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Official PCF Whisk(e)y Thread (69 Viewers)

Irish said:
Overall there are a lot more bottles of the standard offering like C922, so I'm assuming there's an economy of scale. The private barrel is them getting one barrel on their own, so the selection process/label/shipping is likely more labor intensive and there's probably a premium on being able to have a private selection, so the bottle costs more for them to buy. BUT they're getting everything that comes out of that barrel so they get more bottles to sell, they're not competing with 1000 other liquor stores, like they are for the standard releases. That'd be my guess.

NJ seemed to always be about month behind in distribution this year, so hopefully more are on the way.
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So I've seen about six bottles of C922 total, But the store easily had 80 of their ECBP store pick. I get that the selection process and shipping and bottling does end up costing more, but I would expect that the bottles that are truly rare would still be higher priced. I'm not talking a lot here... C922 I think it was $75 and the store pic was $90.

Regarding NJ being a little delayed, you're definitely right about that. NYC started receiving Stagg and Pappy, but my local store manager told me that it's not going to show up until probably end of December or first week of January here.
 
Billy Baroo said:
I’ll add that private barrels have the potential to be really special! Some stores don’t give a shit and tell the distillery just give us a barrel that yields the most bottles…BUT…find you a store that is known for taking the time to personally pick their barrels and great things can happen. Become a good customer at that store, make friends with the employee’s/proprietor and they’ll take care of you.

My local has a great track record with private barrels. They allow a few local whiskey clubs to make their selections or the managers of that store will make the pick themselves…either way, they almost always have private selections that are fantastic! I’m pretty tight now with a few of the managers there and they most definitely hook me up when they can!
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The hard part is knowing whether or not the store just decided to take the barrel with the most yield and doesn't care, or if it's actually something specific that they've put time and heart into.

I'm lucky enough that my local store manager actually makes annual treks out to Kentucky to do tastings before they decide what they're picking. Also, there are some great NYC stores whose pics I trust implicitly (again, because I know that they're actually going out there and doing the leg work to make the picks).

It's kind of sad that the only way to get a lot of these fantastic bottles is to have "ins". Don't get me wrong, I think it's really awesome when you create a relationship with a store manager, and you show them that you're there to enjoy it and not just flip it on the secondary. But without my two stores that I know (one of which being 30 minutes away) I wouldn't be getting any of these bottles that used to just show up on the shelves like MWND and Stagg Jr.
 
Next up, soooo good.

20221203_210844.jpg
 
toothpic said:
A little shopping this morning.

View attachment 1033748
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You found it! Good deal. So did I. Along with a couple others I've been wanting to add.

20221203_200348.jpg


Also found my new go-to liquor store. Unfortunately it's a 40 min drive from my house, but worth it for the way they do business.

  • First - everything is retail, or close to it.
  • The selection of on the shelf products was as good or better than some of the MUCH larger stores near my house where I've been shopping. Total Wine and a Texas chain called Spec's.
  • Every $20 spent gets a Loyalty ticket. They call them LPs for Loyalty Points.
  • Each ticket has two halves - one you save up for the Loyalty Points rewards and the other for a raffle they hold 2-3 times a year.
  • The Loyalty rewards section (visible behind the counter) has a great selection of hard to find and allocated bottles. Save up enough Loyalty Points tickets and you can trade them in to buy a hard to find bottle. At RETAIL!
  • Not sure yet exactly how the raffle works, but if your ticket gets drawn, you get to buy something good. Again, at retail. My son says it's very worth it if your ticket gets pulled. I think they have a selection of bottles available and as the tickets get pulled, the winner chooses the one they want to buy.
Example, I spent $180 today and got 9 tickets. One more ticket and I can buy a bottle of Eagle Rare for $32. They had 3-4 on the shelf today.

Or I can save up for:

Blanton's - 30 LP $60
ECBP - 15 LP $65
G T Stagg Jr - 30 LP $60
Heaven Hill 7YR BiB - 15 LP $40
KC 100p 15YR LE - 15 LP $109
Larceny BP - 20 LP $60
Little Book Ch 6 - 15 LP $130
OF SiB BS - 30 LP $80
Weller Antique - 30 LP $50

And if I want to save LPs for a longer time:

Col. EHT BP - 150 LP $76
EC SiB 18YR - 50 LP $150
G T Stagg Sr - 150 LP $100
Pappy 15 - 500 LP $139
Thomas H. Handy - 200 LP $90
Van Winkle 12 - 250 LP $80
Weller Full Proof - 80 LP $50
Weller CYPB - 120 LP $50
Willett 8YR - 60 LP $246

Most or all of these were on the shelf, in stock when I was there today. I should have taken a pic. It was pretty cool to see.

FYI, this long message was mostly for me to remember all these as I was looking them up on their website. LOL. But feel free to give me advice on what you would save up for if you were in my place. Would you get something quick on the short list, or save up for something bigger?
 
TX_Golf_N_Poker said:
You found it! Good deal. So did I. Along with a couple others I've been wanting to add.

View attachment 1034073

Also found my new go-to liquor store. Unfortunately it's a 40 min drive from my house, but worth it for the way they do business.

