles because I've actually been able to have success. Where I am at, I have a fair amount of success finding bottles like Eagle Rare, baby Saz (once a year) and Stagg Jr. It's kind of funny to hear people having trouble finding these, but it puts things in perspective too.

[kevinbrink]

I enjoy finding the Dusty stuff more than the LE's, I would have a harder time leaving old age stated bottom and mid shelf stuff on the shelf than most of the LE's at anything above retail.  Also worth grabbing as recent loss of age statements would be Fighting Cock 6, Knob Creek 9yr, Old Charter 8 or 10, Barton 6yr, and I'm sure a bunch of stuff I'm forgetting, Old bottle Rittenhouse is another favorite. Every once in a while you can find something that you don't even know about, Old Williamsburg 7 yr 101 was one of those for me and I'm sure there are others I can't even think of.  Good luck on the hunt and share what you find, I love pictures of dusties!

[Kane]

30 minutes ago, kevinbrink said:

Old bottle Rittenhouse is another favorite.

If only I could get my hands on a bottle of this. It was such a unique rye, there is nothing close atm.

 

I'm going to add the slightly older KC, when it came with a screw cap. It had a very different honey+cherry taste back then, nowadays the honey is all gone, and the cherry is more like cherry coke. It's still good, but I sometimes miss the old one.

[Bbstout]

1 hour ago, alcoholica said:

I am fairly new to the bourbon scene. Never had a good experience with bourbon until this year, when I tried a Willet Reserve. Since then, I've gone a little crazy collecting for future drinking. I've already been able to cultivate a couple of good relationships at a couple liquor stores and have a pretty decent inventory getting built. I was promised a WLW, but we'll see. I'm also supposed to have 1st shot at a GTS, but again, we'll see. My source for the WLW has already come thru on two fifths and a handle of W12, a fifth of WA107, and a birthday bourbon. The GTS source got me a few bottles of Blanton's and a few bottles of Bookers at $60 each. So I remain optimistic. All that being said, my favorite hunting is for discontinued items.

 

I've had a lot of luck finding the Beam 8 y/o black label and Austin Nichols WT 101. I have also found a few bottles of EC12. Add to that some Beam Choice which has been discontinued and a couple old vintages of EWSB. Maybe I enjoy hunting this bottles because I've actually been able to have success. Where I am at, I have a fair amount of success finding bottles like Eagle Rare, baby Saz (once a year) and Stagg Jr. It's kind of funny to hear people having trouble finding these, but it puts things in perspective too.

What is your favorite pour from the bottles you have recently obtained?

[KyleCBreese]

21 hours ago, Kane said:

If only I could get my hands on a bottle of this. It was such a unique rye, there is nothing close atm.

 

I'm going to add the slightly older KC, when it came with a screw cap. It had a very different honey+cherry taste back then, nowadays the honey is all gone, and the cherry is more like cherry coke. It's still good, but I sometimes miss the old one.

The Rittenhouse DSP-KY-354 is an interesting one to look for. 

[kevinbrink]

7 minutes ago, KyleCBreese said:

The Rittenhouse DSP-KY-354 is an interesting one to look for. 

There is a place on 23 in Wayne Called Paradise Liquors (I think) that had a ton of old label Ritt, I was really stoked until I noticed it was DSP-1, that early batch of HH distilled wasn't as good as the current stuff and not close to the DSP-354 but I still bought a bottle for further research. 

[Bob_Loblaw]

Is anyone able to post a picture of the "Old label Rittenhouse"  Thanks

[Surtur]

1 hour ago, Bob_Loblaw said:

Is anyone able to post a picture of the "Old label Rittenhouse"  Thanks

 

Assuming that is what was meant by "old Label", this is the previous label.

Edited December 12, 2017 by Surtur

[kevinbrink]

19 minutes ago, Surtur said:

 

Assuming that is what was meant by "old Label", this is the previous label.

Yup, there are other old labels but this is the one I still see occasionally.

 

Some others that have come up lately for me are Older Vintages of EW Single Barrel, Beam Black 8 yr, Age Stated KBD/Willett Stuff or even the Wax Topped Noah's Mill or Rowan's Creek, Baker's with the Gold Ring around the wax on the neck. Generally speaking if I see anything dusty I pick it up to take a closer look.  

[Bob_Loblaw]

1 hour ago, Surtur said:

 

Assuming that is what was meant by "old Label", this is the previous label.

Thank you!

[DCFan]

On 12/10/2017 at 10:40 PM, alcoholica said:

All that being said, my favorite hunting is for discontinued items.

Living in ABC-land there is no such thing as a dusty.  My hunting is almost exclusively for pretty much any of the BT Distillery products. I can still find ER, AA, and Benchmark easily. And things like BT, Blantons and Sazerac come in frequently but you might have to utilize their website search functionality to track them down. The rest of the BT line - we'll only see in lotteries, if then.

[alcoholica]

On 12/11/2017 at 12:21 AM, Bbstout said:

What is your favorite pour from the bottles you have recently obtained?

