What Bourbon Did You Pass On 2024

[mbroo5880i]

12 hours ago, PaulO said:

Years before we got a TW store in the Indianapolis area, I was reading posts here on SB.com.  People got up to a certain amount of points and expect something - get nothing.  Even worse - the rumor an extra desirable delivery was there, but had come and gone.  So all this tempered my expectations when they opened two stores.  There is no way I'm ever going to spend enough to get very many points.  I also have zero interest in their house brands of Bourbon or rye.  Having said all that, I have no problem shopping there now and then.  Whatever is on the shelf is what's on offer.  I'll cherry pick the stuff that appeals to me.  I also like to check their website for availability and price.

 

What I like is when I look up something on their website and then I go to the store only to be told they have been sold out for weeks.  I recall another retailer telling me that often happens when employees steal bottles.  It still shows up in the system because it was never scanned as being sold. 

[PaulO]

On 3/12/2024 at 9:41 PM, mbroo5880i said:

 

What I like is when I look up something on their website and then I go to the store only to be told they have been sold out for weeks.  I recall another retailer telling me that often happens when employees steal bottles.  It still shows up in the system because it was never scanned as being sold. 

That makes sense about employees stealing bottles.  In other cases maybe the website isn't updated.

Regardless, the TW site has proved useful to me because they sell just about everything distributed in a given area.  It gives me a good idea what I could find and a ball park price.  I might look at that, then check the stores closer to home.  Also, items we can't buy in Indy, I can expand the search to find out where it is available.  I have compiled a whole list of items to pick up next time I travel out of state.

[fishnbowljoe]

Myself and @Vosgar heard another story one time. This was a number of years ago when things first started getting crazy. Long story short, we drove a ways to a store to get something they said they had in stock. It wasn’t on the shelf, so the owner/manager checked in the back room. She came back to the counter looking puzzled. She checked some paperwork and shook her head. “It says we have some. It must have fell off the truck.”

[PaulO]

Yeah, "fell off the truck" happens in Chicagoland all the time - ha-ha.  

[fishnbowljoe]

4 hours ago, PaulO said:

Yeah, "fell off the truck" happens in Chicagoland all the time - ha-ha.  

This was actually down in LaSalle-Peru. It’s an hour or south of Rockford. Haven’t been down that way in a long time.

[Thomm]

I guess this fits the category in some small way.  

I was out and about today, drawn to the estate sales that begin to pop up like daffodils when the weather warms ever so slightly around these parts.  

Behind the basement bar in a cabinet I found the bottle pictured below (that is actually a screenshot of the same bottle from Etsy, as I didn't want to be the kind of shithead who rummages through somebody's late relative's personal belongings and poses said belongings for cell phone photos).  

The label said it contained Jim Beam, bottled in bond. Tax strip was crinkly, but appeared to be intact. However, when I gave it a little jiggle and listened, it sounded at best to be half full.  

All further research on this particular decanter seems to indicate an early 1960s vintage.  I foolishly had left my cheaters at home, or I could have looked at the state tax sticker to get a better idea.

Long story short, I'm not a decanter collector, and I couldn't trust what liquor had not succumbed to several decades of evaporation to be safely potable. Left it for someone else.  Kinda gives me hope for future searches, though.  If that guy kept that bottle down there for 60-plus years, who knows what else lurks in dark, cobwebby confines?

[PaulO]

10 hours ago, Thomm said:

I guess this fits the category in some small way.  

I was out and about today, drawn to the estate sales that begin to pop up like daffodils when the weather warms ever so slightly around these parts.  

Behind the basement bar in a cabinet I found the bottle pictured below (that is actually a screenshot of the same bottle from Etsy, as I didn't want to be the kind of shithead who rummages through somebody's late relative's personal belongings and poses said belongings for cell phone photos).  

The label said it contained Jim Beam, bottled in bond. Tax strip was crinkly, but appeared to be intact. However, when I gave it a little jiggle and listened, it sounded at best to be half full.  

All further research on this particular decanter seems to indicate an early 1960s vintage.  I foolishly had left my cheaters at home, or I could have looked at the state tax sticker to get a better idea.

Long story short, I'm not a decanter collector, and I couldn't trust what liquor had not succumbed to several decades of evaporation to be safely potable. Left it for someone else.  Kinda gives me hope for future searches, though.  If that guy kept that bottle down there for 60-plus years, who knows what else lurks in dark, cobwebby confines?

If the fill level is low as you say, cork must have shrank with age.  With all that evaporation and air in the bottle, remaining contents oxidized and no good to drink. 

Beam made a lot of different decanters from the 1960s - 1980s.  They seem to hang around in peoples basements and garages.  I've seen many turn up over the years (empty) at garage sales and thrift shops.  

