Jump to content

What Bourbon Did You Pass Up Today (Spring 2018)


CardsandBourbon
This topic has been inactive for at least 365 days, and is now closed. Please feel free to start a new thread on the subject! 

Recommended Posts

5 minutes ago, Kane said:

I tried and liked it. Some more experienced folk posted here as well. It's pretty good. That said I can find 4R BP picks and Stagg JR etc at that price, so never felt compelled to buy a bottle. If you have money to burn, by all means, it's worthy.

I haven't seen a 4R PS at $50 in a few years. Its usually at least $60. I've seen them approaching $70.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 hours ago, JCwhammie said:

I passed yo Bulleitt barrel strength at $50. I remember reading Bulleitt used to get their bourbon from 4R, but I haven't seen anything definitive where they get it now. If they were still getting 4R I'd buy that barrel strength in a heartbeat. As it is, I'll leave it be. Plus I place a good bit of trust in the good folks here. I'm not sure I've seen anyone post about it. 

I think it's a very good bourbon. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 hours ago, Kane said:

It's one of those Total Wine Spirits Direct brands = crap beyond belief.

 

Edit: to clarify TW likes to hand pick these inferior juice from who knows where and market it under its Spirits Direct program. It's a trap. Spirits Direct is the graveyard of unwanted spirits.

I don’t understand how the Spirits Direct work. I generally pass them by as I don’t recognize most of the labels. However, HPR is Spirits Direct. I don’t like it personally, but it doesn’t fall into the same category as the other crap. RL Seale 10 year rum is also Spirits Direct. There are likely other examples of good spirits in the program, but those were two I noticed on my infrequent trips to TW. Does anyone have any insight into how certain things end up in the program?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

7 minutes ago, Charlutz said:

I don’t understand how the Spirits Direct work. I generally pass them by as I don’t recognize most of the labels. However, HPR is Spirits Direct. I don’t like it personally, but it doesn’t fall into the same category as the other crap. RL Seale 10 year rum is also Spirits Direct. There are likely other examples of good spirits in the program, but those were two I noticed on my infrequent trips to TW. Does anyone have any insight into how certain things end up in the program?

All of the independently bottled Scotch and Rum falls into Spirits Direct as well not to say that all of it is good but much of it is. Certainly RL Seale and Doorly's are some of the best values in the SD world though for those of us that Rum. In addition to HPR, RHF used to be spirits direct here, though sometime last fall it seemed to disappear. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, kevinbrink said:

 

All of the independently bottled Scotch and Rum falls into Spirits Direct as well not to say that all of it is good but much of it is. Certainly RL Seale and Doorly's are some of the best values in the SD world though for those of us that Rum. In addition to HPR, RHF used to be spirits direct here, though sometime last fall it seemed to disappear. 

Henry McKenna BIB is Spirits Direct at Total Wine, as is Hancock Presidential Reserve.  I don't know what that means, because so is Lonehand and Hayes Parker (another terrepure lovely).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 minutes ago, Jav said:

Henry McKenna BIB is Spirits Direct at Total Wine, as is Hancock Presidential Reserve.  I don't know what that means, because so is Lonehand and Hayes Parker (another terrepure lovely).

At least here HMK BIB is not SD, unless they were to do a store pick.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Charlutz said:

I don’t understand how the Spirits Direct work. I generally pass them by as I don’t recognize most of the labels. However, HPR is Spirits Direct. I don’t like it personally, but it doesn’t fall into the same category as the other crap. RL Seale 10 year rum is also Spirits Direct. There are likely other examples of good spirits in the program, but those were two I noticed on my infrequent trips to TW. Does anyone have any insight into how certain things end up in the program?

Any private barrel pick they do for the store becomes Spirits Direct. At my local TW the 4RPS picks, WTKS, ER10 (when they have it), EC, and Russell's Reserve SiB all end up with Spirits Direct tags.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 7/1/2018 at 8:56 PM, JCwhammie said:

I passed yo Bulleitt barrel strength at $50. I remember reading Bulleitt used to get their bourbon from 4R, but I haven't seen anything definitive where they get it now. If they were still getting 4R I'd buy that barrel strength in a heartbeat. As it is, I'll leave it be. Plus I place a good bit of trust in the good folks here. I'm not sure I've seen anyone post about it. 

You might dig around on this forum.

Within the last couple years, someone had posted a barrel head of 4R for Bulleitt that was a special recipe just for them (OESE or OBSE.... I can't remember exactly, but the yeast was coded as a backwards "E" on the barrel head).  Not sure if Bulleitt got other recipes, etc.

The older bottles of Bulleitt 10 year definitely had a 4R taste about them, but it was hard to explain.  You just knew it had a familiar taste.

I have not had a taste of the 10 year Bulleit for quite awhile.

Edited by 0895
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 7/1/2018 at 6:56 PM, JCwhammie said:

I passed yo Bulleitt barrel strength at $50. I remember reading Bulleitt used to get their bourbon from 4R, but I haven't seen anything definitive where they get it now. If they were still getting 4R I'd buy that barrel strength in a heartbeat. As it is, I'll leave it be. Plus I place a good bit of trust in the good folks here. I'm not sure I've seen anyone post about it. 

 

1 hour ago, 0895 said:

You might dig around on this forum.

