Page 2 of 3

Unread postPosted: Fri Oct 22, 2004 12:18 pm
by doubleblank
When you buy a barrel of ETL SB, Mr. Lee has already selected the five barrels to be bottled as ETL...so he has already made the selection....you just get to cherry pick the one you like the best. The ones you don't like get bottled as ETL SB anyway.

Randy

Unread postPosted: Fri Oct 22, 2004 12:58 pm
by bunghole
doubleblank wrote:When you buy a barrel of ETL SB, Mr. Lee has already selected the five barrels to be bottled as ETL...so he has already made the selection....you just get to cherry pick the one you like the best. The ones you don't like get bottled as ETL SB anyway.

Randy



Mmmm......maybe not, Randy. The professional tasters at Buffalo Trace make the barrel selection as meeting the established flavor profile for the bourbon, then Elmer gives his say. It's final - yea or ney. I am unsure as to whether Elmer has already given his blessing to all of the barrels selected.

At any rate I'd want Elmer there. Then when he wasn't looking - I'd sneek in Jimmy Russell for a 'second opinion'! :laughing5:

ima - :smilebox:

Unread postPosted: Fri Oct 22, 2004 3:12 pm
by White Lightning
bunghole wrote:
doubleblank wrote:When you buy a barrel of ETL SB, Mr. Lee has already selected the five barrels to be bottled as ETL...so he has already made the selection....you just get to cherry pick the one you like the best. The ones you don't like get bottled as ETL SB anyway.

Randy



Mmmm......maybe not, Randy. The professional tasters at Buffalo Trace make the barrel selection as meeting the established flavor profile for the bourbon, then Elmer gives his say. . .


Agree with bunghole in that the number is not neccessarily only (5) choices. The obvious thing to factor in is you have a salesman in your region who handles this. Yesterday he or my regional representative could have sold the Cherry pick to me. Which could in turn leave you with Apples and Oranges to pick from today or the remaining tomorrows.

Unread postPosted: Fri Oct 22, 2004 7:15 pm
by doubleblank
Well.....unless they were lying to me, including Mr. Lee, he tastes the barrels set our for those purchasing a barrel of ETL SB and usually for the BT selections too. While he was not there the time we selected a BT barrel, he had been there earlier and selected them.

Yeah...someone might get the cherry ahead of you, but the apples and oranges ain't bad. And those apples and oranges are going to be for sale in your local liquor store which you will be buying untasted anyway.

Randy

Unread postPosted: Fri Oct 22, 2004 7:26 pm
by Brewer
doubleblank wrote: as a group we chose a spicier barrel of BT.

Randy


Interesting that you saw it that way Randy. In fact, I had thought Barrel 3 was more spicy than our #4, which I perceived as being sweeter, creamy and smooth. I guess it just goes to show that individuals perceptions and taste buds are different.

Regarding the previous posts, being involved in tasting the differences between the 5 barrels that were available for us was a wonderful experience. I thouroughly enjoyed the entire event. Maybe Elmer T Lee would have picked a different barrel, but I think as a group, we did pretty damn good. All I can add is that I am looking forward to receiving our goodies soon! :D :drink: :cheers:

Bob

Unread postPosted: Fri Oct 22, 2004 7:55 pm
by tlsmothers
My tasting experience was more along with Randy's, but I think we all had a great time and are really pleased with our barrel. We were divided on #3 or #4, but happy with either. Our dear Bob had the pressure to make the tie-breaker decision. I think Cliff and others felt that the #3 was closer to the Elmer T. Lee bottling and #4 more distinct and different. It is always amazing how tastes are so different, yet we all agreed at least on 2 out of 5 barrels as the standout. I hear that bottling is Monday! :bounce: Somebody please throw me a valium cuz I've had way too much bourbon excitement84Ǡs week. :lol:

Unread postPosted: Fri Oct 22, 2004 8:25 pm
by dgonano
We won't be disappointed with our selection. Bunghole, Bourbonv and Stoopsie will be given a tasting at our next get together. And if they agree that we made an excellent choice, then I can slide a few bottles their way.

Unread postPosted: Fri Oct 22, 2004 9:59 pm
by White Lightning
I didn't mean to imply that Elmer didn't have anything to do with selection or had never tasted the whiskey, that much I can neither substantiate or deny but have heard and have no reason to believe otherwise. What I was wondering is if 5 selections is the actual specified amount.

My recollection of a similar purchase which reviewed several brands from B.T. was not limited to specific sample numbers. If I recall correctly a couple of brands had 4 and 5 selections to choose from, but the ETL was the first brand we tasted and there were 6 samples provided. Further it was my understanding that there were only 4 samples of one brand because the salesman had been pretty busy and sold a barrel to a local establishment a day or two before we tasted - thus taking a fifth sample off the market. Maybe it's most ideal to provide 5 samples but what I meant to imply is it obviously didn't work out that way or to a magical number of 5 in our purchase.