[Phil T]

I'm in Michigan for a long weekend.  I stopped in a liquor store that I have been in many times before.  I have found ECBP several times there. Today, they didn't have any. They did have McKenna 10yr for $60. I haven't seen it on a shelf in years. I passed at that price.

 

Prost!!  Phil 

Edited March 28, 2024 by Phil T

[smokinjoe]

17 minutes ago, Phil T said:

I'm in Michigan for a long weekend.  I stopped in a liquor store that I have been in many times before.  I have found ECBP several times there. Today, they didn't have any. They did have McKenna 10yr for $60. I haven't seen it on a shelf in years. I passed at that price.

 

Prost!!  Phil 

That’s the normal price, today, friend. I did buy a couple at it, but I pass too, lately.  
 

I will say, it’s good…

[mbroo5880i]

On 3/14/2024 at 2:25 PM, fishnbowljoe said:

Myself and @Vosgar heard another story one time. This was a number of years ago when things first started getting crazy. Long story short, we drove a ways to a store to get something they said they had in stock. It wasn’t on the shelf, so the owner/manager checked in the back room. She came back to the counter looking puzzled. She checked some paperwork and shook her head. “It says we have some. It must have fell off the truck.”

 

I was once told "You must have just fell off the turnip truck."  That was my late FIL when I asked if I could marry his daughter.  

 

I asked him if he had set up a dowry.  He said sure "She comes with a Plymouth Volare station wagon."  Man, I miss that car.  

 

[mbroo5880i]

1 hour ago, Phil T said:

I'm in Michigan for a long weekend.  I stopped in a liquor store that I have been in many times before.  I have found ECBP several times there. Today, they didn't have any. They did have McKenna 10yr for $60. I haven't seen it on a shelf in years. I passed at that price.

 

Prost!!  Phil 

 

My local grocery west of Indy had a supply of HMcK10 over a 2 month period.  I bought one at $53.99 retail.  I bought two more bottles a few weeks later on sale at $40.49 each.

 

I haven't seen any for a few months now.  Before the recent drops, I hadn't seen any for several years.

[mbroo5880i]

On 3/24/2024 at 11:38 AM, PaulO said:

If the fill level is low as you say, cork must have shrank with age.  With all that evaporation and air in the bottle, remaining contents oxidized and no good to drink. 

Beam made a lot of different decanters from the 1960s - 1980s.  They seem to hang around in peoples basements and garages.  I've seen many turn up over the years (empty) at garage sales and thrift shops.  

 

@ThommI am with @PaulO, if the fill level is low then the whiskey is probably skunked.  Personally, I wouldn;t even try it.  I would just dump the contents and make the decanter a decorative piece.  

 

I have several unused decanters that I used for decorative pieces.  I am just not a decanter guy.

[Phil T]

1 hour ago, smokinjoe said:

That’s the normal price, today, friend. I did buy a couple at it, but I pass too, lately.  
 

I will say, it’s good…

I get that, I know. Doesn't mean I can't pass because the current price pisses me off. Not too long ago it was $25-30. The 6 yr BIB was $11.  The current 7 yr BIB is $50. I'm not bending over any more.

 

Prost!!  Phil 

[Kepler]

I've also been passing on McKenna 10 left and right, all around the "new" msrp.  I stored several away years ago at $26 to $30.

 

[Clueby]

Passed on this bottle today. I was tempted just because it was "unique".

[bayouredd]

On 3/14/2024 at 7:53 AM, PaulO said:

That makes sense about employees stealing bottles.  In other cases maybe the website isn't updated.

Regardless, the TW site has proved useful to me because they sell just about everything distributed in a given area.  It gives me a good idea what I could find and a ball park price.  I might look at that, then check the stores closer to home.  Also, items we can't buy in Indy, I can expand the search to find out where it is available.  I have compiled a whole list of items to pick up next time I travel out of state.

Kind of not the case here as TW actually gets a few things (sent nationally I guess) that the LS never see. i.e. Gatsby - pass at $279 and Ben Holliday which has been a buy for me...

 

On 3/14/2024 at 1:25 PM, fishnbowljoe said:

Myself and @Vosgar heard another story one time. This was a number of years ago when things first started getting crazy. Long story short, we drove a ways to a store to get something they said they had in stock. It wasn’t on the shelf, so the owner/manager checked in the back room. She came back to the counter looking puzzled. She checked some paperwork and shook her head. “It says we have some. It must have fell off the truck.”

 

Hehehe; That's a lie and not even a good one!!!

 

On 3/23/2024 at 11:41 PM, Thomm said:

I guess this fits the category in some small way.  

I was out and about today, drawn to the estate sales that begin to pop up like daffodils when the weather warms ever so slightly around these parts.  

