Here’s a little context. I love Bourbon and Rye. Like many people here, I was interested in these whiskeys when one could buy Pappy, most of the Buffalo Trace Antique Collection and several other bottlings that are now quite sought after without going to a whole lot of trouble (right off the shelf for most of them). For the past few years, I’ve been mostly drinking bottles that are realistically attainable, while occasionally sampling those now $$$$ bottles thanks to a couple of very generous friends. In some cases, with careful and informed selection, I think the quality difference is small. In some cases, I would go so far as to say there is no difference in quality.
Obviously context and personal preference are important here. The reason I’m posting about this now is that I am drinking a glass of A midwinter Nights Dram from High West Distillery. This is far from a prestigious producer, and I don’t even know if they distilled what’s in here, but it’s a damned good Rye Whiskey that is not crazy expensive and is not impossible to find (soon after release, anyway). I’ve had several releases at this point, and while some may be better than others, they’re all really delicious. Great fruit, well integrated alcohol, beautiful spice notes from what seems to be very high quality oak, and a bit of vanilla/caramel rounding things out. I will only ever regret not buying more of this if it becomes one of the next “things”. I once tried to sell a bottle to a good customer who buys a lot of serious domestic whiskeys, and he turned me down because he had never heard of it. That’s just sad. He’ll go home and drink Elijah Craig 18 (I know, not rye) and Thomas Handy (really nice drink, but far from truly great in the context of domestic whiskey, let alone whisky in general, in my opinion), but those wells have run nearly dry, even for him.
I’m mostly back on Scotch at this point, because the value is now better in my opinion. Years ago, value is the reason I was so interested in the domestics.
The market is so silly at this point. One would think, based on secondary market pricing, that there are no good alternatives to the blue chips, but that just isn’t true. I’ll enjoy this bottle while I have it, then get back to some really nice Scocth and Irish whiskies and love every glass, without caring about my status at some retailer or 4 digit price tags.
I know I’m rambling, but I think this is all worth saying. Every time I see a bottle of something like Pappy 15 sell for 4 digits, I’m a little sad. At least there are a bunch of really nice alternatives that I can still get and afford. And if it all goes to hell with whisk(e)y as a whole, here’s to Cognac and Calvados!