A Blanton’s Kind of Day

[Bambam]

So Blanton’s has virtually dried up around me and while I understand some people think it’s bland, my personal opinion is that its real complexity is in its subtlety and the great marriage of flavors I get from it. It’s one of my all time favorites.

 

My last bottle was one I found in January and I was holding it to crack open with my dad next month for a special occasion.

 

Long story short: I walk into my favorite local store today after checking weekly for 4-6 weeks and ask the manager my usual “seen anything interesting come in on the bourbon front?” I guess he knows my favorite is Blanton’s because I always ask him about it. He says nope...which is the normal response lately...then follows it up with a grin and “But we did get some Blanton’s.”

 

Apparently they got a number of cases from the same barrel. Here’s the fun part: this new bottle was from the same Rick, 5 barrels away from the bottle I found in January. So I cracked open the new one just to make sure it was a good barrel to drink with Dad while also giving myself the ability to get some more while I can if it’s good juice.

 

Now I know in advance that it’s delicious and I can go get another bottle or two without worrying about getting a rare bad barrel. My day has been made.

 

Hope you all have a lucky week like I did!

[FasterHorses]

Congrats on your good fortune. Where are you located? I guess I take for granted that it's 3-5 deep in practically every store near me. Hope that never changes. Glad you can enjoy that  with your  pops.

Edited April 25, 2018 by FasterHorses

[lcpfratn]

Congrats on your good fortune. Where are you located? I guess I take for granted that it's 3-5 deep in practically every store near me. Hope that never changes. Glad you can enjoy that  with your  pops.

It used to be everywhere in Memphis, including cases stacked on the floor until about a month ago, then all of a sudden it was like locusts hit all the stores and it's now all gone. I'm sure it will be back in stock before long, but this was actually shocking to see.


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[MyBrainOnWhiskey]

Until about a year ago Blanton's was not a hard find in my area.  This year is horrible.  I'm lucky if I see one bottle on the shelf every two months.  As much as I love it, the increased scarcity and increased price ($70) make Blanton's not worth the chase IMO.  Luckily I've got a few bottle stashed away.  

[Bambam]

14 minutes ago, MyBrainOnWhiskey said:

Until about a year ago Blanton's was not a hard find in my area.  This year is horrible.  I'm lucky if I see one bottle on the shelf every two months.  As much as I love it, the increased scarcity and increased price ($70) make Blanton's not worth the chase IMO.  Luckily I've got a few bottle stashed away.  

That’s how it used to be for me as well. 

 

Price is still only $60 ish so that isn’t bad but even after being told they got a lot yesterday when I went back today a different person acted like they didn’t know what I was talking about.

 

I still got one bc I knew they had some but apparently people who went by there before I did earlier today were told there wasn’t any. Sort of strange turn of events. So now it may be almost gone again? Who knows. Thankfully I have a couple on reserve now!

 

[MyBrainOnWhiskey]

2 minutes ago, Bambam said:

That’s how it used to be for me as well. 

 

Price is still only $60 ish so that isn’t bad but even after being told they got a lot yesterday when I went back today a different person acted like they didn’t know what I was talking about.

 

I still got one bc I knew they had some but apparently people who went by there before I did earlier today were told there wasn’t any. Sort of strange turn of events. So now it may be almost gone again? Who knows. Thankfully I have a couple on reserve now!

 

 

LOL... ^ sounds like my local B&M.  They don't even put Blanton's on the shelf anymore.  It's held behind the counter and they only sell 1 bottle per customer (which is a good practice IMO).  However, there are some employees who don't know it's behind the counter even when it's in stock.     

[Statesboro Blues]

I used to see Blanton’s everywhere, but it’s become impossible to find in my area. I picked up a bottle about 3 months ago for $53 and the LS owner said that was his last one and he wouldn’t be getting anymore for about 6 months. I saw a bottle last week for $65, but passed on it. Not sure if I’ll be kicking myself or not, but if I don’t pay it, maybe the price gouging will stop. 

[The Black Tot]

7 hours ago, Statesboro Blues said:

I used to see Blanton’s everywhere, but it’s become impossible to find in my area. I picked up a bottle about 3 months ago for $53 and the LS owner said that was his last one and he wouldn’t be getting anymore for about 6 months. I saw a bottle last week for $65, but passed on it. Not sure if I’ll be kicking myself or not, but if I don’t pay it, maybe the price gouging will stop. 

 

The argument is always that one man's refusal to pay doesn't make any difference if someone else steps in from behind him and pays instead.

 

But high price boycotts can't start without the first men doing it, so...

 

The Booker's price hike seems to have earned Beam some shelf-lingering. So there are clearly SOME things which appear to show that buyers have their limits.

 

I'm not buying Blanton's at $65 either.

[JoeTerp]

7 minutes ago, The Black Tot said:

 

The Booker's price hike seems to have earned Beam some shelf-lingering. So there are clearly SOME things which appear to show that buyers have their limits.

 

I have no idea if it affected Booker's sales at all.  One of the biggest pros to me about Booker's was that it was always available at just about any liquor store.  It's still widely available just a bit more expensive.  I really have no idea what impact this had on sales.

[The Black Tot]

1 minute ago, JoeTerp said:

I have no idea if it affected Booker's sales at all.  One of the biggest pros to me about Booker's was that it was always available at just about any liquor store.  It's still widely available just a bit more expensive.  I really have no idea what impact this had on sales.

