I have whole set. I'm a woodworker and Glazier by trade. My father and I have sat and stared at those horse and jockey stoppers several times. Just shaking are head thinking "they just don't do this anymore". Sir, may I extend my highest praise to him. Mike Lucido ( Jr ) St. Paul MN..
My father Ferdie Falk created Blanton’s’ in 1983 after Elmer Lee our Master Distiller at that time told him about Colonel Albert Blanton’s special reserve he bottled for his friends and family. Unfortunately during the 80’s and early 90’s it was a tough sell in the States but took off in Japan. We eventually sold the distillery and the Ancient Age products including Blanton’s to our then Japanese partners Takara International who still own the labels today but shortly after sold the distillery to Sazerac. My Father who passed in 2000 also created Rock Hill Farms, Elmer T. Lee and others. He would be proud of the success of Blanton’s and how the single barrel and super premium bourbons have taken off. I do know he would be disappointed that the product is so scarce and limited in production.
Went to the George Strait and Chris Stapleton concert in Nashville on the way back stopped by the trail walked into the Wild Turkey gift shop and who was sitting there? None other than Jimmy Russel himself! My jaw dropped to the floor bought one of the 3 bottles left of a Russel’s Reserve Private Barrel Selection and got it signed by the man himself hell of a experience!!
I remember back in the mid-2000's when you could get Blantons for $45 and it was just a good bourbon, but today it's way way way to over-hyped just like Ripped Van Winkle was/is. I love the first one up, the double oaked, and I also love 1910 which is also a heavily oaked bourbon. Best advice, find something you like, but remain flexible so when it is not available anymore or becomes too expensive you can switch up to something else. This hype stuff will make folks crazy!
Got a Russell 10yr for 4th of july (first one) Sipping on some Russell 10 now and loving it. Finally found a bottle of Blantons and shockingly got it for basically msrp ($67 plus tax). Fastest purchase I think I ever made and im in PA. I NEVER thought i would find one in store. Love the channel, keep up the good work!!
For the price, John J. Bowman Single Barrel it is hard to beat in this line up. The differences described can be attributed to four important elements: 1) it is distilled in a pot still, 2) the barrels are stored vertically vs horizontally, 3) climatic differences between Virginia and Kentucky , and 4) the proof. Glad to see that this historic Virginia distillery is receiving the attention it deserves.
A Smith Bowman was a distant cousin. John Jacob Bowman is my 6th Great-Grandfather. This is not the distillery on our family plantation. It is excellent.
Man I’m feeling spoiled now. I’ve gotten three bottles of blantons at msrp @ 59.99 at my local Safeway and can get eagle rare for 34.99 at the same spot.
The one bottle of RR single barrel I bought , was disappointed. Maybe I had an off batch, but gave no reason for me to rebuy at the current price 70+ The 10y isn’t bad, but in my area (in CA for 40+) it’s basically a mixer. It’s not easy, however with some effort can find eagle rare and eh Taylor small batch at BevMo & total wine. (SoCal)
I actually picked up 4 of these bottles yesterday. Apparently I made some good picks. I was lucky enough to get eagle rare and Blantons, at msrp, sometimes state run liquor is good for something
Absolutely. My wife and I are moving to a state that isn’t allowed to drastically mark up liquor. When visiting last month picked up Blanton’s for $67.50 right off the regular shelf.
What people often forget (or are never aware of) is that - regardless of what you pay for it - Blanton's is still really just slotted as a $60 bottle, and should be thought of as such and compared with other bottles at that price point.
@@hatchetwound666 Yep. That's roughly what I've been able to get Eagle Rare at for years. Never had to go north of about $36, and that was before prices started going up. The key is how "ethical" the store is. We've got a group of stores in our metro that seem to be owned by the same group of Indians (different store names, but same signage all over) where you can find some bottles others won't have, but you're going to pay $90 for that $30 bottle of Weller, and they're charging $35 for a 1L of Early Times. On the other hand, they're also charging $35 for Buffalo Trace, which is about $8-$10 too much, but not obscene considering how hit-or-miss it is to actually find the stuff around here.
I just started my bourbon journey. Oh sure I've had the usual suspects but never the single barrels or anything unique. I must say that your channel has educated me to no end. I truly love your hunting adventures and I've learned so much about bourbons that I never knew before. So with that said my first bottle of whiskey was the Russell's 10. JILL! 😊 I love it. It's just like you said it would be. Sweet and smooth. I'm still working on my pallet but I'm eyeing the Four Roses single barrel next. However since watching this particular video I'm going after the Bowman. Funny enough my local Publix supermarket (I'm in Florida) has an attached liquor store. They carry it. Along with just about everything else. Not the Blanton unfortunately but they've got the Eagle Rare as well. They're going to be a bottle or two short in about an hour. Keep up the excellent work. I've got to go to the store!
Eagle rare is a great way to see what age does to whiskey. Bowman nice if you just wanna try a nice sweet bourbon. 4 roses single barrel is a killer high rye bourbon experience to see if you like rye spice, sweet, smooth, with a nice rye spice to balance out the sweet. I got all 3 recently in my bourbon experience and highly recommend
Woodford Double Oaked is so freakin' good and easy to drink. The lower proof point really makes it crushable. Four Roses Single Barrel is just fantastic at the price point. I'd also throw Wild Turkey Rare Breed and Old Forester 1910/1920 for fantastic bottles around the $60ish price point. They're readily available and beat bottles at much higher price points. LOVE the Bowman pick, btw!!!!!
You aren't wrong if you are drinking what YOU like. Everyone has a different pallet. Great video, giving options for other GREAT bourbon. Also, location has a huge impact on availability.
