Binny’s BT store picks

[Whiskeythink.com]

Which city stores? Most should have them, especially Link Park & South Loop. But it wont be on the shelf, & the regular employees may not know. Speak to a manager. Even so, if you are not a regular, you may get a blank stare. Those bottles have to be divided between many stores, so each stores may only get a couple cases. Some stores that get little whiskey (like River Grove) may get none. So it usually goes to the regular customers. Even at Binnys, gotta know the folks at your local to get their good stuff!

[Bob_Loblaw]

2 hours ago, Whiskeythink.com said:

Which city stores? Most should have them, especially Link Park & South Loop. But it wont be on the shelf, & the regular employees may not know. Speak to a manager. Even so, if you are not a regular, you may get a blank stare. Those bottles have to be divided between many stores, so each stores may only get a couple cases. Some stores that get little whiskey (like River Grove) may get none. So it usually goes to the regular customers. Even at Binnys, gotta know the folks at your local to get their good stuff!

I agree with most of this.  It may have come and gone from the city stores already, but I would be amazed if it was not actually in yet.  

 

[Bob_Loblaw]

On 1/21/2018 at 9:58 AM, Whiskeythink.com said:

I was told the ER is 12 yrs.

Would be awesome, but thus far I am unable to even confirm an ER store pick! I will keep trying and hopefully it will just turn up one day.

 

[hugh jass]

On 1/21/2018 at 3:10 PM, Whiskeythink.com said:

Which city stores? Most should have them, especially Link Park & South Loop. But it wont be on the shelf, & the regular employees may not know. Speak to a manager. Even so, if you are not a regular, you may get a blank stare. Those bottles have to be divided between many stores, so each stores may only get a couple cases. Some stores that get little whiskey (like River Grove) may get none. So it usually goes to the regular customers. Even at Binnys, gotta know the folks at your local to get their good stuff!

Ha, my receipts would certainly support my status as a regular, but I have never seen any consistency in the people working the floor to have developed a relationship. Both the LP and SL stores are usually busy at the times I can go, so hard getting an audience, or even tracking down someone to open the locked room where they keep certain stuff. All that is fine, but the cynical side of me begins to question their allocation tactics when it is so difficult to even confirm if they had, have, or will have these items for sale. They previewed the coming picks on Instagram, why not at least inform your employees? I get why they don’t want to tell the masses but it should be easier for interested buyers that show up at the store to get a straight answer. Anyway appreciate all the feedback. 

[fishnbowljoe]

I have to speak up here in defense of Binny's. I full well know what they go through.

 

I was involved on the back end of our two SBHHSS barrel picks. Myself and a few other SB members helped organized and separate the bottles and get them ready to ship and/or be picked up. On both occasions, in the few hours we were there, there were countless phone calls to the whiskey hotline. Invariably, the majority of these calls were about Pappy, BTAC, and other limited releases and such. I'd estimate that in 5 or 6 hours, there was well over 50 phone calls. Needless to say it was a pain. I don't see how they go through it on a daily basis. Just sayin'. 

 

Biba! Joe

 

[Dabbings]

went to a binnys today,

Asked for "old Weller antique"

Membership and purchases were looked up, (confirmed i have bought at that location), a guy said

I only have 1 bottle of the 10 year left. 

I was thinking maybe the ER10?

But, it was ORVW10

So maybe they thought I meant the btac "antique" instead the owa "antique", even though that is not quite correct either?

At any rate, they were all very nice... and even at over twice the price of OWA, a $69.99 pre tax ORVW10 came home

 

I don't spend an exorbitant amount at binnys, and this may be the 1st time i have ever asked, so once in a while a good allocated bottle makes it to a normal customer through all that confusion by asking nicely and getting lucky

 

Not to mention they sell mellow corn, jw dant, jts brown, old Fitz bonded and plenty other values

 

[jvd99]

20 hours ago, hugh jass said:

Ha, my receipts would certainly support my status as a regular, but I have never seen any consistency in the people working the floor to have developed a relationship. Both the LP and SL stores are usually busy at the times I can go, so hard getting an audience, or even tracking down someone to open the locked room where they keep certain stuff. All that is fine, but the cynical side of me begins to question their allocation tactics when it is so difficult to even confirm if they had, have, or will have these items for sale. They previewed the coming picks on Instagram, why not at least inform your employees? I get why they don’t want to tell the masses but it should be easier for interested buyers that show up at the store to get a straight answer. Anyway appreciate all the feedback. 

