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Wathen's Availability?


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Wathen's just may very well be my favorite all time bourbon. I haven't been able to find it anywhere except internetwines.com has it and has gouged the price up to $36 a bottle. If it becomes widely available again someone please let me know! Thanks!!

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Mark,

I have purchased several bottles at various Kansas City locations. The Gomer's at 99th and Holmes almost always had it, though I haven't been there in several months.

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I just recieved an email from none other than Sam Medley (the guy that makes Wathen's) and he said, as indicated in previous posts that Wathen's is currently unavailable because he's changing distributors. The good news is that he said it should again be available by this fall, by the holidays at latest. He said he'd email me when it happens, and I'll be happy to pass that info along to my Bourbon loving brethren herein.

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Sam Medley is the son, a young guy in his 20s, I believe. (He was still in college when they created the Wathen's brand). His daddy is Charlie, formerly master distiller at Glenmore, at the plant in Owensboro that his family sold to Glenmore.

Now that you and Sam are so tight, Mark, maybe you can get him to reveal the source of their whiskey. I believe Charlie had a few hundred barrels of his own-made whiskey in his own warehouses and that is what they started with. I would sure like to know if the Wathen's they'll be releasing this fall, as well as whatever has been in the marketplace up until now, is some of that rare Medley stock.

I remember ten years ago, when Glenmore was awash with the stuff, that it was some pretty darn good bourbon.

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Mark:

I know it's not in your neck of the woods, but the store I work at in Pittsburgh has a case of Wathen's Eight Generations. Price is $25.49 per bottle (plus 7% sales tax). Another store in the Greater Pittsburgh area has 9 bottles, and a store in Allentown (closer to Philadelphia) has 2. That's it for PA--23 bottles. No word on when we'll receive more.

SpeedyJohn

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I wrote Sam Medley back and asked him the source of the Wathen's like you asked and he wrote me a long polite note that essentially did not reveal much. He did say, however, that he would post himself on straightbourbon.com once he gets the distributorship thing straightened out.

In the meantime, I guess there's always WT Rare Breed... et al.

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Well, maybe he told you more than he intended. If it were his dad's whiskey, don't you think he would have said so? The fact that he didn't makes it very likely it isn't. Too bad.

Still, in Charlie Medley you're dealing with a good, experienced distiller who can be counted on to choose well regardless of the source, and that counts for a lot.

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  • 4 months later...

Well, I've lucked into two bottles of '97 Wathen's in the past week, so am drinking it as I post this -- very fine, oft-overlooked bourbon. I left another bottle of the same batch on the shelf because there was a row of '89 EWSB next to it from which I couldn't pass up an example, and I'm badly overbought these days. I'll go back -- hopefully, if both have been there five years or more, they'll last another week or two. (Also has a Lawrenceburg Pappy 20yo!).

Anyway, as I sit and sip and ponder this Wathen's, I'm struck by one of the pleasant incongruities of bourbon -- as much as I like the macho 'bigness' of Stagg, the subtleties of a drink such as this Wathen's has a distinct charm, too.

Also wondering if that means I'm developing a discriminating palate drink.gif or becoming an indiscriminate swiller drinking.gif.

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