  • First - everything is retail, or close to it.
  • The selection of on the shelf products was as good or better than some of the MUCH larger stores near my house where I've been shopping. Total Wine and a Texas chain called Spec's.
  • Every $20 spent gets a Loyalty ticket. They call them LPs for Loyalty Points.
  • Each ticket has two halves - one you save up for the Loyalty Points rewards and the other for a raffle they hold 2-3 times a year.
  • The Loyalty rewards section (visible behind the counter) has a great selection of hard to find and allocated bottles. Save up enough Loyalty Points tickets and you can trade them in to buy a hard to find bottle. At RETAIL!
  • Not sure yet exactly how the raffle works, but if your ticket gets drawn, you get to buy something good. Again, at retail. My son says it's very worth it if your ticket gets pulled. I think they have a selection of bottles available and as the tickets get pulled, the winner chooses the one they want to buy.
Example, I spent $180 today and got 9 tickets. One more ticket and I can buy a bottle of Eagle Rare for $32. They had 3-4 on the shelf today.

Or I can save up for:

Blanton's - 30 LP $60
ECBP - 15 LP $65
G T Stagg Jr - 30 LP $60
Heaven Hill 7YR BiB - 15 LP $40
KC 100p 15YR LE - 15 LP $109
Larceny BP - 20 LP $60
Little Book Ch 6 - 15 LP $130
OF SiB BS - 30 LP $80
Weller Antique - 30 LP $50

And if I want to save LPs for a longer time:

Col. EHT BP - 150 LP $76
EC SiB 18YR - 50 LP $150
G T Stagg Sr - 150 LP $100
Pappy 15 - 500 LP $139
Thomas H. Handy - 200 LP $90
Van Winkle 12 - 250 LP $80
Weller Full Proof - 80 LP $50
Weller CYPB - 120 LP $50
Willett 8YR - 60 LP $246

Most or all of these were on the shelf, in stock when I was there today. I should have taken a pic. It was pretty cool to see.

FYI, this long message was mostly for me to remember all these as I was looking them up on their website. LOL. But feel free to give me advice on what you would save up for if you were in my place. Would you get something quick on the short list, or save up for something bigger?
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I’d save my points for either a GTS or EHTBP when they’re available.

BUT…if you could use those 150 points on 5 bottles of Stagg jr at the same time:unsure:

My pace of point earning would also factor into my decision.
 
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I'd be saving for that Little Book 6. 15 tickets is chicken feed! If I was aspiring to a higher bottle, I didn't see one, but a Rip 10yr would be neat, I've always liked the label, certainly more than that totally uninspired 12yr label.
 
Billy Baroo said:
I’d save my points for either a GTS or EHTBP when they’re available.

BUT…if you could use those 150 points on 5 bottles of Stagg jr at the same time:unsure:

My pace of point earning would also factor into my decision.
Click to expand...
FDLmold said:
I'd be saving for that Little Book 6. 15 tickets is chicken feed! If I was aspiring to a higher bottle, I didn't see one, but a Rip 10yr would be neat, I've always liked the label, certainly more than that totally uninspired 12yr label.
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I looked at the Old Rip 10 YRs (2019), but left it off the list for some reason. It's 175 LPs and $75.

My initial thought was that my ECBP C922 is about half gone, it's a limited bottle, so no more ever in the future, and I'd like to have a backup. But then I realized in a couple months A123 will be out. So maybe best to stick the one I have in the back of the cabinet and stop drinking it for a while. So I can do side by sides down the road.

The others on the shorter list I've been wanting is Larceny BP and Weller 107. I don't really know much about Stagg Jr. Is that cask strength? I also don't know much about Little Book other than I know it's highly desirable.

I'm not sure my spending will ever be great enough to accumulate over 100 tickets. Especially given the distance away. I can't just drop in and grab a bottle any time I want something. Probably makes more sense for me to stick to the shorter list, or maybe try to save up the 80 LPs for Weller Full Proof. I'm also not big on spending more than $70-80 on a bottle, so if I were going to save a lot of tickets, it would probably be for the EHTBP.
 
I'm going to mix me up a small batch of OF 1915. Going to measure off 150ml from each bottle and pour it into the empty Woodford Reserve bottle. I rinsed out the bottle and ran some hot water over the cork. I'm assuming there's not going to be any affect from the old bottle. It's been sealed since I kicked it, and even still had a couple drops of bourbon in it. Which I tasted and was fine.

20221203_223917.jpg
 
Sweet. If I buy two and find another local tater (like my liquor store guy) that pays the 550 for one bottle, I'm ahead money and have a free SFTB to boot lol.

Thanks for the link guys. Appreciate it.
 
FDLmold said:
Sweet. If I buy two and find another local tater (like my liquor store guy) that pays the 550 for one bottle, I'm ahead money and have a free SFTB to boot lol.

Thanks for the link guys. Appreciate it.
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Why stop at two? Buy a case of 12 for $2850 and really bank. If you have a connection that will buy at secondary.
 
The boone county 8 year single barrel may be the best thing on that table. I was really good
 

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