RIP 6 Year Heaven Hill Bottled in Bond

On the bright side, maybe all that aging whiskey that would have gone into this will = a boom in McKenna 10 in the near future. That's one of the brands Heaven Hill is committed to.

Just got back from Skokie Binny's where there were about four bottles of Weller Special Reserve (Green label) on the shelf (limit one). I snagged one and then asked at the manager's counter if they also had the Weller Antique 107 (Red Label) and they said they did and handed me a bottle! Green is $24.99 and Red was $25.99.

Anyone has comment (positive | negative) about the whiskies [the Highland Black 8-year-old Blended Scotch, and the Glen Marnoch Islay Single Malt. They cost $17 and $24, respectively.] sold at Aldi which I have glimpsed some mentions of recently?
The 1987 Chevrolet Sprint has not been confidence-inspiring for a while, so I have avoided motoring to spots, including the Aldi which is across the avenue from a Walmart. But, when it is fixed, grocery | beverage shopping is on the short list. Should I give this whisky a shot {oops}?

As much as I believe the VW whiskeys are, perhaps, the most overhyped of all the whiskeys, I had a pour of the VW 2018 15-year last night that was one of the tastiest bourbons I've had in a long time. There were some really beautiful notes of caramel, vanilla and butterscotch. The smooth finish was absolutely glorious. I've been drinking a lot less bourbon these days but this really hit the bullseye.

I ended up with a couple bottles of VW this year but not the 15-year and now I'm kind of sorry I didn't dig a bit harder to get a bottle of it. That said, it's not definitely not worth the prices being sought on the secondary market. But as I see it at bars this year, I'll be checking pricing and ordering a pour here and there if the pricing's reasonable.

=R=

ronnie_suburban wrote:I had a pour of the VW 2018 15-year last night that was one of the tastiest bourbons I've had in a long time. There were some really beautiful notes of caramel, vanilla and butterscotch. The smooth finish was absolutely glorious

I had a pour of a ten year old Rip Van Winkle 107 over new years at a friends house, immediately thought vanilla and caramel. I mention this as its exceedingly unusual for me to think flavor notes when consuming alcohol.

107? Oh, the Old Rip 10 Year? A couple of years back the 10 (technically not Van Winkle) was super-great, so I assume it's still great. As is, per Ronnie, the 15-year Pappy. There has never been more bourbon at a variety of price points available, and a lot of it blurs into anonymity or coasts on satisfactory MOR mediocrity, but whenever there's a special occasion and I pour the 15 I'm still totally impressed by the flavor and balance. Just the sweet spot all around. So I think it's more than hype, I think it's some serious quality control on the part of whoever is picking and mixing the barrels. I'll only believe it's overhyped when someone can point me to a bourbon that's as consistently great. That said, I've never paid more than retail for bottle, but as the prices of more conventional bourbons creep up and up the retail price of Pappy seems more and more reasonable.

Vitesse98 wrote:That said, I've never paid more than retail for bottle, but as the prices of more conventional bourbons creep up and up the retail price of Pappy seems more and more reasonable.

An excellent point! It has gotten more and more reasonable as the bourbon market has continued its ascent.

The Old Rip 107 is still wonderful, and seems to be the same juice as it always was, even though it's been migrated to a taller, narrower, rail-friendly bottle (a few years back). Fwiw, this is the first bourbon I ever loved, drinking from G Wiv's private stock, in his backyard, over a decade ago in what I believe was 2006 or 2007.

=R=

Vitesse98 wrote:107? Oh, the Old Rip 10 Year? A couple of years back the 10 (technically not Van Winkle) was super-great, so I assume it's still great.

Still great, this particular bottle was bought by my friend in 2011 or thereabouts.

ronnie_suburban wrote:The Old Rip 107 is still wonderful, and seems to be the same juice as it always was, even though it's been migrated to a taller, narrower, rail-friendly bottle (a few years back). Fwiw, this is the first bourbon I ever loved, drinking from G Wiv's private stock, in his backyard, over a decade ago in what I believe was 2006 or 2007.

Ronnie, those were the good old days, 107 was $27.50 per bottle. If I remember corectly, and I may not, those were 7-year, not ten.

G Wiv wrote:Ronnie, those were the good old days, 107 was $27.50 per bottle. If I remember corectly, and I may not, those were 7-year, not ten.

You could be right. I don't remember but I believe you may have a picture of me pretending to drink from the bottle, which might hold some clue.

And yes, definitely the good old days. Under $30 and on the bottom shelf at Binny's, collecting dust because almost no one liked bourbon . . . yet.

