- Sep 4, 2014
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Yeah, I just don’t like paying over retail. Personal preference.
The crazy thing about Blanton’s is that I find it overrated. I know a lot of people love it, and I certainly don’t hate it, just don’t get the hype. Their barrel proof is another story. I still pick it up for friends when I find it.
The whole bourbon thing has gotten out of hand. No way this stuff isn’t getting drunk at the rate it’s getting sold. Can’t be close.
You got that right. Even with me. My bourbon collection is pretty diverse. All I drink is Stagg Jr and Elijah Craig, with a bottle or two of new stuff every now and then. I just can't justify drinking a $70 bottle of Pappy I could sell on the secondary market for over $1,000. I've got a bunch of bottles in my collection I am saving for a rainy day. I'll drink the George T. Staggs I think.
Bourbon hype is driving the market in a strange place. In defense of the distilleries, 15 years ago there was no way to know it would blow up the way it has. Throw in the occassional rickhouse fire and it makes things interesting!
No idea if this is true or not, but a store owner recently told me that it was also being heavily affected by the Japanese demand for our whiskey. According to him, when the bourbon craze here started spilling over to Japanese whiskeys, we started importing a ton of their inventory, driving their price up domestically. So they looked for supply elsewhere, namely here, furthering the spike in demand and price of our own. And much of the ridiculous secondary market pricing is because it can still be be sold for a large profit over there.
Again, I have no clue if that’s accurate, but it was an interesting viewpoint from someone on that side of things that at least made some sense.
In general though, as you both point out, it’s gotten absolutely insane. And hype is so often all that is driving the market. Possibly the most disappointing drink I’ve ever had was a pour of Louis XIII. The only thing that I enjoyed about it was knowing that someone other than me had paid for it. Not a terrible cognac. But in the context of people falling all over themselves to get it, and paying thousands for an empty bottle...it was terrible.