I don't have access to any sales data either.

 

I just see the same batches stuck on shelves where store owners have tried north of $70.

[Mako254]

13 minutes ago, The Black Tot said:

I don't have access to any sales data either.

 

I just see the same batches stuck on shelves where store owners have tried north of $70.

North of 70 ($79.99 just about every where in my market) and south of 7 years...

[The Black Tot]

6 minutes ago, Mako254 said:

North of 70 ($79.99 just about every where in my market) and south of 7 years...

 

In this case, go West young man, and leave it on the shelf.

 

BUT...this is a thread about a man and his love of Blanton's...I apologize for the digression.

Edited April 26, 2018 by The Black Tot

[GeeTen]

New batch of "regular" Blanton's is showing up in stores @ $54.99 OTD.  It wasn't that long ago that it was $40.99 (Thanksgiving, 2015) - ah, how I pine for the "good old days"!   Good thing my re-supply of Blanton's Gold showed up yesterday.  

 

Edited April 26, 2018 by GeeTen

[Harry in WashDC]

Just now, GeeTen said:

New batch of "regular" Blanton's is showing up in stores @ $54.99 OTD.  It wasn't that long ago that it was $40.99 (Thanksgiving, 2015) - ah, how I pine for the "good old days"!   

 

Yup.  We did have a glut of them here several months ago - no price drop toward historical levels, but they were about $55 instead of the $65 I saw last year.  Funny about this thread - I hadn't ordered (or even seen) Blanton's in a (non-whiskey specialty) restaurant for years.  Last Tuesday, they were out of basic BT so offered me Blanton's (at BT's ridiculous mark-up instead of the Blanton's obscene mark-up).  So, of course I had two.

[JoeTerp]

A couple of years ago blantons used to be readily available at most of the VA ABC’s. In fact it was the only BT #2 that was easy to acquire, but at some point people started clearing the shelves. The 1/2 bottles seem to show up more frequently (and for less than 1/2 the price), but those also seem to disappear pretty quickly now too. 

[Bambam]

11 hours ago, The Black Tot said:

 

In this case, go West young man, and leave it on the shelf.

 

BUT...this is a thread about a man and his love of Blanton's...I apologize for the digression.

I’m not the least but offended, but thank you haha. In fact, I hadn’t thought about it but Bookers at $75-80 is ALWAYS on the shelf at nearly every store around me.

 

[Bambam]

4 hours ago, GeeTen said:

New batch of "regular" Blanton's is showing up in stores @ $54.99 OTD.  It wasn't that long ago that it was $40.99 (Thanksgiving, 2015) - ah, how I pine for the "good old days"!   Good thing my re-supply of Blanton's Gold showed up yesterday.  

 

I just found my first bottle of Gold and now MoM stopped shipping to the US and TWE doesn’t ship to my area...so I’m scared to open it and not be able to replace it. Sigh.

 

Guess I’m sticking with the standard SB for a while and waiting for a special occasion!

[alstevens]

I have a place where I can get it on occasion for $56.99.

 

I love the stuff.  I constantly choose it in blind tastings.

[cdcdguy]

 A liquor store manager can get it for me but it hasn't been on the shelves here in Indiana for two years. 

[uncork_it_already]

I sincerely hope Sazerac/BT isn’t playing games with making nearly everything scarce. Can there really be a shortage on just about everything they produce?

 

Blanton’s is interesting because (and someone correct me if I’m wrong) Sazerac isn’t the distributor, but the distiller/bottler. Hence why there are so many overseas exclusives.

 

But what we are seeing with W12, OWA, ETL, RHF, basically the entire EHT line, suspending most of their barrel programs, etc..... I hope it’s just demand is too great at the moment because I love just about everything BT makes.

 

And of course that demand falls strictly on resellers gobbling up everything at decent prices to try to make a quick buck and leaving us to either pay secondary or wait for the next round to beat them to the shelf.

[Bambam]

Agree @uncork_it_already

 

Also curious about the future because they say theyre adding 30 more warehouses to the current 16. Of course, that probably won’t add to Blanton’s availability since it’s supposed to only come from the metal clad Warehouse H.

[flahute]

1 hour ago, uncork_it_already said:

Can there really be a shortage on just about everything they produce?

 

Depending on your location, yes. Distribution is a funny thing and some areas get less than others. Then you combine that with every person who wants Pappy but can't find it deciding they want something else from Buffalo Trace as substitute and you get shortages.

Weller, ETL, RHF, etc. are not made in large quantities to begin with so these become hoarding and reselling targets.

 

On Blanton's, that brand is owned by Age International so they decide where to sell which brands. (Distributor is the wrong word choice there since that word describes one of the different entities in the three tier system).

[Bourserker]

6 hours ago, JoeTerp said:

A couple of years ago blantons used to be readily available at most of the VA ABC’s. In fact it was the only BT #2 that was easy to acquire, but at some point people started clearing the shelves. The 1/2 bottles seem to show up more frequently (and for less than 1/2 the price), but those also seem to disappear pretty quickly now too. 

Yep, I've noticed the same thing.  As recently as mid last year I saw them in several places.  Now they are emptied out.  Don't know if a recent shipment came into VA or what, but I just got a couple of the 375 ml bottles today.