=R=

I must have started buying bourbon right on the cusp of the boom, because back-when I was able to find a stumpy bottle of the previous version Old Rip on the shelf at maybe even Binny's. I want to say within a year or so of this I was still able to find Lot B on the shelf, or at least in a case (at retail). A few after that I found a store near me that had placed several bottles of Old Rip 10 on the shelf at retail. Ever since then I've never seen any Pappy stuff on the shelf, or in a case, at retail, and of course the same has increasingly been the case for lots of Buffalo Trace products: Elmer T. Lee, Weller 12, even Weller Special Reserve (which is not that special) and Weller Antique (which is not old) are now often backroom ask-a-guy products.

I feel very lucky that several years back I was able to relatively easily accumulate the whole line of Van Winkle products (even the rye!) at retail, plus the BTAC, but that look a lot of face time and shopping in a particular Binny's as I filled out my home bar collection. I don't think I would be able to pull that off again, it's just too in-demand. The irony is that there are some bottles I'm reluctant to open, since I know I can't replace them, but I also don't want to sell them because a) it's kind of lame to buy bourbon to resell and b) anyone I sold to at fair market prices I'd be concerned was just going to flip it for even more, which would also be lame.

ronnie_suburban wrote:

G Wiv wrote:Ronnie, those were the good old days, 107 was $27.50 per bottle. If I remember corectly, and I may not, those were 7-year, not ten.

And yes, definitely the good old days. Under $30 and on the bottom shelf at Binny's, collecting dust because almost no one liked bourbon . . . yet.
=R=

I could have built quite a VW/Rip bunker with some foresight that the VW frenzy would come on the way it did. Always three or four different bottles, and always a few of each, at most Binny's, as Ronnie perfectly described, collecting dust on the very bottom shelf. Just grabbing a couple extra bottles to put away with each Binny's visit would have financed one of my girl's college funds . Or, being able to enjoy Pappy the rest of my life...

I drank bourbon since the late 70's/early 80's, but back then very occasionally, not that frequently. My appreciation really started growing in the mid 90's. I never thought bourbon would have a renaissance and would never have never predicted the demand of the past several years. Hence, never felt I needed to stock up on VW's, thought they would always be there, on the bottom shelf.

Just opened this bottle 3 days ago.
Old Rip Van Winkle 10 yr or Eagle Rare 10 yr?
Both now produced by the same distiller, Buffalo Trace.
This 10 yr was acquired in a lottery from Woodmans about 3 years ago. It sold for about $80, just about list. The Eagle Rare purchased from Woodman’s when it is in stock was about $30. Eagle Rare is from BT’s Mash Bill #1, whatever that really is?
In comparison, both are excellent with the Pappy’s having a pronounced vanilla aroma.
I have had older Pappy’s 15yr and 21 and the primary sensation is of smoothness.
Since you can’t hurry time along, distillers have been searching nooks and cranny’s of their warehouses for older barrels of bourbon lost or misplaced and charging very high prices. Since most of these companies are now run by ‘Bean Keepers’, I don’t think we will be seeing much bourbon in the 15 to 20 yr range as the cost is high to sit on inventory.
Orphan Barrel, actually Diego, has had a-number of releases, one of which I purchased early on in the series and smoothness was excellent but it’s current release, Retoric 25 is priced at $200 at Woodman’s and $150 at Binny’s.
I plan to sit out the current Boom Market and Eagle Rare is just fine for me.-Richard

I've been seeing what seems like an anecdotal boom in older bourbon (or at least juice marketed as old), often at massive prices and often with some sort of misleading marketing hook, like "this was discovered in an abandoned Stitzel-Weller warehouse" or even the intimation that the older the bourbon the better. These "luxury" bottles are offset by the glut of NAS bottles, or bourbons of vague provenance, which have sprouted up the past few years like dandelions. I do think the positive flip side of this is it's helping people recognize the importance of the master distillers and others who determine just what juice gets bottled where. That's why to the bottle a brand like Four Roses is remarkably consistent and high quality, in my opinion. They really know what they're doing. I think Old Forester is cranking out some good stuff, too.

Bumping this because this morning I snagged a bottle of Weller green label for $23.99 at Valli Foods in Evanston. Was tempted to stock up but I left the six or so remaining bottles on the shelf. This is one of the best values in whiskey; an absolute steal given the great taste of this stuff...

champs2005 wrote:Bumping this because this morning I snagged a bottle of Weller green label for $23.99 at Valli Foods in Evanston. Was tempted to stock up but I left the six or so remaining bottles on the shelf. This is one of the best values in whiskey; an absolute steal given the great taste of this stuff...

