So Spec's has announced the New Year's drop for this year. Again, it will be i three locations, Houston, Austin and DFW, for this Thursday at 10am. This year, they have moved the DFW location to north Irving, so near my office. I suspect that DPD decided they had enough of having to monitor several thousand people standing in line for three days to pick up allocated bourbon, thus they moved it to another large store (basically a half size big box store, formally a Best Buy).

I haven't decided if I am going to go yet, but I am not going to camp out for the next three days just to be getting first dibs on the bourbon. There are already two tents set up outside the store. Irving PD also won't put up with ****, so we'll see what happens.

Here is the list and locations.

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I opened a Weller Full Proof pick with much trepidation last night. It’s a Warehouse Liquors single barrel and I had been disappointed by a Stagg Jr. Warehouse pick I opened a couple weeks ago.

My fears were quickly allayed with orange peel and burnt sugar on the nose, sweet heat on the palate, and a long finish. It’s still not in the league with the Binny’s latest WFP pick, but it’s a league above the Warehouse Stagg pick.

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My haircut got delayed an hour yesterday, so I went to Garfield's and they had a Still Austin single barrel pick. I've been intrigued by the brand, but the other store nearby that had a cask strength pick (Binny's) offered it only in a high rye version. I passed for months on that, but when I saw Garfield's had a CS straight bourbon pick, I decided to try a pour at their bar.

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Enjoyed it and told the bartender was going to grab a bottle. He said in that case the pour was on him. Brought it home and had another pour. little different as the bar's bottle had been open a couple weeks, but still really tasty.

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Hmm…I saw a SP of this at Total Wine yesterday and passed on it. Might need to head back.
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I've seen two varieties around here, Bob, High Rye Bourbon & regular Straight bourbon. I have not tried the high rye version.
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Well in a couple weeks I’ll have a DEVR :-)
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So today, the FOMO overtook me and I went to the local Spec's for the mega NYE drop. It was impressive. I got there around 7:30 am and was about 405 in line. At 9am, they required everyone to remove their chair and stand until you got in. Peter sent this pick and pretty much X marks where I started.

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I was finally able to enter the store at 1pm. The guys I met ordered lunch through Uber eats and got me a sandwich. They were quite fun to talk to. As we entered, you grab a cart and follow the maze until you get to the tables that had everything. Almost everything was a store pick. The Hancock wasn't, but the distributor sent the Hancock intended for today to another distribution center. Oops.

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I ended up getting 9 bottles at this time. Paid and left. The EHT and Willet Purple was gone by the time I got in, but my group of guys got the last 5 bottles of Stagg, which i really wanted. I also got the last bottle of Hancock. I ended up getting 9 bottles at this time. Paid and left, came home, showered and napped. Around 630pm, I decided to go back and pick some scraps. The Blantons was all gone, as was the ER, but the OFSBBS was still there and the BT. That was when the district manager yell out to everyone, "TAKE IT ALL! NO LIMITS!" I grabbed more OFSBBS and BT but some others. One guy took 5 cases of BT. Another grabbed a case of OFSBBS.


Here is my final haul, including the Blantons Gold.

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It was a good day and my debit card (5% discount for cash and debit transactions) is melted. :-)
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Nice haul Beagle.
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I've really been enjoying this Ragged Branch store pick. I'm usually not much of a fan of "Double Oaked" whiskies, as the oak usually seems overpowering. This one's definitely oak forward, but it quickly fades. It's quite tasty.

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This is insane, really wish Michigan didn't suck ass for bourbon. I have never seen a Stagg, Blantons Gold, or Hancocks Reserve on a shelf here.




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Local store here had an end cap full of Blantons Gold early New Years Eve day. Picked up a bottle. Had to go back about 3 hours later, no more Blantons !
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Nice score Scott!
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Wow!!!! That is a lot of hard to find bourbon!




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New Years Eve was a day of great whiskey, starting with some sample kills at Peter's including some (allegedly 16yr) Blanton's from 1991 to a super rye blind flight in the afternoon where Booker's Rye took down POAC, PHC 10yr and 2022 THH in that order. Finished with a purple top OG mash vertical 6,8,9,10yrs. Took yesterday off :-)
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A few months back a local friend was splitting a bottle up, another friend said he'd buy me one ounce if I'd get one for him, he ended with a cohiba in the box with his sample and everybody ended up happy. I was just waiting until the right time to get into the sample
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Out running errands, stopped by my local store. The owner was in and got a chance to talk with him. Took down my name/number to add to his raffle list. It’s his list of regular bourbon buyers that he blind raffles off bottles of his high end stuff. If my name is picked, I can grab a bag. Fingers crossed.

Oh yea, they still had a couple older Bookers in the back. Grabbed this.
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love finding old Booker's batches "in the wild", Bob.

Hope you score something cool in the raffle. :-)
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