The blame now rests solely on Buffalo Trace.
Perhaps a better title for this piece.
Buffalo Trace has been given an awful lot of grace by the whiskey public, who up until now, have avoided blaming them for the scarcity of their products. NO MORE. Buffalo Trace has likely spent gobs of money getting favorable stories into the press and social media universe about how they’ve doubled production and capacity blah blah blah. The whiskey community has spent hours ranting at the distributors and the three tier system, anachronistic laws, and the gouging by the liquor stores. Somehow BT avoids the ugly underside of these puff stories that place the blame everywhere but where it belongs.
The fact is, Buffalo Trace is actively fucking their fans over.
Remember when they crowdsourced us all into crafting the perfect bourbon? Yeah, the white label, the one that people stupidly pay $500 for. That took supply away from their other Weller products. Remember when we couldn’t find the red label anymore, and the black label started selling in stores for $300+? Remember when they couldn’t get the standard green label on the shelf, and when the heat was coming, they put out a blue label? Remember when the blue label couldn’t be had for less than $300? Instead of upping the production they came out with orange labels that blogs like breaking bourbon puffed up, making apologies for even more scarcity.
Buffalo Trace is fucking me, and they’re fucking you.
Buffalo Trace, who cannot for the life of them, keep a Weller 12 on the shelf ANYWHERE since 2017, is about to flood the zone with Single Barrels of Weller 12, creating MORE scarcity and taking more goddarned money out of your wallet, and having less on the shelves than they do now. This will only mean INCREASES in what you must pay, as there are still no restrictions on what stores can charge.
Think this is just about Weller? Think again.
Let me introduce you to EH FUCKING TAYLOR. Used to be they had small batch, single barrel bourbon and rye, and a unique annual release. These things started getting hard to find in 2018, and impossible since the pandemic. I cannot tell you the last time I saw any of them on a shelf, anywhere, no matter the price. Instead of using the increased production that they’d embarked upon years ago to meet demand, they created another stupid allocated Barrel Proof that reduced their ability to get the standards on the damn shelves.
Think this is just about EH Taylor? Think again.
BT has two mash bills. They can’t keep Elmer T Lee, or Rock Hill Farms, or Eagle FUCKING Rare on the shelves. These are amongst their most popular products. A lot of people had to downgrade to EH Taylor when the aforementioned fan favorites went allocated, and we all buried that brand because of it.
Buffalo Trace no longer gets a pass from me. Buffalo Trace no longer gets to hide behind their popularity. Buffalo Trace no longer gets to hide from the accountability of screwing their fans over. It’s deliberate, by design, and has been marketed masterfully. Every new thing they do gets hyped beyond reason (Traveller? Crap whiskey, slightly better than Kessler, pimped out by a singer that doesn’t drink). Buffalo Trace has the whiskey to make our favorites, they simply choose not to because stocking their old labels doesn’t feed the perpetual hype machine like expanding a brands portfolio.
BT used to be one of my favorite distilleries, and they do make great whiskey, but their choices in favor of marketing over their long time loyal fans is the nail in the coffin for me. Rock Hill Farms used to be my favorite thing out of that distillery, and I’ve only got one in the last 7 years thanks to a good friend. Think about that. Something I used to buy at Trader Joes for $50 any day of the week is now regularly more than $300 on secondary, and even then, can’t find the damn thing (bars/restaurants only I think?).
Buffalo Trace must own any backlash they receive exclusively, because to me it IS entirely their fault.
- Mickey Pinstripe