re: Is Old Charter the best "cheap" bourbon?

I didn't stock up with the last 6 bottles I could find until I found that all of the grocery stores were out of it. My liquor store told me they weren't getting anymore in for a long time, so I bought all of their bottles.

No way. It's Madison Parish. Then Richland and Ouchita. Or was anyway.

Nothing else is even sold in Evangeline. They think Old Charter is a form of distilled spirit.

You are the man to do it!

Now you are like one of those beer mavens... going crazy over OC8 because it is rare.

Wow, that was fast!

quote:

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AlxTgr,

Thank you for your email. No truth to that rumor at all.

Despite the increase in distillation over the past few years, demand for bourbon is outpacing supply. Bourbon must be matured in new oak barrels and Buffalo Trace ages many of its barrels for eight to ten years, and some even as long as 23 years. That’s a long time to wait for a bottle of bourbon. This is the price paid for well-aged whiskey, but not good news for a world thirsty for every drop of bourbon coming out of this 228-year-old Distillery.

We are making more bourbon every day. Our warehouses are filling up with new barrels. Waiting for the bourbon to come of age is the hard part. While we wait, there could be temporary product shortages, even on favorites like Old Charter 8 Year. What this means is that there simply may be times when some of our brands are missing from store shelves.

Any bourbon shortages from Buffalo Trace will be temporary, as new barrels are coming of age and are being bottled daily at the Distillery, and will soon find their way to the liquor store shelves and bars. We just ask our fans to remember, aging good bourbon takes time, and we’re doing our best to keep up.

Cheers,

Alan Tenniswood
Consumer Affairs Associate
113 Great Buffalo Trace
Frankfort, KY 40601

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Yeah, I dunno. Here was something else he sent me,

There’s good news and there’s bad news coming from Buffalo Trace Distillery in its third annual bourbon inventory update. The good news is that supplies of fully-aged whiskey at the 225-plus-year-old Distillery continue to increase and Buffalo Trace is making more whiskey than ever. The bad news is that demand continues to outstrip its available supply, which means all of the Distillery’s whiskey brands remain on allocation.
“This annual update relates to Buffalo Trace Distillery specifically, and is not intended to speak for the bourbon industry as a whole, or other distillers,” said Kris Comstock, bourbon marketing director. “Not a day goes by that we don’t hear from fans asking why they can’t find their favorite whiskey at the local liquor store, so we are offering an annual update to inform people where we stand, and ensure fans we are distilling more whiskey and planning for the future.”
Since demand continues to outstrip supply, brands such as Elmer T. Lee, Rock Hill Farms, Van Winkle, and the Antique Collection (George T. Stagg, William Larue Weller, Sazerac 18, Thomas H. Handy, and Eagle Rare 17) will continue to be on strict allocation and hard to find for the foreseeable future.
Buffalo Trace, Eagle Rare, Blanton’s, Weller, Sazerac Rye, Stagg Jr., and E. H. Taylor, Jr. will continue to be in short supply, but will benefit slightly from increased production more than a decade ago. “Although we can’t guarantee that every fan will find Buffalo Trace or Blanton’s every time they visit the liquor store, things are starting to look up, and overall our inventory is in a better place than it was a year ago. We are very appreciative that fans like our whiskey and thankful for all of their continued patience,” added Comstock.
A few things that Buffalo Trace Distillery will NOT do:
• Buffalo Trace Distillery won’t lower their quality standards or alcohol by volume (ABV) just to sell more whiskey.
• The suggested retail pricing will not be raised, just to take advantage of the high demand. (Note, although some stores may charge a premium for Buffalo Trace’s limited brands, the Distillery is not asking them to do so.)
• Brands won’t be discontinued. All bourbon brands will continue to be produced and allocated each year, with a focus on quality and making more.
In addition to the previous improvements announced in 2014 such as distilling more whiskey, adding more bottling lines, and hiring more people, Buffalo Trace is taking additional steps to prepare for a growing future. The Distillery recently purchased an additional 300 acres of farmland adjacent to its current land where it intends to grow its own grains for a farm-to-table bourbon, plus potentially build more barrel warehouses. Additionally, former barrel warehouse buildings repurchased a few years ago on the main campus of Buffalo Trace are being re-ricked and used again as barrel storage warehouses, and plans are in the works to re-rick additional buildings on site in the next few years.
The innovation Buffalo Trace is so well known for is being enhanced as the Distillery expands – its experimental warehouse, Warehouse X, has had nearly one year of barrels aging in it, yielding data with very interesting results; more than 3,000 barrels of experimental whiskies are currently aging on the Distillery’s grounds; and research on DNA fingerprinting is taking place as well.
The whiskies from Buffalo Trace are benefiting from resurgence in the category as a whole. According to Nielsen, bourbon and whiskey grew at 6% for the 52 weeks ending 3/28/15, with premium volumes up 6.2% and ultra volumes up 19%.

I've been buying AA. Since I'm a mixer, I could see just staying with it. I like it better than Benchmark.

Follow up.

Me: Thanks Alan. Much of Louisiana will now breathe a sigh of relief!

Alan: Glad to hear it. I think I’ve heard from most of them in the past few weeks.

Alan