Nice find. On a related note, Weller Antique 107 is now up to $60/bottle at the least expensive retail outlets . . . if you can even find it. I'm told that BT's been holding back stock in order to produce the new 114-proof Weller Full Proof, which is slated to drop in June.

=R=

ronnie_suburban wrote:Weller Antique 107 is now up to $60/bottle at the least expensive retail outlets . . . if you can even find it. I'm told that BT's been holding back stock in order to produce the new 114-proof Weller Full Proof, which is slated to drop in June.

=R=

I'm a big fan of the Antique 107 and 12 year, but haven't seen a bottle on a shelf in a few years. Rationing the stock I purchased prior to the craziness. $60 is just insane for Antique, with NAS. Would like to grab a Full Proof, but those will be unicorns.

While I am a fan of BT products, they have probably done the most to drive up price and scarcity of bourbons. Don't doubt that they were behind the rumors of Weller being poor man's Pappy. When I was on a BT tour several years ago, when you could still find Weller products on shelves, the tour guide didn't really shut down that rumor from a few people on the tour. And the craziness of BT brand bourbon being allocated in liquor stores, come on? Yet it's in grocery stores, Target, etc. all you want. Not to mention the Blanton's shenanigans...

The "poor man's Pappy" stuff no doubt simply sprung from Pappy being a wheated bourbon, which is still relatively rare.

I find it pretty much BS that stuff like Antique (which is nothing special, imo) is getting a huge price bump. It stinks of taking advantage of customers, especially since they keep pumping out limited/allocated stuff at hugely inflated prices anyway that would do the job just as well. Like when years ago I found a bottle of Elijah Craig 18 on the shelf somewhere for $50, then it vanished, and when it came back it was literally three times the price. Or when something more common like Booker's doubled in price. Or when the even more common Maker's tried to reduce its proof, claiming a shortage, then not only backed down but did so more or less the same time it introduced its Cask Strength bottle, which would seem to contradict any claim of a shortage.

We're far enough along into the bourbon boom that there have been plenty of barrels set aside 10+ years ago that must be coming due, but no way are they going to emerge priced as anything other than premium buys.

Can't blame owners for trying to sell some of their hard to find products at fair market value. But some people are just crooked.

Saw a bottle of eh taylor small batch selling for 99 in Louisville last weekend. That's just wrong

We've discussed it here, but it's actually imo a subversion of fair market value if you restrict supply and distribution of your product. It's one thing if you can't find PVW on the shelves, it's another if you can't find, say, a NAS Weller. Distribution of that product has been throttled, and what does make it to shelves disappears quickly because of its association with PVW (which Buffalo Trace does not play down). Good bottom-line business, sure, as long as you don't turn off customers (which clearly is not happening), but as a business practice it's a little ... gross, I guess.

jhdouglass wrote:RIP 6 Year Heaven Hill Bottled in Bond

On the bright side, maybe all that aging whiskey that would have gone into this will = a boom in McKenna 10 in the near future. That's one of the brands Heaven Hill is committed to.

It's baaack . . . and to no one's surprise, the price is expected to nearly triple, at ~$40/bottle. Predictably pathetic. It's now 7-year, fwiw. I guess that 7th year is the expensive one.

Heaven Hill Bottled-in-Bond Bourbon Returns To Store Shelves

=R=

ronnie_suburban wrote:

jhdouglass wrote:RIP 6 Year Heaven Hill Bottled in Bond

On the bright side, maybe all that aging whiskey that would have gone into this will = a boom in McKenna 10 in the near future. That's one of the brands Heaven Hill is committed to.

It's baaack . . . and to no one's surprise, the price is expected to nearly triple, at ~$40/bottle. Predictably pathetic. It's now 7-year, fwiw. I guess that 7th year is the expensive one.

Heaven Hill Bottled-in-Bond Bourbon Returns To Store Shelves

=R=

The HH BiB retirement was 10 months ago, last September, and it's almost triple the price in 10 months? Come on.

Vitesse98 wrote:We've discussed it here, but it's actually imo a subversion of fair market value if you restrict supply and distribution of your product. It's one thing if you can't find PVW on the shelves, it's another if you can't find, say, a NAS Weller. Distribution of that product has been throttled, and what does make it to shelves disappears quickly because of its association with PVW (which Buffalo Trace does not play down). Good bottom-line business, sure, as long as you don't turn off customers (which clearly is not happening), but as a business practice it's a little ... gross, I guess.

