Bourbon Geeks - I Need Your Help (NY, NJ, MA, ME, RI)

I don't know about bourbon in particular but this place has everything.

totalwine.com:

Pffft. Kentucky is more famous world wide for bourbon than it is for horse racing.

If you can find some Blade & Bow, you'll be pleased; not too expensive, but still good. Also Rabbit Hole, but I don't think that's quite as good as B&B.

Aw, you gotta go to middle Tennessee for the best bourbon. Jack Daniel's. If you want moonshine, go the hills in eastern Tennessee. The people there don't have teeth though.

@Warrior15: "best bourbon. Jack Daniel's"

Good lord! If that's what tastes best to you, go for it, but as far as I'm concerned, that shit's barely good enough to be called panther piss.

Had some hooch from WV not too long ago. Good stuff, but man I felt it!

If it were me I’d just order a bottle of Redbreast at total wine and use the rest of your time hitting strip clubs, like Bourbon Street.

GMD, I started to get a little offended by your comments. Then I realized you are from that inbred blue-grass state. I'll forgive you this time. :-)

Those deals at Total wine are crazy good.

@Warrior15: "Then I realized you are from that inbred blue-grass state."

But I'm not from here. 😏

In Rhode Island, if you're looking to buy bottles, then look at Vickers in Newport. It's been a while since I've visited, but I keep hearing good things.

vickersliquors.com

If you're looking for bourbon/whiskey bars, there's this place also in Newport:

wharfsouthernkitchen.com

In Providence:

instagram.com

And I've heard good things about The East End (also Providence):

theeastendpvd.com

Most of the labels you’re looking for are Buffalo Trace products and not likely to be on an open shelf, but you know that. The last couple of years that stuff has been hard to get if you don’t have a good relationship with the store. One place I haven’t been but you might want to check out is Julio’s. juliosliquors.com They do a shit ton of barrel picks. A lot of their stuff is held for returning customers who collect ‘hold cards’ but they might hook you up. They are on Facebook as the Loch and Key Whisk(e)y Society. Another bonus is that Massachusetts doesn’t charge tax on liquor so buy as much as you can while you’re there. Happy hunting

Oh you guys crack me up, obviously you’re missing the point. I collect bourbon, I am a serious collector. Before COVID I would go to a local store once a month and get a bottle of Weller 107 and Blantons. Every few months they would get EHT Single Barrel (SiB). Now, the store gets 6 bottles of EHT SiB ONCE A YEAR. I used to go to Ohio and get all the Weller 107 I wanted, now it’s hard to find.

Some higher end bottles I’ve gotten in the last 2 years:

EHT Warehouse C

EHT 18 Year Marriage

ETL 100 Year

Old Fitz 14

Smoke Wagon 12 Year Private Barrel

Smoke Wagon Desert Jewel

I’m not looking for Jack Daniels. A lot of bottles are available in the areas I mentioned that have never even been sold in the 4 states around me. Also Kentucky blows for bourbon hunting because so many people head there for it. It’s also good to buy liquor in a regulated state (like Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maine for example) where stores cannot jack up the price to whatever they want (unlike DC, Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky and New York).

I’m not expecting to walk into a store and see a Thomas Handy sitting on the shelf for $120, but I would hope I can find some Blanton, EHT Small Batch, maybe some of the new Elijah Craig private barrels and Smoke Wagon uncut the younger.

Thanks Jimmy, I’m in several bourbon groups and this guy was in RI the other day and said he hit multiple stores where lots of Buffalo Trace products were sitting on shelves (Blanton, EHT Small Batch) another guy mentioned it’s the same in parts of Maine as well.

@shailynn: "Also Kentucky blows for bourbon hunting because so many people head there for it"

That's bloody true.

Shailyn if you lived in a major metropolitan area then you could have fun waiting for the local grocery stores to clear out their old inventory which they can’t sell. There’s a website/local forum that announces when grocery stores have higher price stuff like old single barrel scotch, whiskey, or bourbon on sale. They’ll have a couple bottles on clearance because few people have the notion to pay too much at their local store where they’re probably only looking for staples like food. I’m not a big fan, but my friends who love bourbon/scotch/whiskey say this has become a great hobby and they say they find excellent brands on the cheap, and the variety is high enough to pique anyones curiosity. If you find a bottle you didn’t like it’s no big deal because they usually find 3 or 4 good bottles for every one that’s not worth the $$. Generally they pay 10-25% of the retail price, and it’s fun for them. I do that same concept with pussy at my local strip clubs, because I’m more of a fan of them than bourbon. Seriously what Phx guys tell me what they pay for play, I’m at about half what they’re quoting me, and this is also just a hobby.

Btw, if you come through Maryland and time it right, one of our counties is liquor controlled. They sell at retail price. They release the allocated liquor on the second Saturday of the month and they have an online inventory so you know which ABC store has what. I went last week maybe 20 mins before the store opened and was about 35th in line. I missed out on Blanton’s and EHT SmB. Next to go was the Larceny BP, which is what I wanted. I did get two different barrel select SiB bottles of ECBP.