Burner02 wrote:Shaun,
I will be the first to admit that I am far from being a Kentucky bourbon expert but I will share what I was told recently. My two son’s and I did part of the Bourbon Trail during the end of Mar. We did 5 tours and visited 3 other distilleries. All indicated including Buffalo Trace that the bourbon industry has grown approximately 40 percent in the past 8 years. Most of that increase can be blamed on the increase in foreign demand. So realistically, 15 plus years ago they did not have a clue on what the present day demand would be and now they all are playing catch up. I’m not saying that they would not take advantage of a situation to increase their profit but it does seem that in some cases demand has exceeded product availability. I think it was at the Jim Beam distillery we were told that presently in Kentucky there are more total barrels of bourbon being warehoused than there are people and horses combined in the entire state. That my friend is a butt load of bourbon.
I would buy into that theory and it could be the case for some of the bourbons that are aged over 10 years or more. The only problem I see with it is that Elmer T. Lee dies and there becomes a shortage of it all over the place. I believe I read that the rumor is ETL is aged 7 or 8 years, which means that there are 7 or 8 years of barrels aging still that he had a hand in. Coincidence that he passes and it is hard to find and the price goes up or taking advantage of a situation? Sazerac and there is another one out of Buffalo Trace that I can't think of right now that is also htf also from Buffalo Trace. How come I can walk into just about any liquor store in America and find Basil, Bookers, Bakers, Four Roses Small Batch and Barrel Aged. Why aren't any of those distilleries having shortages as well? It just feels like they are pumping up the popularity by making their product harder to get and increasing the price along the way.