Favorite bourbon/ whiskey...

Is ER generally available at a Sam's around Phoenix, or was that a lucky catch? I'm going to be visiting Scottsdale and Chandler next month, and it'd be great to find a bottle. Finding one in North Texas is quite difficult.

 

I honestly have never seen it Sams prior to last night. I was in completely shock they were $24.99 a bottle!

 

I'd pay twice that if I found a bottle around here. Don't tell Buffalo Trace I said that.

 

I hear you haha.

 

I found Eagle Rare 10 year at a little minimart in California at 25% over retail a couple of months ago - bought 3 bottles and gave 1 to a co-worker.

It's actually NOT the greatest bourbon, in my opinion. But worth getting for clout.

 

I can't get EH Taylor either, nor Blanton's, nor any 10 of the other usual suspects for someone's favorite. One Tuesday each month some Buffalo Trace and Weller's Special Reserve bottles land at various liquor stores, but they're usually gone in an hour or two, even at a 1-bottle per customer limit. We're not as sophisticated as other states, and can't buy liquor at a normal store, nor on Sundays. Because for some things Texas is stuck in 1972, driving a bright red Eldorado convertible to work, wearing a plaid leisure suit, and smoking a cigarette while telling everyone else they're doing life wrong. I want to buy a bottle of liquor at the drug store on Sunday like everyone else.

 

Brother, I'm in Utah - you're preaching to the choir.

I travel a lot for work and that's where I pick most things up. We also have some great border liquor stores both in Wyoming and Nevada where you can occasionally find the good stuff. The store in Evanston, Border Beverage, posts all of their good stuff on their Instagram and you can call and pay over the phone before making the 90 minute drive to get it.

The benefit of Utah is that we do get allocated releases like EH Taylor, Blanton, Pappy, Stagg, etc.. Because of our state liqor laws these are ALWAYS sold at retail and we have a pretty good website/app for tracking them. Still requires a little bit of luck anticipating when they will leave the warehouse and land at any particular store, but once you figure it out you can do pretty well if you have the time and drive to fight for a bottle.

I spend a lot of time in the DFW area (Haslet, in particular) and have found some good stuff at the Total Wine there! Nine Banded is a great Texas distillery that I wish I could get locally in Utah!

 

If it were legal for anyone to ship liquor into Texas, I'd try to start a bottle swap. But both parties could get in trouble, and the liquor could be confiscated, so it's not worth trying. I'm pretty jealous that you can get the good bottles at retail. I paid $150 for a bottle of Pappy's 15 a decade ago, but if you ever find it behind glass at a store now, it's anywhere between $1500 and $4000. Same for a couple of bottles of Stagg. I'm stuck with some IMO above-average-but-not-stellar bottles. I'm getting older and drinking less anyway.

 

It's funny how it is in different parts of the country, I can find any of the "lower end " if you will BT products any day of the week, I could even go get a bottle of Pappy today if I wanted but not paying the $1000 + / - for any of them. Stagg was pretty available until the last year or so, now that doesn't last a day on the shelf probably because it still priced low compared to the others. My local store has a bottle of Elmer T Lee on the shelf for 289, which I refuse to pay for but the manager said he would cut me a deal, however he told me he has a few Rock Hill Farms coming in and he thought I would like that better, so I decided to wait another week for RHF. I do wish we could do a little horse trading I would be happy to assist a fellow member in need. Hypothetically speaking of course, my postal guy said to use UPS ground ( no air lines involved) and if asked say it is hand sanitizer as no one will question that.

 

I know of someone who ships bottles regularly and hasn't had a single issue. I hear you can throw in a box of candy or mac and cheese so you hear a rattle instead of a glug glug. The blowup wine bags on Amazon and some stretch wrap usually do the trick.

You should be able to find a bottle of ER in the phoenix area. Ton of great spots.

 

Knock at your door!!!...

"Sir, we have a warrant to search your premises for a bottle of Buffalo Trace you acquired through non-state approved commerce"

"Sir, within this search warrant, we have also included provisions to search for digital evidence that establish the basis and confirm the PC we have obtained for this warrant and for evidence to either confirm or dispel our probable cause"

"Sir, we are going to need all of your electronic devices including laptops, ipads, phone, thumb drives, etc; we'll also need you to unlock and open your safe, your basement and your vehicles"

...You respond, "Who are you guys? Are you local PD, Sheriffs, ATF??"

"No, sir! We are employees of the state who fall under the branch of local government known as the Liquor Control Commission"

"Sir, this is very serious, and we need you're cooperation!"

... Your response...



In all seriousness, I'm pretty sure you'd get into more trouble driving your Tundra 15mph over the speed limit than you would bootlegging liquor!!!

 

You can put a round peg into a square hole, with room for bubble wrap, then it all fit nicely into the bigger space, more bubble wrap, covered with white paper and sealed it all up with duct tape.

 

My Utah story.

My wife and I traveled to Moab several years ago and I considered taking some hootch but decided to take my chances locally. Long story short, there was one liquor store in town. We roll up and it was closed the entire week due to some idiot driving their car through the front door. Absolutely nothing in the grocery stores. I cried.

End of story.

 

That sucks. I've actually had a lot of luck finding allocated spirits at the smaller town liquor stores. Most of the people in those towns are in and out for some Fireball and a plastic bottle of vodka. The state run liquor agency has it's pros and cons. Price controls are nice, and the inability to sell out of a back door to friends and family is cool too. Availability isn't always the best. If you live here you learn to stock up (on everything basically, Mormons are preppers haha)!

 

I live in OK and am very familiar with odd liquor laws. Ours were greatly improved in 2018.

 

I'm usually a Turkey 101 guy but have been buying Longbranch lately. I dig it.

 

So, I'm hearing a bunch of guys saying they want to start a bottle swap...

 

Sheet. If you regularly drink only a small portion of that inventory it reassures me my liver should be OK ☺️

 

Cheers boys

 

Enjoy

 

Sounds to me like you won't be needing that bottle of EC 18

 

I was going to “like” this post… but it’s just too sad. You were robbed, brother!

 

Tonight’s lineup with a few from the crew

 

The last week the stores have been getting some great shipments in. The EC toasted has a great taste to it! All the Weller 12 dropped today and it was an amazing haul! I picked up the 1.75 Eagle Rare at Total wine today. Best part was I got it all at retail! Today was a fun day!

 

Full case of W12 @ retail is a pretty impressive snag

 

I went to several stores to get this. They all had Weller 12 hit the shelves yesterday. A case of Weller 12 has twelve bottles. One store had three cases come in.