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What Bourbon Did You Purchase Today (Summer 2020)


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4 hours ago, IamMatt said:

Maybe I'll go back and see if they have any more "in the back."  The display also had a sort of gift set with a bottle of ECSB, a large EC tumbler, and a large ice ball mold or the same $24 price.

Yeah, definitely going back and asking him to look in the back.  I just did a SBS with the 12-year and a new bottle of the current NAS.  They're both good, but when I tasted the 12-year it was like I had a Werther's caramel in my mouth.

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8 hours ago, IamMatt said:

I stopped by a local liquor store on the way home from an appointment today.  They had an Elijah Craig SB display priced at $23.99.  Hidden among the bottles was one dusty bottle with the 12-year age statement on the back.  I needed another bottle of ECSB anyway, right?

 

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Nice find.  You might find that even the old style bottles with no 12 year age statement have older whiskey inside than the current releases and still taste better than the brand new ones from today.

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Bought these yesterday. 

We toured the distillery. With the exception of the gin, and bourbon cream, you can pretty much buy the Bowman juice anywhere in my neck of the woods, (Baltimore metro area), but the prices are the same at the distillery, and the tax rate is lower, so I snagged them. 

Not a gin drinker,  but needed a bottle for the home bar, for Mom.

 I couldn't pass up the OGD BIB,  for $21.99, which is a better price than anywhere around here.

 

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Grabbed a KC9. Haven't had it since the reinstatement of the 9 year. Used to be one of my go-to drinkers, looking forward to reconnecting. Comes in just under $30 OTD at one store near me, so not too bad.

 

 

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Took an extended Labor Day break and visited Louisville and Nashville. Picked up a bunch of goodies on the way.

 

George Remus Single Barrels (x2, $60 each)
SAOS SB picks 5yr (x3) ($52-60 each)
Down Home 5.5 yr Cask Strength $85
HH6 90 $13
Bardstown Discovery #2 and #3 ($130-138)
Bardstown Sherry Finished $135
Lux Row 12yr Double Barrel $150
KCSB picks (x7, ranging from 9y to 15yr) $55-60 each
Woodinville Port Finished $65
Huling Station $35
JDSBBP 375ml $30

 

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Tow words:  Day-um!

 

Curious about the SAOS 5-yr picks. My local TW has some; I know Fred Minnick raved about the older SAOS picks; are the 5-yr picks exceptional?

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22 minutes ago, IamMatt said:

Tow words:  Day-um!

 

Curious about the SAOS 5-yr picks. My local TW has some; I know Fred Minnick raved about the older SAOS picks; are the 5-yr picks exceptional?


As someone fairly experienced with SAOS MGP bourbon, Ill say this:

 

Do they live up to the same status as the old 9-10-11-12 year single barrels from a few years ago? 
No.

 

However, I’ve tried two different ones now and for what they are, I find them to be pretty darn good.  The one I have open now could easily be Eagle Rare’s cousin (although $15 more expensive and half as old).

The one I had just before was a little sassy and mean, but with an ice cube just turned into a liquid caramel candy for me.

 

“Exceptional” isn’t a word I’ve ever used to describe MGP bourbon in any form, but I am a fan of it.

 

Im delighted to see how these age, especially if SA is doing the aging on the barrels.

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Thanks.  $15 more and half as old is not a compelling argument to buy the SAOS, lol.  I guess like most SBs, its a crap shoot; I will probably pass this time. I think there are better picks I will find for the price.

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1 hour ago, IamMatt said:

Curious about the SAOS 5-yr picks. My local TW has some; I know Fred Minnick raved about the older SAOS picks; are the 5-yr picks exceptional?

Matt, I've got an open bottle of a K&L pick 119proof SOAS 5yr MGP bourbon and, I've got to say, it's pretty damn good.  Way better than Eagle Rare - less oaky and just bursting with flavor.  I never had any of the older SOAS MGP bottles so I can't compare it with those. 

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Thanks, now I'm all confused again!  Gotta remember my mantra:  "I always regret the ones I didn't buy more than the ones I did."

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17 minutes ago, IamMatt said:

Thanks, now I'm all confused again!  Gotta remember my mantra:  "I always regret the ones I didn't buy more than the ones I did."


Sorry, wasn’t trying to make it hard.

It’s just that opinions on MGP can be strong.  Some love it and some don’t, so I struggle with recommending it to someone as a new product because it’s always 50/50 on them enjoying it.

 

I think the 5y SAOS are very good, but Some people flat out won’t enjoy them.

I personally think they’re worth the $40-60 for a good barrel proof single, but that’s just me.

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25 minutes ago, 0895 said:


Sorry, wasn’t trying to make it hard.

It’s just that opinions on MGP can be strong.  Some love it and some don’t, so I struggle with recommending it to someone as a new product because it’s always 50/50 on them enjoying it.

 

I think the 5y SAOS are very good, but Some people flat out won’t enjoy them.

I personally think they’re worth the $40-60 for a good barrel proof single, but that’s just me.

The other thing is, for quite a few people, ER really isn’t anything too special. Personally I’ve had a few SAOS picks in the 5-6 year range recently and I’d rather have them than a bottle of ER for sure. But I like the higher proof compared to ER. I very rarely hear anyone talk about ER as “exceptional” either.....

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EC 18.  I signed up a few weeks ago for for Total Wine's lottery for the fall releases.  Received an email from them today telling me that I was eligible to buy this one.  The customer in front of me picked her bottle of Old Forester Birthday.  

