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It’s all Bourbon Campgrounds, Lotteries and Pricing Dictated by the Secondary Market Now

If you sign up to any bourbon group through whatever social media means you will inevitably see posts of someone touting their latest score, unfortunately often a photo of the purchase in their car between their legs. These photos and posts are all to show what prized bottle they were able to find and buy that day. And while I came to these groups recently, I have found that what constitutes a score has changed dramatically over the past few years. Everyone has their opinion on bourbons like Blanton’s and entry-level Weller, but there’s no mistaking that those allocated bourbons are now considered scores.

I live in an area where the county government is the wholesaler of all alcohol as well as the owner of all stores that sell hard liquor. The advantages of such a system are that everything is at retail price, so extremely rare bourbons don’t sit on high shelves or behind counters collecting dust on their high three or four figure price tags. Instead, the county usually has lotteries for the rarest of the rare and recently went to a monthly distribution of, let’s call it second tier allocated items – think Blanton’s, EH Taylor, 1792 Full Proof, Maker’s Wood Finishing, etc. While you can still find the third tier of allocated bourbons in the stores from time to time – here I mean Eagle Rare and Buffalo Trace – you’re limited to one bottle a day and a constant monitoring of their online inventory to see when even these bottles are in stock. (As an aside, I’m not sure how going to these monthly distributions is beneficial to the county – I used to go to my local store on a regular basis to see what they might have in stock. Even if they didn’t have any of the allocated bourbons, I often picked up a different bottle or grabbed some beer or wine. Now knowing they won’t have anything, I haven’t stopped by much at all since this new system started in December, and I usually end up getting beer and wine elsewhere.)

Apart from the third tier and the lottery items, the county tells you exactly when, where and how many of each bottle will be released in each store the second Saturday of each month. Sounds good in theory, right? I’d like some EH Taylor, so I’ll head to a store when it’s scheduled to be released, pay retail and leave happy. Unfortunately, though, to do that, I may need to go to that store the night before and set up camp, as even these offerings have resulted in people lining up the day before to purchase. Some (I stress some) could argue that a few offered in these monthly releases may be worth 18 hours in line – an 8-yr Willett Family Estate and an Old Carter (but both of those also came with price tags near $300) or EH Taylor Barrel Proof. Otherwise, here is the rest of the list from this month – Blanton’s, Larceny Full Proof, McKenna 10 yr., EH Taylor Small Batch, Weller Antique 107, and Buffalo Trace Bourbon Cream. And last weekend, at 6pm the night before the release at 10am the next morning, I drove by a store and saw six people already set up with chairs to camp out overnight. And while camping out for bourbon is not new, up until recently I thought it was for those extremely rare releases, but it is now pretty much for all of the Buffalo Trace lineup as well as limited but regular releases from other distilleries.

The bourbon hunt has officially been replaced by the bourbon campground.

There was a time not long ago, maybe two and half years, when I remember going into my local store after work and buying a bottle of Stagg Jr. Seems amazing today that a bottle like that was not only on the shelf, but also was still there after 6pm. Around the same time, I was able to buy EH Taylor Small Batch on a regular basis. Those times are long gone. There also was a time not long ago when I would find interesting and rare bottles at affordable prices at random stores when I traveled – the true definition of hunting. But those days are also long gone – if a store happens to have bottles of rare bourbon, there is little to no chance they have reasonable price tags attached to them. What is reasonable you might ask? With my county as the basis, I start with MSRP but knowing that’s laughable in all but government-controlled stores, I’m fine with prices being somewhat above retail but not where it becomes offensive gouging.

Which brings me to another factor in the demise of bourbon hunting (and I won’t take the straightforward way out of blaming the messenger – the Internet) and the root cause of bourbon campgrounds – the secondary market and its influence on private store pricing. Evidently there are people who will pay 500%, 1000%, 2000%, etc. markups on rare bourbon. So, if a bottle is going for that much everywhere, private stores naturally will mark up to what they think someone will pay, likely also under the belief that if someone is going to pay thousands of dollars for bourbon, they would prefer to do at a store where it’s less risky (hopefully) than through the Internet (counterfeits are beyond the scope of this article).

And don’t ask me why or who these people are who pay these prices, as most everyone I know doesn’t do that – maybe some have splurged by overpaying $100 on a bottle, but I haven’t found anyone who thought it wise to spend $4,000 on PVW 20 year. I can see some retail owners thinking that someone will come in and spend on a unicorn for a big occasion – they closed a deal, retired, won a case, etc. – and I’m sure that there’s some wiggle room on the final number, but I really don’t think that translates down the line to being able to command ridiculous prices on almost all allocated bourbons.

But it appears that I’m wrong as that unfortunately is where we find ourselves today – higher and higher prices for more and more types of bourbon. And if you don’t want to pay these prices, then you’re left with camping or hoping your number is picked in a lottery. There are no longer stores in random areas with dusty bottles or owners who price things differently. Sure, you can go to different areas of the country where some brands and bottles or more-readily available, but that isn’t bourbon hunting as much as its just taking advantage of location. I guess you can mark it up to capitalism and pricing to what the market will bear, but it unfortunately has taken some of the fun and excitement out of this hobby. If everyone everywhere prices a bottle of Old Forester Birthday Bourbon at $1,000 then why spend fruitless time looking to see if you can find it a better price when you cannot? Stores today have bottles that are regularly available and if not government controlled, most also have what has been properly referred to as a museum display of ridiculously expensive rare bottles.

While I have never camped out for bourbons and can’t see myself ever doing so, last weekend I even decided against waiting in line, even though I could have “scored” an Antique 107 if I showed up two or three hours before opening. There’s just isn’t any fun or excitement in having to wait in line several hours for bourbons that are good but not exceptional. Not to mention there are just too many other good and better bottles that are readily available – ones where, at least for now, you don’t have to wait in line to see if you might be lucky enough to buy one. I also will continue to refuse to pay secondary or high retail prices and would love it if the bottom falls out of that market, although that is something that unfortunately has shown no signs of happening. That therefore means that I’m resigned to not even getting second tier allocated bottles while holding on to the more and more unlikely hope that my number will get pulled in the county lotteries for the top tier bottles. Maybe I’m coming full circle and will just have to rely on the Woodford’s and Maker’s that got me into bourbon in the first place.

I hope bourbon hunting will be back but until then, good luck to those camping out who are buying to drink and enjoy and not flip. To the others, well, thanks for ruining the hunt.