We had the master blender of Buffalo Trace in London a couple of weeks ago and I had a steak dinner and bourbon/ rye tasting with him. The company really does some pretty amazing drinks - from the Sazerac range through the surprisingly tasty Buffalo Trace through to some pretty obscure limited production drinks like Eagle Rare 17, Larue Weller and George T Staff.

What a great experience! At least in the usa, eagle rare 17 george t stagg and William larue weller are no longer obscure. Just 5 years ago the eagle rare 17 used to sit on the shelves and not get bought. Not this year. My liquor stores allotment never even reached the shelves. Their list for those bottles has greatly exceeded their allocation.

Fdw

yup - same with pappy. I was lucky to find a bottle of Stagg in Timonium.

By find I mean getting added to the waiting list the day before they received their shipment. No bottles were put on the shelves.

Fairgrounds? They usually have excellent barrel picks. I didn't realize you were local.

Buffalo trace antiques and pappy almost never hit the shelves anymore it seems..,,

Fdw

Yeah, at Fairgrounds. I don't think any stores in the area are putting BTAC or Pappy on their shelves. I had Amex concierge call around and put me on a bunch of waiting lists, but no luck yet (Pappy is rolling out in MD). Keeping a close eye on PA after they released BTAC via a twitter link.

Is this shortage still from the crop failure a while back, or are good ryes just so much in fashion? In Europe there's not much of a consumer demand for the higher end stuff, and there's literally a handful of stores which occasionally bring a bottle in but otherwise you're most likely to see it at an upmarket bar where they've been given a bottle or have brought it back from the US themselves.

The fairgrounds guys are good guys. I buy about 25% of my bourbon there... Pappy has rolled out here in MD. It's come and gone. I've been out of town so I for the most part missed it. Thankfully I've been buying booze from the same store since 1997 so they've saved me a 23 yo old.



Fdw

In the USA demand has skyrocketed and the supply that's been put in barrels way outstrips that demand. I mean the bourbon boom probably started here about 2010-2021... So back around the turn of the century their forecast wasn't so rosy. The way aged stuff is pretty much so rare. 23 years ago they didn't anticipate that Pappy would be so huge.

Fdw

My ability for picking winners in food and drinks seems to extend to whisky too. Having just talked about the tasting above, Sazerac 18 and Larue Weller have been awarded #2 and #3 whiskey in the world in the whisky bible:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddr...the-world.html

#1 went to the Sherry Cask version of the Yamazaki. I've not tried it, but the "house" whisky sitting on my shelf is the Yamazaki 12 which is lovely (18 and 30 are even better, but out of my budget for "drinking" spirits in the bar).

Found one of my new favorites this week, as one of our local finer restaurants just released their own Kansas City style bourbon. It's blended with a little bit of Sherry and balances the sweetness nicely. Yum.

Chris

While in Lexington recently I tried Pappy for the first time. I was skeptical that it could live up to the hype but it was hands down the best bourbon I've ever tasted.

I was back in London this weekend and it indeed has become the mecca of Bourbon. Check out these bar photos from the Rosewood hotel....

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/membe...hiskey-bar.jpg

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/membe...-some-more.jpg

How is it that this thread doesn't have a wiki? Of all the threads on FT, this deserves a wiki more than any other. Pictures, spreadsheets of results, pros and cons...

@:-)

Sounds like you just volunteered to create one. Thanks!

There's a pro for staying at the Rosewood.. what are they charging for a pour of PVW23? The bottle of Blanton's straight from the barrel is worth trying; isn't sold in the USA. Though if you're based overseas it's pretty easy to get...

FDW