Within the last couple years, someone had posted a barrel head of 4R for Bulleitt that was a special recipe just for them (OESE or OBSE.... I can't remember exactly, but the yeast was coded as a backwards "E" on the barrel head).  Not sure if Bulleitt got other recipes, etc.

The older bottles of Bulleitt 10 year definitely had a 4R taste about them, but it was hard to explain.  You just knew it had a familiar taste.

I have not had a taste of the 10 year Bulleit for quite awhile.

Bulleit still gets bourbon from 4R but it's important to understand the situation. 4R cut them off a while ago (about 3 years ago) but, Bulleit still has barrels of 4R whiskey in the 4R rickhouses and will draw from them until they are gone. (A friend of mine recently bought an empty just dumped 4R barrel - it was a Bulleit stamped 13yr old OESK).

In the early days, Bulleit was referred to by Jim as 90 proof Yellow Label. So, they got all the recipes.

 

As for where Bulleit gets their bourbon now? In addition to the 4R they still have, they also source from Beam, Brown Forman, and Barton. There may be others. What you taste now is a blend of those.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 hours ago, flahute said:

Any private barrel pick they do for the store becomes Spirits Direct. At my local TW the 4RPS picks, WTKS, ER10 (when they have it), EC, and Russell's Reserve SiB all end up with Spirits Direct tags.

Interesting, so their overpriced SD private label swill gets a credibility boost by having SD tags appear under recognizable quality labels that their blind hog stumbled on....  Oops, did I type that out loud?...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Any private barrel pick they do for the store becomes Spirits Direct. At my local TW the 4RPS picks, WTKS, ER10 (when they have it), EC, and Russell's Reserve SiB all end up with Spirits Direct tags.


Do they also charge $5-$10 more on there Barrel picks than any other store in town? Makes no sense to me. At other stores they tend to have people making picks that I trust and there cheaper.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

22 minutes ago, PowderKeg said:

Interesting, so their overpriced SD private label swill gets a credibility boost by having SD tags appear under recognizable quality labels that their blind hog stumbled on....  Oops, did I type that out loud?...

Well, that works in reverse for me. SD is so strongly associated with "shit" in my head that I never care to try TW picks of anything.

  • I like it 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Blast from the past or stale shelf turd?

(i already know what it tastes like, thus I didn't buy it. No disrespect if you like it though...)

 

IMAG3468.jpg

Edited by 0895
Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, 0895 said:

Blast from the past or stale shelf turd?

(i already know what it tastes like, thus I didn't buy it. No disrespect if you like it though...)

 

IMAG3468.jpg

Absolute turd.

  • I like it 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 hours ago, flahute said:

Absolute turd.

I find it crazy amusing that those are still sitting there on the shelf after all this time, but at another store (in a much wealthier part of town), I remember two guys buying out the shelf of black label when the label changed to the new tan label...what, last year?  2016?  I can't remember.  I also don't care.

 

They were divvying up the bottles between their carts as I came by looking at the whiskey shelf, and one says (pointing to the two carts) "This is all ours....its already all spoken for". And then he kept glancing at me out of the corner of his eye, to make sure I didn't try to snatch one I guess.

 

I also have to add that it amuses me how crazy about Willett/KBD products people in STL are.

Stores sell out of that stuff fairly quick, and the stores act like they won the lottery whenever they get a shipment of it in.

This is the only store nearby that I've ever seen the stuff sit there and rot.

Edited by 0895
  • I like it 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I agree with Steve.  That stuff was awful.  It was my candidate for one of the worst you've tried threads.  My hypothesis is all the dogs and cats barrels that weren't good enough for WFE or the other KBD brands got vatted together.  It tasted to me like Evan Williams that went terribly wrong.

 

Also agree some people have really drank the Koolade as far as Willett is concerned.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 7/3/2018 at 3:20 PM, FasterHorses said:

RR 2002 at $299.99

Since I'm unlikely to ever encounter this bottle in the wild, and if I did, it would cost at least twice that price in my area (or more), I would've paid that.  :)  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

59 minutes ago, PaulO said:

 

Also agree some people have really drank the Koolade as far as Willett is concerned.

I might be one of them. :)  It's ok, I really enjoy Koolade. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, PaulO said:

Also agree some people have really drank the Koolade as far as Willett is concerned.

I liked the Willett 3 yr. cask strength rye enough to buy a second bottle for $39.  Now I'm seeing the 4 yr. but it's $56, so unless I hear it's great, I'm going to pass. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, fosmith said:

I liked the Willett 3 yr. cask strength rye enough to buy a second bottle for $39.  Now I'm seeing the 4 yr. but it's $56, so unless I hear it's great, I'm going to pass. 

I like it quite a bit but paid $45 for it, it is $16 better than the 3 year, after all what are you getting for $16 a bottle of Old Overholt, it is definitely a full Old Overholt better. I'm not telling you to buy it, just that it is a big improvement on the 3 year. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, kevinbrink said:

I like it quite a bit but paid $45 for it, it is $16 better than the 3 year, after all what are you getting for $16 a bottle of Old Overholt, it is definitely a full Old Overholt better. I'm not telling you to buy it, just that it is a big improvement on the 3 year. 

Good to know.  Thanks.  If I see it for ~$45, I will grab it...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.