Behind the basement bar in a cabinet I found the bottle pictured below (that is actually a screenshot of the same bottle from Etsy, as I didn't want to be the kind of shithead who rummages through somebody's late relative's personal belongings and poses said belongings for cell phone photos).  

The label said it contained Jim Beam, bottled in bond. Tax strip was crinkly, but appeared to be intact. However, when I gave it a little jiggle and listened, it sounded at best to be half full.  

All further research on this particular decanter seems to indicate an early 1960s vintage.  I foolishly had left my cheaters at home, or I could have looked at the state tax sticker to get a better idea.

Long story short, I'm not a decanter collector, and I couldn't trust what liquor had not succumbed to several decades of evaporation to be safely potable. Left it for someone else.  Kinda gives me hope for future searches, though.  If that guy kept that bottle down there for 60-plus years, who knows what else lurks in dark, cobwebby confines?

 

Nice looking decanter, so since it is an estate sale, I wouldn't be afraid of what's inside, but whom! 

-----

 

 

 

As far as hard pass, yesterday I nixed JD12 at $259 & 1924 at $279. 

Seriously thought about the JD but, no...

[bayouredd]

21 hours ago, mbroo5880i said:

 

I was once told "You must have just fell off the turnip truck."  That was my late FIL when I asked if I could marry his daughter.  

 

I asked him if he had set up a dowry.  He said sure "She comes with a Plymouth Volare station wagon."  Man, I miss that car.  

 

Man, that's an upgrade! I married into a Chevy Citation and after 40 years still haven't climbed out of debt because of it...

[mbroo5880i]

46 minutes ago, bayouredd said:

Man, that's an upgrade! I married into a Chevy Citation and after 40 years still haven't climbed out of debt because of it...

 

[Phil T]

1 hour ago, Clueby said:

Passed on this bottle today. I was tempted just because it was "unique".

Probably a million dollar bottle to taters because of the font.

 

Prost!!  Phil 

[Kepler]

7 hours ago, Clueby said:

Passed on this bottle today. I was tempted just because it was "unique".

 

5 hours ago, Phil T said:

Probably a million dollar bottle to taters because of the font.

 

Prost!!  Phil 

 

I'm surprised we haven't seen someone here on SB that just joined 2 days ago with a "Thoughts?" post with this bottle. 

 

 

[mbroo5880i]

On 3/29/2024 at 5:45 PM, Clueby said:

Passed on this bottle today. I was tempted just because it was "unique".

 

Looks like the guy running the paint line might have been had a nip or two of the product.  Unless the price was outrageous, I might have walked out with that bottle because as my late Father-in-Law would say "Boy, you are f..ked in the head."   Of course, he was the first person to call me a "Cheap Bastard."   Of course, on my wedding night when he handed me the keys to the Plymouth Volare wagon, he told me "She's yours now."  I wasn't if he meant the car or his daughter.  

 

True story.  After maybe two or three dates, he asked (told) me "Lets take a ride."  We got out into the country and then he reaches under the driver's seat in his truck and pulls out a flask.  He told me it was Wild Turkey.  He took a swig and asked me if I wanted swig.  Oh boy, the dilemma.  I never told anyone.  I told this story at a restaurant in Gatlinburg, TN several years after he had passed.  My MIL asked me "Well, what did you do?"  I told her "I am here now."  She knew that I had taken a swig.  We all laughed.  I ordered a pour of WT101 in his memory.  I miss that man so much. 

[mbroo5880i]

I passed on Bernheim Wheat Whiskey Barrel Proof for $90.  I would have loved to have tried it but it was about $30 more than I was willing to pay.

[PaulO]

13 hours ago, mbroo5880i said:

I passed on Bernheim Wheat Whiskey Barrel Proof for $90.  I would have loved to have tried it but it was about $30 more than I was willing to pay.

The 90 proof Bernheim Wheat sounded good, but taste so bland.  I tried several bottles over the years.  They even brought back an age statement.  Every time it's like someone rinsed a glass with whiskey, then filled it with vodka.

 

HH discontinued my Old Fitz B.I.B., then try and replace it with Larceny and Bernheim wheat.   

[JCwhammie]

Today I was out of town for work. I swung by a liquor store to kill 10 minutes. They had WT 101 rye for $22, so I snagged one. Behind the counter they had ER10, EHT SmB, and the other other normal BT products that have become hot the last 5 years. I asked him about the ER10. He scanned, and it showed $249. I was expecting something pretty high (not Willie Nelson high, though), so I had my poker face on. He said if I wanted it he could give me a discount (what a pleasant gesture). I declined his generosity and walked away with my budget rye. 

Edited April 11, 2024 by JCwhammie

[mbroo5880i]

Passed on HMcK10 for $53.99.  Just wasn't feeling it today.  The same store still had the Bernheim Wheat BP for $89.99.  Yeah, not going to happen.