Binny's is a chain in the Chicagoland area, Mark, you won't likely see it there. And it was this specific barrel, "Batch #3", that was so much better than any other 1792FP I've tried.
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Gotcha!
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Grabbed a bottle of Stagg Jr at my navy package store for $47. Holly cow this is a great bourbon :-)
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Hell of a find! Those are getting harder and harder to find these days, and I refuse to pay the $250-$300+ others want for them but I sure do love em :-)
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I grabbed a bottle of George Dickel Hand Selected Barrel to try. I've heard good things about it, at least for the higher proof offerings. The consensus (at least among the whiskey YT'ers I follow) seems to be that the ones below 100 proof aren't very interesting. This one's aged 9 years and at 103 proof, so we'll see...
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Hope it's good, James! :-)

Opened my last Maker's Mark FAE-02 last night...and promptly secured another this morning. :-)

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And today I lucked into 2 bottles of the new MM Finished Series that has been hard to find in Illinois...along with a couple other bottles I don't see in the store often.

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Starting to build my collection. Hit up a local store and grabbed one of their Ezra Brooks Cask Strength store pick. It was between that or a George Remus store pick. Liked em both but the EB won out.

Tried a couple other stores but nothing interested me. Was on the way home and decided to stop at a smaller store I never knew was there. Only found it on google maps. Good selection. On a whim, asked if they had Blantons. Yup. As he was grabbing that from his secret stash, I asked if he had Eagle Rare. Yup. Paid a bit over msrp, but figured they’ll last me a while. And you can’t find them around here.
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Nice pickups on the Blanton's and Eagle Rare, Bob. I used to luck into a Blanton's at MSRP a couple times a year, but i dont remember getting one for at least a year now.

This was my weekend pickup, I'm super stoked to try it after hearing lots of good things.

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Let Us Know Your Tasting Notes, Tom!:-):-)
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Absolutely Greg, I'm planning on cracking this bad boy tomorrow night. :-)
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Good stuff all around, I just grabbed a Remus pick a couple weeks ago and really like it. Nice find on the secret stash, last time somebody let me in the back office to see what they had hidden I left empty handed, and also haven't been back :-)

Where is mine?

My brother is having a bourbon and cigar bar at his wedding, asked me to help stock the bourbon. We ended up with 3 handles of Weller Special Reserve, five 750's of Buffalo Trace store picks and a bottle of Blanton's Gold. Should be a good time :-):-)
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I had to trade way above MSRP to get this one, it immediately hit $280-300 on secondary here. It's almost like I hope I don't like it too much.... :-) :-)

Nice! :-)
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I have liked the EB Cask Strength barrels I have tried, and the price is still reasonable on those and the Rebel CS picks. :-)

I have a Remus pick from one of the local groups but still haven't opened it. I'll have to rectify that soon.
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Got word that our local group is getting access to a WFP pick, only catch is you have to buy a EB or Rebel pick to go with it. I always tend to go Rebel, I might switch things up this time, but neither are bottles I'm going to be mad I had to buy
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Ok, what’s the word on the MM special releases? Granted it was probably 15 years ago when I did the tour at the distillery, but they said back then they weren’t going to do special releases, single barrels, etc. That was back when those were just starting. Guess money wins out.
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That was always their thing... until everybody else started doing them. A few years ago they started doing 1-2 annual special releases, sometimes because the bourbon was aged differently/from a specific part of the warehouse and sometimes just because the batch tasted a little different. This years I think is just a stave finish, which is what they do for their single barrel program

Essentially, for the single barrels they still say that all makers tastes the same as all other makers because rotation, etc. but they let stores and groups "finish" a barrel with 10 different staves, I think there are 6 or 7 options, and you choose the recipe you want (ex/ 2x mocha staves, 4x toasted french and 4x cuvee). Makers then finished the barrel in your combo for a bit and sends you the barrel worth. It was their compromise since they don't think any barrel tastes unique enough to be different from a regular batch of Makers
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Thanks for the explanation. I’ll keep an eye out for them.
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I'd gladly buy an Ezra or Rebel pick to get a WFP at a regular price, Ben. All I get here is ones offered on secondary for stupid money. :-)

Bob, Ben gave you the skinny on the MMs, better than I could have. I will say that the 2021 FAE-02 is my favorite Maker's of all time.
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Did a little more hunting this afternoon. Went to a new to me store and got a bottle of MM cask strength. They didn’t have the special releases. Went back to the store I got my Blantons from last week and snagged a Weller 107. (Drinking some right now. Really enjoying it). Went to a third store, this one with a large selection. They had just gotten a big shipment of allocated stuff in. Baby Blantons and Eagle Rare, Weller 107 and SR, plus a lot more. Crazy prices though. $130 for the Weller. Umm, no. Left there after trying a couple of their store picks. The MM SRT, not good. Their Old Forester was super tasty, but at $130 a bottle wasn’t gonna happen.
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