On SB I've railed against Binny's lack of transparency, lack of consistent/global policies regarding LEs and the fact stores outright lie about supply, availability and whether or not the stuff has arrived.  I don't trust them at all and it's frustrating, but they're the only game in town for single malts (the one's I want at least).  I get my LE bourbons from my local LS with whom I have a 6 year relationship.

 

19 hours ago, fishnbowljoe said:

I have to speak up here in defense of Binny's. I full well know what they go through.

 

I was involved on the back end of our two SBHHSS barrel picks. Myself and a few other SB members helped organized and separate the bottles and get them ready to ship and/or be picked up. On both occasions, in the few hours we were there, there were countless phone calls to the whiskey hotline. Invariably, the majority of these calls were about Pappy, BTAC, and other limited releases and such. I'd estimate that in 5 or 6 hours, there was well over 50 phone calls. Needless to say it was a pain. I don't see how they go through it on a daily basis. Just sayin'. 

 

Biba! Joe

 

I can completely understand and appreciate the flak that whisky hotline has to deal with, but if they had a transparent policy for allocated items, it would solve a lot of issues for them and their customers. 

[hugh jass]

23 hours ago, Dabbings said:

went to a binnys today,

Asked for "old Weller antique"

Membership and purchases were looked up, (confirmed i have bought at that location), a guy said

I only have 1 bottle of the 10 year left. 

I was thinking maybe the ER10?

But, it was ORVW10

So maybe they thought I meant the btac "antique" instead the owa "antique", even though that is not quite correct either?

At any rate, they were all very nice... and even at over twice the price of OWA, a $69.99 pre tax ORVW10 came home

 

I don't spend an exorbitant amount at binnys, and this may be the 1st time i have ever asked, so once in a while a good allocated bottle makes it to a normal customer through all that confusion by asking nicely and getting lucky

 

Not to mention they sell mellow corn, jw dant, jts brown, old Fitz bonded and plenty other values

 

I’m not sure if I find the total randomness of this a positive or negative. Personally, I lucked into finding a SAOS SiB that is the single best bourbon I’ve had in quite some time. Positive for the randomness. On the other hand, they treat ER10 and Weller like they’re unicorns, never mind the fact that my local grocery has ER10 and my local wine shop has OWA. Again, I just wish they’d be upfront and do away with the secret handshake stuff. 

[Whiskeythink.com]

Concerning the W107 picks - its a small batch vatting of several barrels. But there is 1 barrel they thought was too good to vat, so that one was single barreled. Not every store will have that one, tho.

 

Tried that one last nite. Its very good.

[jvd99]

As is par for the course, I went to the Mokena location and the manager claimed she had no knowledge of any new BT barrels or products.  When I told her the Whisky Hotline has confirmed the arrival of several barrel picks and that people have started chatting about them online, she changed her tune a little and said she woudn't know if a new BT product is available until it physically lands on the loading dock at her particular store.  Again, I find this type of story to be complete BS.  Binny's is a huge corporate entity that does over a billion dollars in sales.  To suggest there is absolutely no communication or internal e-mail announcing the products with tasting notes about highly sought after products and that store managers are completely in the dark until a product is physically delivered defies common sense and I'm not buying it.  I wish these people would just tell the truth.  It motivates me to do everything I can to buy items elsewhere and only use Binny's as a last resort.   

[Dabbings]

I certainly don't understand why ER10 and OWA don't make the shelf w a limit one per customer

 

Still love binnys

[Clueby]

That is the one thing that irks me the most. When stores just blatantly lie to you.  I'd rather they just told me straight up that I am not going to sell it to you, etc.  I've been told by store managers that they don't have a particular bottle or that they never get a particular bottle when I know for a fact either someone just bought one there or I had bought one there before. I've been called the liar by store managers.  Last year I asked store manager about when they thought they might get some Weller 12 in and he told me they hadn't gotten any in 5 years. I told him I had purchased one there just the year before and he told me that was not true and there was no way that could have happened.

[0895]

35 minutes ago, Clueby said:

 I told him I had purchased one there just the year before and he told me that was not true and there was no way that could have happened.

 

Perhaps you shouldn't drink so much.... It's affecting your memory.

[Clueby]

1 hour ago, 0895 said:

 

Perhaps you shouldn't drink so much.... It's affecting your memory.

What did you say? I can't remember.

[Bob_Loblaw]

On 1/22/2018 at 8:11 PM, Dabbings said:

went to a binnys today,

Asked for "old Weller antique"

Membership and purchases were looked up, (confirmed i have bought at that location), a guy said

I only have 1 bottle of the 10 year left. 

