Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Spring Picking 2015

Two weeks from today I'll be headed down to Kentucky for the annual barrel pick festivities.  I recognize that I neglected to write much about last years picks and hope to remedy that this year.

We moved the arrival date a number of weeks to May in order to take advantage of better weather.  In previous years we attended during the Spring sampler held in and around Bardstown and in April the weather can still be somewhat wet and cold.

Last year we picked multiple barrels from each distillery we visited.  Jim Beam was a first for us and they really treated us well along with rolling out some very good barrels.  So much so that we ended up purchasing three of them.  I liked all three very much but one was a real stand out and I couldn't put the bottle down.  This year we'll visit Jim Beam again and have high hopes of finding great barrels once again.

Buffalo Trace has been a real great experience for us over the last couple of years as we've pulled some really great barrels of Old Weller Antique plus they are a great value to boot.  Beau, their barrel program manager, is a great host and we always enjoy spending time with him plus he pulls great barrels for us to taste through. 

Four Roses was one of the first distilleries we visited back about 5 years ago.  Jim Rutledge is  more than a host but a good friend of the group.  We always have a fantastic time with Jim and have purchased some top notch barrels from Four Roses.  Last year Jim rolled out ten barrels and the quality was so good, we had a hard time picking our top three, in fact, we ended up picking six of the ten barrels.

I'm very much looking forward to this years trip.  Better weather, great bourbon and good friends should make this years trip a great experience.

6 comments:

  1. Greg, I can't wait to hear more about the trip. Happy hunting.

    Gabe

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    1. Thanks Gabe - Between full time work and full time school....I'm ready for a reprieve.

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  2. Do you work for a large liquor store? I mean, I have tried to talk the wife into buying a barrel, but she balked...I cannot imagine 12....

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  3. I do not work for a liquor store. In my post I listed 12 but the reality is, we picked 26 barrels in 2014 overall. All the picks go into memberships respective bunkers. Not sure I would buy a whole barrel just for myself as that can be quite a lot of bottles of a single selection.

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    1. How do you join one of these memberships? I've recently discovered the Weller line and would love a chance to get some antique single barrel. Thanks!

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    2. Joseph - our group started by a couple of us locally and it grew from there. The group I'm part of is a private group with closed membership.

      Anyone can obviously start a group like this; all it takes is a couple like minded enthusiasts to kick things off. Distilleries have barrel programs that anyone can participate in but it does take commitment because the barrel will run into the thousands of dollars to acquire. There are large online forums dedicated to whiskey, etc. such as Straightbourbon.com or Bourbonenthusiast.com. If you have not visited those, that's a good place to start as there may be folks local to you that also visit those sites. I'm happy to share some of the logistics with you if you get that far. Cheers.

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