Anyway, if you bought ETL I'm sure you guys did yourself a favpr. The ETL outshone the rest of the brands we tasted. With the other brands, either all the better samples had already been selected prior to our tasting (which was my other point), OR the actual brand blends are much better than the individual barrels (at that particular time based on those particular samples) we were afforded tastes of.

When you guys get yours in - maybe you'll be interested in trading a bottle. Also a point of curiosity - if yours has already been bottled, how many cases did the ETL purchase work out to be? Around 17 cases?

Unread postPosted: Fri Oct 22, 2004 10:41 pm
by doubleblank
Having participated in two barrel selections myself, my belief is five barrel proof samples is the maximim one can tackle at one time before your taste buds go numb. Eat a good breakfast and spit out the samples....even then you'll get numb. I didn't deal with any salesman....I worked with Julian Van Winkle directly and only after picking out my barrel did I inform my local distributor and retailer what I was up to. They were excited to get my bourbon into Texas for me. The BT samples were all good but a group of 9 partners narrowed it to two very quickly. Looking forward to the final results.

Funny thing...many in my group had tasted barrel samples of Blanton's, ETL and BT the year before and selected BT to do a single barrel of..not ETL.

Randy

Unread postPosted: Fri Oct 22, 2004 10:55 pm
by Mark
You're right Randy... I was there in 03' for the barrel proof tasting of ETL, BT and Blanton's. I myself thought the BT was the best along with many others as I recall. Don't get me wrong they were all good but in order of what I an others thought, the BT was the best, then the ETL and a shocker to many was Blantons 3rd. I really think Blantons is enjoyed better at a bit lower proof. I still think it may be better a bit higher like in the gold and silver versions (I have not tried either yet) but at barrel proof it seemed to lose a bit of something.

Unread postPosted: Sat Oct 23, 2004 12:12 am
by White Lightning
LOL - I wish Julian or Elmer would make a trip over here for a barrel tasting. . .

I bet they were excited about putting product in Texas. . . From what I heard their marketing teams were borderline heckled and literally followed by a Tenessee whisky comapny when they introduced products in Dallas. Something to do with resentment about shelving space being altered.

The thing is Buffalo Trace wasn't an option as it is not yet officially in my market. A small amount is allocated to the distributor off and on (I'm told) but it's not an ongoing product as of yet. How ever, I would have loved to have chosen through some BT samples if available.

Blind surveys agree with your assessment, BT beats out Blanton's more often than not in the blind.

Unread postPosted: Sat Oct 23, 2004 9:02 am
by doubleblank
Houston was the first market to get BT in Texas.....its been here quite a while and gets a lot of shelf space. We've had the balance of their portfolio and the full range of Van Winkle for a long time. I knew BT was recently introduced into Dallas but hadn't heard about the competition battling for shelf space....but that happens all the time in retail. Texas is the number one bourbon consuming state (per industry reps), and I guess everyone is protective of their presence.

Mr. Lee was here in Houston about a year ago promoting the BT rollout and his ETL SB, of course. I commented I found his ETL just a little too sweet for me and he laughed....that's the way he likes his bourbon....sweet! He helped assemble the BT flavor profile for a broader audience. He thinks BT will be BIG once production increases.

Randy

Unread postPosted: Sat Oct 23, 2004 9:23 am
by bunghole
Buffalo Trace is my wife's favorite bourbon. No matter what else is open and available if Buffalo Trace is there that's what she reaches for.

If Buffalo Trace were widely available nationwide would it nudge Knob Creek out of first place as the top selling super premium brand?

ima - :smilebox:

Unread postPosted: Sat Oct 23, 2004 1:30 pm
by doubleblank
When I asked what "Big" meant for BT....he answered without hesitation....like that whiskey they make in Tennessee. Those are high aspirations indeed for a new brand. Perhaps when production increases, BT will mount a full scale marketing blitz. They definitely have a quality product in a distinctive package. But overtake Jack.....?

Randy

Unread postPosted: Sat Oct 23, 2004 2:19 pm
by bunghole
doubleblank wrote:When I asked what "Big" meant for BT....he answered without hesitation....like that whiskey they make in Tennessee. Those are high aspirations indeed for a new brand. Perhaps when production increases, BT will mount a full scale marketing blitz. They definitely have a quality product in a distinctive package. But overtake Jack.....?

Randy


Randy please follow this :arrow: To out sell Jack Daniels world wide would also mean outselling Jim Beam and Evan Williams.

Face the facts man! Buffalo Trace can't even bottle enough bourbon to go nationwide :!:

Before they can knock off Jack Daniels & Jim Beam they first have to knock off Knob Creek!

I'm waiting......

OOOPS! Did You hear that?????

LINN SAYS - PANTS AWAY!

:arrow: ima :smilebox: