We'll try to find a spare sunbeam.
The Bourbon Problem
My Dad was a bourbon drinker, which makes sense, because he was a farmer and a child of the Depression, and bourbon whiskey was the all-American Everyman’s drink. Bourbon is American by (legal) definition, and historically, it was readily available and well-priced, too.
That being said, there was a time in the not-too-distant past when bourbon was seen as hopelessly old-fashioned and un-hip. When hipsters were drinking Cosmos and vodka ‘martinis’, bourbon was the drink of grandpas. Until suddenly it wasn’t. Millennial hipsters ‘discovered’ bourbon and-spoiler alert-they drank it all. Problem.
Age is necessary for great bourbon; great aged bourbon consists of great raw materials, great skill, and time. Consequently, a bourbon shortage caused by suddenly increasing demand cannot be solved quickly. When stocks of great aged bourbons ran low, some distilleries lowered their age statements. Others rationed supply. Some manipulated the market, selling off in bulk to duty free shops while claiming a ‘shortage’ in the US. Everyone raised, and raised (and raised!) their prices. They could-customers were buying bourbon no matter the price. They still are.
Meanwhile, retailers are trying to keep quality bottles on the shelf. For the last several years, it has been nearly impossible to simply order the top brands. Everything is allocated down to the bottle, and frequently those allocations are based on sales of other items which are distributor priorities but may or may not be yours. Enter: craft distillers.
In the early years of the craft distilling movement, the deck was stacked against craft bourbons. By definition, a two year old distillery is not going to have great aged whiskeys. But that was then. Now is a different story, and there are a LOT of great bourbons on the market. We stock quite a few: Stroudwater (above), Hillrock, Mad River, Penelope, Old Elk, Buzzard’s Roost, Woody Creek. We keep samples of all of the above; taste the quality for yourself.
Problem: solved.