Most Egregious Distiller during the boom

[EarthQuake]

On 5/24/2019 at 2:21 AM, BottledInBond said:

My vote goes to Diageo. Overpriced Blade & Bow LE, the whole Orphan Barrel situation (oh wow I can’t believe we just found these thousands and thousands of barrels we sourced that we want to charge big $ for), generally crappy Bulleit line extensions, and their whole approach to SW in general. 

Yeah what mean guys those Diageo fellows are. The nerve they have to sell good quality 20 year old Bourbon for $80. Nah, I think Diageo's biggest crime is bottling everything at a low-ish proof.

 

I mean really, every company has some borderline dubious marketing story (Elijah Craig invented barrel charring, etc), celebrity tie in, or other cringe-worthy marketing scheme. Whether Diageo "found" the barrels, or simply found a use for them, seems like a very minor point to me. But I may be an outlier in that I think the OB and Rhetoric lines are generally very good, and well priced. I mean, where else can you get 20 year old bourbon for $80 and 25 year for under $150? The OB/Rhetoric line is only big money if you're comparing it to NAS every day stuff. The fact that much of it comes from Heaven Hill, and HH sells similarly aged products (EC18, EC21, EC23) for a lot more money, which no one seems to complain about, has always amused me. 

 

As to this thread, I'll have to go with #6 - (nearly) every craft operation. Though as others have mentioned there are some rather good ones popping up with 4-5 year old whiskey that show a lot of promise.

Edited June 7, 2019 by EarthQuake

[ThirstyinOhio]

5 hours ago, EarthQuake said:

Yeah what mean guys those Diageo fellows are. The nerve they have to sell good quality 20 year old Bourbon for $80. Nah, I think Diageo's biggest crime is bottling everything at a low-ish proof.

 

I mean really, every company has some borderline dubious marketing story (Elijah Craig invented barrel charring, etc), celebrity tie in, or other cringe-worthy marketing scheme. Whether Diageo "found" the barrels, or simply found a use for them, seems like a very minor point to me. But I may be an outlier in that I think the OB and Rhetoric lines are generally very good, and well priced. I mean, where else can you get 20 year old bourbon for $80 and 25 year for under $150? The OB/Rhetoric line is only big money if you're comparing it to NAS every day stuff. The fact that much of it comes from Heaven Hill, and HH sells similarly aged products (EC18, EC21, EC23) for a lot more money, which no one seems to complain about, has always amused me. 

 

As to this thread, I'll have to go with #6 - (nearly) every craft operation. Though as others have mentioned there are some rather good ones popping up with 4-5 year old whiskey that show a lot of promise.

I agree with you about Diageo, while the story might be hokey and I wish they'd barrel those Orphan Barrels at a higher proof, I think the bottles are a fair value.