I was thinking maybe the ER10?

But, it was ORVW10

So maybe they thought I meant the btac "antique" instead the owa "antique", even though that is not quite correct either?

At any rate, they were all very nice... and even at over twice the price of OWA, a $69.99 pre tax ORVW10 came home

 

I don't spend an exorbitant amount at binnys, and this may be the 1st time i have ever asked, so once in a while a good allocated bottle makes it to a normal customer through all that confusion by asking nicely and getting lucky

 

 

This is amazing!  Very Nicely done!  

 

16 hours ago, Whiskeythink.com said:

Concerning the W107 picks - its a small batch vatting of several barrels. But there is 1 barrel they thought was too good to vat, so that one was single barreled. Not every store will have that one, tho.

 

Tried that one last nite. Its very good.

 

Do you have a barrel number or any type of reference?  

 

7 hours ago, jvd99 said:

As is par for the course, I went to the Mokena location and the manager claimed she had no knowledge of any new BT barrels or products.  When I told her the Whisky Hotline has confirmed the arrival of several barrel picks and that people have started chatting about them online, she changed her tune a little and said she woudn't know if a new BT product is available until it physically lands on the loading dock at her particular store.  Again, I find this type of story to be complete BS.  Binny's is a huge corporate entity that does over a billion dollars in sales.  To suggest there is absolutely no communication or internal e-mail announcing the products with tasting notes about highly sought after products and that store managers are completely in the dark until a product is physically delivered defies common sense and I'm not buying it.  I wish these people would just tell the truth.  It motivates me to do everything I can to buy items elsewhere and only use Binny's as a last resort.   

 

It does not seem like my Binny's manager has any specific barrel info or tasting notes.  I do feel like he would share them with me if he did, but I suppose he may not.  In any case, he did confirm another shipment of Binnys small batch WSR came in and also that they have received Binny's store pick ER recently(none currently left), but had no idea about a 12 year or any other barrel details.  He still has not seen a recent store pick Blanton's.    I also know from several discussions that when it comes to bourbon corporate sends what they send to each individual store and he claims that he rarely has advance notice of what is being delivered.  

[Whiskeythink.com]

16 hours ago, Bob_Loblaw said:

Do you have a barrel number or any type of reference?  

 

No. But heres the sticker for the SB. But only 1 SB, the other barrels were small batched.

 

I have found that the managers dont know what is coming in til the afternoon before when they get a list of incoming inventory. Nor do they really care - they are busy running a store (except when they have to deal with with pappy or bourbon county releases & the problems associated with those kinda things). The whiskey hotline & Joe Maloney have that info. I heard about this release from here, SB.com, then got more info last friday from Joe.

[Whiskeythink.com]

Actually on closer inspection, its barrel 237

[hugh jass]

For what it’s worth, spoke with a very nice manager about the OWA allocation. He received one case last week and immediately put it on the floor. Did not receive any prior notice it was coming. All bottles were sold in a few hours. He had zero knowledge of any of the ER, WSR, Blanton’s, BT, or 1792 store picks. Interestingly, they did have regular ER, Blanton’s, BT, and baby Saz on the floor. Feel it’s a rarity to see any of those other than BT available at Binny’s these days, although easy to find elsewhere. I’ll frequent his store simply because he was a straight shooter. Restores my faith a bit in their brand. 

[Bob_Loblaw]

6 hours ago, Whiskeythink.com said:

Actually on closer inspection, its barrel 237

Very nice, thanks!  Nope nobody I talked to even mentioned it.  

[Bob_Loblaw]

Picked up a 1792 Full Proof Binny’s single Barrel Pick. This will be my first bottle of 1792. Anyone know of any other store picks that Binny’s has going right now?

[Zero Cool]

2 hours ago, Bob_Loblaw said:

Picked up a 1792 Full Proof Binny’s single Barrel Pick. This will be my first bottle of 1792. Anyone know of any other store picks that Binny’s has going right now?

Picked up the Eagle Rare and Blantons store picks tonight.  I've really been looking forward to the ER, as its supposed to be north of 11 years and outstanding.  They still have a couple different types of the new store pick KC BP ryes if that's your thing.

[Bob_Loblaw]

15 hours ago, Zero Cool said:

Picked up the Eagle Rare and Blantons store picks tonight.  

I have also been searching for an ER store pick. Gonna have to sneak out sometime today and try my luck.

Edited March 31, 2018 by Bob_Loblaw

[Bob_Loblaw]

Thanks for heads up. Ran to the Binny’s by my in laws and grabbed an ER and Blanton’s store pick!