Stopped in Big Star last week prior to a Cubs game. There was a large sign prominently displayed for their 'PREFERRED WHISKEY - WELLER ANTIQUE 107'. Obviously, there is a good supply for them, it's almost a house pour. I did enjoy a couple of glasses before the game.

I used to be ITB, so I understand that they basically made Weller an on premise product. The fact that they are going through cases of this for shots for drunk patrons pre and post Cubs games does get me a bit upset. This isn't a usual bar/restaurant, it's an extremely high volume location. BT sends maybe a handful of bottles to very select retailers for loyal BT customers to enjoy at home. More game playing to make Weller seem more exclusive. Just my $0.02.

Picked up a bottle of Old Forester 1920 115 proof at Costco Mount Prospect for $49.99. Going to crack it open tonight and see how it goes down.

Prohibition Style? That's one of my favorites, and a pretty good price.

Yes, prohibition style. For 115 proof it’s pretty smooth. I like it a lot.

I had to laugh when I was out to dinner last night up in the northern burbs. First visit to a decent place and I asked what bourbons they had. Server hands me a list and boasts that their impressive (his description, not mine) list has over 30 bourbons on it. I order a Blanton's. A few minutes later, he comes back and and apologizes that they're out of it. So, I order an Elmer T. Lee. Longer wait this time but he comes back and admits "This is embarrassing. We're out of that, too." I ended up with an Eagle Rare, which was fine, though certainly something that can be had almost anywhere.

I told my companions that I fully expected they'd be out of the first two but it costs me nothing to ask for them. But the outcome was entirely predictable. Too many places are run like this. To be a great place, having them on your list isn't enough. You have have to actually have them on the shelf, too. Or at least have the humility to remove them from your list. I'll bet that if I went back in two weeks, they'd still be 86'd and still be on the list. The moral of the story is that having a solid list doesn't mean shit. If you don't have something, you don't have it. Accept reality. Take it off your list now, please.

=R=

ronnie_suburban wrote:I had to laugh when I was out to dinner last night up in the northern burbs. First visit to a decent place and I asked what bourbons they had. Server hands me a list and boasts that their impressive (his description, not mine) list has over 30 bourbons on it. I order a Blanton's. A few minutes later, he comes back and and apologizes that they're out of it. So, I order an Elmer T. Lee. Longer wait this time but he comes back and admits "This is embarrassing. We're out of that, too." I ended up with an Eagle Rare, which was fine, though certainly something that can be had almost anywhere.

I told my companions that I fully expected they'd be out of the first two but it costs me nothing to ask for them. But the outcome was entirely predictable. Too many places are run like this. To be a great place, having them on your list isn't enough. You have have to actually have them on the shelf, too. Or at least have the humility to remove them from your list. I'll bet that if I went back in two weeks, they'd still be 86'd and still be on the list. The moral of the story is that having a solid list doesn't mean shit. If you don't have something, you don't have it. Accept reality. Take it off your list now, please.

=R=

Reminds me of the Monty Python cheese shop sketch.

Reminded me of Seinfeld at the car rental counter: it's easy to take the reservation. The key is to keep the reservation.

This year's lineup and MSRPs announced:

Old Rip Van Winkle Handmade Bourbon 10 Year Old (107 proof, $70 MSRP)
Van Winkle Special Reserve Bourbon 12 Year Old (90 proof, $80 MSRP)
Van Winkle Family Reserve Rye 13 Year Old (95.6 proof, $120 MSRP)
Pappy Van Winkle’s Family Reserve Bourbon 15 Year Old (107 proof, $120 MSRP)
Pappy Van Winkle’s Family Reserve Bourbon 20 Year Old (90.4 proof, $200 MSRP)
Pappy Van Winkle’s Family Reserve Bourbon 23 Year Old (95.6 proof, $300 MSRP)

https://www.gobourbon.com/bourbons-most ... ming-soon/

Looks like prices are up from '17....can't seem to find last year's.

BT in '17 wrote:
$59.99 – Old Rip Van Winkle Handmade Bourbon 10 Year Old 107 proof
$69.99 – Van Winkle Special Reserve Bourbon 12 Year Old
$99.99 – Pappy Van Winkle’s Family Reserve Bourbon 15 Year Old
$169.99 – Pappy Van Winkle’s Family Reserve Bourbon 20 Year Old
$269.99 – Pappy Van Winkle’s Family Reserve Bourbon 23 Year Old

Cool! So now what? Line up somewhere? Or too late they are all spoken for? Im not an experienced whiskey hunter, sorry, but Im game to try.