I read a lot of mixed reviews on the Wheated and the common theme was that it was just a cinnamon bomb without a lot more going on. Just didn’t sound enticing to me.
I know a lot of it is probably the format, but they didn’t seem to gush about it much. Maybe I’m being stupid (happens often), but I’m seeing red flags here. Did you watch the YouTube clip linked to that Reddit review? Awkward as hell.
My advice? Prepare your anus and get ready to pay secondary or go without. You’re not exactly alone in wanting that bottle and I don’t see anyone offering up a magical honey hole where they just sell unicorn bottles willy nilly. My guess is that every bottle heading for Austin already has a name attached to it by whatever shops are lucky enough to get an allocation. Sucks, but that’s just how it works now.
I picked up the Smoke X4 from Thermoworks and it’s awesome. The range on the remote unit is damn good. I was doing a smoke in a cul de sac in the neighborhood and was able to get nearly a half mile away on my golf cart before it lost the connection to the base unit. It’s super easy to use, and I prefer that experience to having to mess around with WiFi and an app. I picked up a few of the 2.5” straight probes that are ideal for briskets during the 15% off site wide sale recently.
I had a similar experience with Bowman single barrel awhile back. Hadn’t touched it in awhile and I tasted a lot more of the barrel than I remembered tasting in the past. Not sure if my palate has changed that much or if the extra oxidation changed the flavor that much. Possibly some combination of the two.
I got one bottle of Rye in May, and passed one up that was bundled with a bottle of champagne two weeks ago. I’ll likely regret passing on that one given this development, but it made sense at the time.
Several. Most believe the Discovery is a blend of Beam or Wild Turkey 10 year, Barton 12 year, and Heaven Hill 14 year. The Prisoner is believed to be from Dickel. I haven’t seen any guesses on the older bourbon in Fusion, but 60% of that bottle has their own juice in it.
I’ve had Discovery, Prisoner, and Fusion all within the same week. I rank them in that order. Fusion has a great nose on it, but the juice itself doesn’t deliver on the promise of the smell. It by no means bad, but it’s thin with a short finish and just not remarkable or complex in any way. Discovery is damn good. It’s a big brawny bourbon that hits all the classic notes. It’s not breaking new ground, but it’s blended very well and hits all of the notes that I love in a bourbon. The Prisoner is something unique given the time it spent in the wine barrel. I’m a big fan of the Prisoner wine, so this one really works for me even though there are some notes there that you typically wouldn’t expect to find.
Amazon + Ring will get you there. I have all Amazon gear, and it works great. Setting up routines is a real nice feature. I can say Alexa good goodnight and all my bedroom lights turn off, TV turns off, and Ring alarm is armed to home mode. That’s all with one utterance. If you add Fire TV, every TV in your house can view any cam you want to see. It’s pretty simple to set up and works well. Alexa isn’t a good as GH when it comes to native search queries, but I don’t find myself needing that nearly as often as I need to control something with my voice.
That may be part of it, but it’s also likely influenced by the role that product scarcity has played in the bourbon boom. I’m sure there are concerns that product being readily available on shelves would decrease the cachet that has driven the craze and increase in demand in the first place. If bro’s out there can’t get a high from scoring a bottle that their buddies can’t, that could have a material impact on purchasing behavior. I know I’ve been guilty in the past of going into a liquor store to see if they had any “whales”, while completely ignoring quality bottles because I knew that I could get them any time.
That’s a pretty slippery slope. The consumer ultimately dictates what something is worth, and you can’t discount the role available inventory plays and determine worth in a vacuum. People have a tendency to hang on to what things used to cost, but the product is improving at an aggregate level, which is increasing the customer base, decreasing supply, and driving up what the commodity is now worth. The tube is out of the toothpaste and we aren’t going back to the old days unless the quality of the product takes a massive downturn or inventory increases by a factor of 10x+. Given the lead time to produce product at the quality level that has stimulated demand, I would not expect supply to catch up any time soon. I’d argue that the legacy distilleries are pricing behind where the category sits on the S-curve and forgoing profit while creating a secondary market for the product. If they would all increase pricing across the board (say 30-35%) it would actually be a net positive in terms of accessibility of the product for the average consumer, as it would serve to discourage the grey market behaviors that have become so prevalent over the last several years.
Picked up Redemption Wheated at Total Wine Lakeline. They had 4-5 more bottles. The spice note was a bit surprising on the first sip, but it’s really grown on me as the juice has been exposed to oxygen more.