Pretty boring, been working on a Jim Beam 8 y/o. Great bourbon for $20 though. Just a great everyday drinker. Nothing offensive or complicated. I've yet to crack the EC12 or WT Austin Nichols. I do plan to pop open a bottle of Beam Choice with a friend tomorrow if I don't have to stay late at work. I literally have gallons of everyday drinkers that are better than the $20 store offerings. 

 

I did find KCSB store picks for $30 and that's a great deal along with Jefferson's Groth and Pritchard's for $59 and $49 respectively. I just don't drink that much, so really my bourbon buying is done unless I see something special. 

[alcoholica]

4 hours ago, DCFan said:

Living in ABC-land there is no such thing as a dusty.  My hunting is almost exclusively for pretty much any of the BT Distillery products. I can still find ER, AA, and Benchmark easily. And things like BT, Blantons and Sazerac come in frequently but you might have to utilize their website search functionality to track them down. The rest of the BT line - we'll only see in lotteries, if then.

Being new I missed out on a recent trip to a state store, they had single barrel Woodford Double Oak, didn't know what I was looking at and missed out. 6 hr drive away.

[Bourserker]

Things that I "hunt" that get me excited these days are non-LE bottles that I don't have and can't get locally and/or are at a good price.  For example, I found a shelf full of 1792 FP When I was traveling, which was neat to see since that's a lottery item here in VA.  Another example was finding RR10 at $25.99 per bottle.

[alcoholica]

On 12/11/2017 at 12:21 AM, Bbstout said:

What is your favorite pour from the bottles you have recently obtained?

Just had the Beam Choice tonight. Not too bad. Not a complex bourbon at all, but easy to drink. For $16 bottle, not a bad pour. Also, it's not a sweet bourbon, which can be a nice change of pace.

[Bob_Loblaw]

Finally went back to the LS I recalled having an unusual looking bottle of Rittenhouse and grabbed two of these. Back lable says DSP-1. What does that mean?

[DCFan]

5 minutes ago, Bob_Loblaw said:

Back lable says DSP-1. What does that mean?

Dip shit pricing. 

[Kane]

38 minutes ago, Bob_Loblaw said:

Finally went back to the LS I recalled having an unusual looking bottle of Rittenhouse and grabbed two of these. Back lable says DSP-1. What does that mean?

It means the new juice in the old-label bottle. They released these during the transition. Sorry that you can't experience heavenly old release.

[mbroo5880i]

I guess I don't really hunt anything.  However, I enjoy "stumbling upon" interesting bottles.  Any dusty (e.g, no longer available and out of production before 2010), any reasonably priced LE, or any good store selection.  Any SAOS CS - bourbon or rye.  Any OWA or W12.  Any extraordinarily priced bottles (e.g., I found a couple bottles of OF 1920 for $35.99).

[BottledInBond]

54 minutes ago, Kane said:

It means the new juice in the old-label bottle. They released these during the transition. Sorry that you can't experience heavenly old release.

Just to clarify for the OP, it means that the bottle you bought was distilled by Heaven Hill. For years Heaven Hill had bottled Rittenhouse that has been contract distilled for them by Brown Forman. Most of the stuff in the older style bottle was the BF (DSP 354) stuff. But for a brief period they used that same bottle design with the HH (DSP 1) distillate before they subsequently switched to the new style bottles (like 3ish year’s ago?). 

 

There are some people on this forum that liked the BF distilled product better than the HH distilled current stuff, so the 354 old bottles are somewhat more sought after for some people. I am one of those people. 

[Bob_Loblaw]

1 hour ago, Kane said:

It means the new juice in the old-label bottle. They released these during the transition. Sorry that you can't experience heavenly old release.

Aww man! Bad beat. Probably a lot of worse ways to burn $50 though as I thought the new juice was pretty solid. And now I know what to look for from here on out. 

[Mako254]

Four Roses private barrels 

LEs at MSRP

G or H warehouse wild turkey/ RR single barrels. 

[Bob_Loblaw]

43 minutes ago, BottledInBond said:

For years Heaven Hill had bottled Rittenhouse that has been contract distilled for them by Brown Forman

Great info, thanks! Do we know if the BF distillate is the exact same mashbill as the new HH juice? 

[Kane]

5 minutes ago, Bob_Loblaw said:

Aww man! Bad beat. Probably a lot of worse ways to burn $50 though as I thought the new juice was pretty solid. And now I know what to look for from here on out. 

Like you said, you can't go wrong with the new one either...

 

As for the mashbills, afaik nobody knows for certain, but they are both of the barely-legal ~51% rye variety. Regardless, when I did a SBS with my last drop of the old juice, they were worlds apart, and it was a sad day for me. I jumped on the Woodford rye at release thinking that it could be similar, but no dice... Old Rittenhouse is the stuff of legends in my book, didn't taste like rye, didn't taste like bourbon, but was exceptional in its own way.

[flahute]

5 hours ago, Bob_Loblaw said:

Finally went back to the LS I recalled having an unusual looking bottle of Rittenhouse and grabbed two of these. Back lable says DSP-1. What does that mean?

Distilled Spirits Premesis KY - 1 = Heaven Hill "New Bernheim" in Louisville.