 

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I bought a backup bottle of a Russell’s barrel pick, as I felt it was necessary after tasting it. Warehouse G. I also bought an OF barrel pick. Those have been solid lately, and this one had a lot of cherry to it

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4 hours ago, IamMatt said:

Tow words:  Day-um!

 

Curious about the SAOS 5-yr picks. My local TW has some; I know Fred Minnick raved about the older SAOS picks; are the 5-yr picks exceptional?

I have limited experience with the older SAOS, but have very much enjoyed the pours I have had.  I do generally like the "minty, dill" type profile on the MGP distillate.  

 

That said, I passed on the 5yrs across the board and have zero regrets.  A friend bought 6-7 different barrels and we found them to be ok, certainly drinkable, but nothing spectacular and nowhere near the depth and flavor from the older MGP I have had.  He ended up selling all the bottles opened with a few oz missing from each for something like $10 off MSRP. 

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Jumping in on the 5 yr SiB SAOS CS picks, I purchased one for $35 a few weeks ago. I like it a lot, especially for that price. Is it as good as the run of 10-12 year picks from 2-4 years ago? No. But I certainly didn't expect it to be. If 4R released 5 yr barrel picks I would imagine they'd be somewhat like the SAOS that I currently have. 

 

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A few days ago, I told a friend that I was planning on heading to the ABC store near his house this weekend because I saw they have WTKS listed for sale for just $34. He came by my house today to pick up a stereo receiver & surprised me with this:
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So technically, I didn't purchase this one myself... but if it hits the spot, I definitely will be picking up another one this weekend.

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1 hour ago, k-train said:

A few days ago, I told a friend that I was planning on heading to the ABC store near his house this weekend because I saw they have WTKS listed for sale for just $34. He came by my house today to pick up a stereo receiver & surprised me with this:
907936266_KentuckySpirit-1b.thumb.jpg.8e0096628bc8f21b3f2f321e24e4791f.jpg
So technically, I didn't purchase this one myself... but if it hits the spot, I definitely will be picking up another one this weekend.

I like the old style bottle so much more than the new one.

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Picked up a 1792 Full Proof and man, that first pour was hot! Way hotter than any ECBP or JDBP I’ve opened. Hoping with a few weeks of oxidation it improves. 
 

The only other 1792 I’ve had was the SmB and it was good, though nothing I’d recommend to others.

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11 hours ago, JoeTerp said:

I like the old style bottle so much more than the new one.

I fully agree.

Everything I've read or been told about WTKS is that Jimmy Russell created it to compete with Blanton's. That Blanton's bottle is very unique & instantly recognizable. It seems like the same train of thought was initially used when they were deciding how to present KS, and thus they used this equally unique & recognizable "fan tail" bottle.

So getting away from this bottle & just using the RB bottle really kinda kills that uniqueness. On top of that, the label for the new version is incredibly boring looking. It seems like they were going for some sort of simple, clean, sophisticated look, but it fell flat big time. By adding that separate large white info strip below the label, it makes it look cluttered & distracting... which defeats the entire premise of a simplified label design. As someone with a background in photography & graphic design, looking at that updated KS bottle makes my brain hurt. It's so bad.

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Went to the ABC store after work today to grab another of those $35 bottles of WTKS & picked up a MMCS that was marked down to $40 from the usual $50 as well.

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So, you know that bit in Harry Potter where he takes the "Liquid Luck" serum and everything goes well for him?  I finished a job 20 miles from home at about 11:30 this morning and decided to start my weekend early.  I intended to hit some stores on the way home to see if I could get lucky, especially with Fall releases coming out.

As soon as I started home I saw a BevMo.  No special releases but they had a store pick Old Forester Single Barrel (the old 90-proof) for $40; that's about as cheap as I have seen them and they are getting rarer, so I grabbed it.

After a few strikeouts I went back to the local liquor store where I scored the 12-year-old Elijah Craig Small Batch earlier in the week for $24.  I asked him if he had any more of the old bottles in the back and he came out with 2 more.  Score!

But these triumphs paled when I pulled into a chain discount grocery store in a moderate-income area.  All the spirits were in a locked glass case and there was the usual assortment of Kessler, Ten High, Evan Williams, Jack Daneil's, and Jim Beam.  But on the far corner of the bottom row I spied the familiar red glow of a Russell's Reserve Single Barrel bottle.

There was no price on it and I really thought, "why bother" but I hunted a clerk and asked her if she could tell me the price.  She opened the case and scanned the bottle with the store app on her phone.  "It's not coming up."  She took the bottle to a register and scanned it there.  "Still not showing up in the system." 

She asked another checker, who had no idea what to do.  Finally she called a manager on the phone and asked him.  She said "He couldn't find it either so he told me to charge the same as one of the other bottles: $9.99."

I asked her to get the other two bottles out of the case and completed my purchase.  All in all, a fine day.

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16 hours ago, k-train said:

So getting away from this bottle & just using the RB bottle really kinda kills that uniqueness. On top of that, the label for the new version is incredibly boring looking. It seems like they were going for some sort of simple, clean, sophisticated look, but it fell flat big time. By adding that separate large white info strip below the label, it makes it look cluttered & distracting... which defeats the entire premise of a simplified label design. As someone with a background in photography & graphic design, looking at that updated KS bottle makes my brain hurt. It's so bad.

 

Yeah the label on that bottle does not visually work with the shape of the bottle. 

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