I recently went to my three local shops and found ONE Blanton’s priced at $211. Hysterical. Also saw some good bottles that I want to get and bring to our local Pour Decisions Bourbon Club that we have every other month. Great content as always, much love from Texas!
Come up to Fredericksburg VA for a tour of Bowman's Distillery and you can pick up plenty of John J. Plus we have a few other distilleries (Virginia and Belmont Farms) within a short drive. Unfortunately our liquor stores are run by the state so selection can be limited. The benefit is there is not a huge price increase when you do find a limited bottle.
You're correct about the John J Bowman, the distillery is only about 9 miles from my house here in Virginia. Excellent stuff and its fairly easy to locate here in Virgina. The only way to get Blantons or Eagle rare is wait for the state to have an allocated drop day and race to the store and fight the taters.
EH Taylor SiB SP, Wild turkey Rare Breed, Maker's Mark 46, Old Forester 1920, Elijah Craig BP A123, Old Forester 1910, Redbreast 12 ( the list to please all )
New to your channel and also new to the bourbon life. Great contents. Here in the UK, London, Blanton isn’t hard to get hold of. Recently bought gold blantons and arrived within 1 day!
Been on the tour of the Bowman distillery and the tour guide insisted multiple times that "the rumors are wrong, we do not buy distillate from anyone, we distill all of our own products."
Haha I love thefun banter back and forth with these two. Great chemistry and you can definitely see the comfort and love not to mention differing opinions on drinks can be fun sometimes.
I’m on my own bourbon discovery journey. Bought my brother in law a bottle of Woodford Reserve Masters Bland that was $180. Spent the weekend with us and we drank an entire bottle of Blantons, and iv3 drank another in the week since I’ve been home. I do love it over a large ice cube but the price is more than I can do weekly. So I’ve been studying bourbon videos and yours a very informative and enjoyable. This episode specifically was very important to me. I will be trying the Blantons alternatives asap. I’m drinking bth tonight to work on the comparison. Blantons and Woodford Reserve Double Oaked. It was $110 cheaper than the Blanton’s in our area which is about $160 bottle now.
To my taste, the ranking of the best alternatives to Blanton's (as shown in your video): 1.) Four Roses Single Barrel 2.) Eagle Rare 10 Year 3.) John J. Bowman... I am happy to say I have each in my Bourbon Selection (not a collection!).
I’m in Georgia, Eagle Rare is EVERYWHERE. I want to find out where someone else has the same situation with another kind of tough to get bourbon and trade lol
My dad was a Bowman's guy he drank the vodka not whiskey but still loved it I like Bowman's products too I live in virginia it shootouts be my dad's 69th birthday rip to him. Love your work Brewzle
@dillonkruckman1846 I'm on the other hand of that coin blantons around me IF you can find it the cheapest I've seen is $150 per bottle. I got my John j for about 60 ish If I remember correctly.
Did a blind with a few friends of John j. Bowman vs. Blantons and the 4 out of 5 people (including me) thought the Bowman’s was better than the blantons
@yungifone1797 it's blantons then distilled one more time in Virginia and aged there I'd like to try and compare but it's impossible to find here. I can find the other bowman just not john j
I drank Eagle Rare in my youth when it was 101 proof and in a smaller bottle like Maker’s Mark. It was fantastically smooth. I believe it was made by Seagram’s back then. Not sure why they discontinued it. Super expensive ifyou can find one since out of production for over twenty years.
I'm so blessed to live in Virginia! John J Bowman is not allocated, but it does kind of appear on the shelf randomly here in Virginia. I always buy the bottles in two's
IW Harper Cabernet Cask Reserve is by the same company as Blade and Bow and better IMHO while being a little cheaper. When we toured the Stitzel-Wheller distillery in Louisville, everyone in our group preferred the IW Harper at the tasting over Blade and Bow.
Have some family in Kentucky and one year there was a reunion around Louisville back in the mid 90s. We spent some time around there and went on a tour of the distillery. Was too young to sample the whiskey, but my brother and I did buy mini bottles as souvenirs. It amuses me to see this go through the cycle of discovery, hype, and overexposure.
Davidson's Reserve Small Batch Bourbon is hard to beat for the price. Plus the flavor and profile of the Bourbon is amazing. Can only get it on the east coast which sucks too. Found it in Virginia and in Nashville. For Scotch my go to favorite is The Balvenie 14 year Caribbean cask. If you haven't had it you should. My favorite scotch. For Flavored Whiskey. Bubba's Secret Stills Burnt Sugar is a must have. It might as well be butterscotch Whiskey. It is better than any of the other flavored Whiskeys such as Jack Honey, or any others like that.
I'm a big fan of John J. Bowman, it's definitely a solid pour. I'm not a Blanton's fan, but it is a nice pour. I was fortunate enough to get it at MSRP. I wouldn't pay more than that.
Be thankful y'all still have state run liquor stores. All those rare finds like Eagle rare 10 (which you get all the time) are impossible to find outside of secondary markup since there's zero regulation.
I really enjoyed this video. I polished off a bottle of antique 107 with my wife and I thought it was really good but she thinks the blantons is better. I loved seeing you break out that eagle rare 17. Green with envy!
I follow the golden rule and that's who gives a shit about what other people's opinions are drink whatever kind of whiskey you like and for me yes guilty one of the reasons why I wanted to try blanton's was because of the john wick movie the other again my drunkle kept talking about it so i gave it a whirl last week and for me it's the best damn bourbon I've ever tasted and by far my favorite. I don't think I'll ever drink any other kind if bourbon it's that damn good. But again drink whatever you like and whatever makes your wallet and your stomach happy. 🥃 cheers my fellow bourbon drinkers.
"....but my wife, here , is having an experience."... I LOVE IT! I love your videos. Considering very very seriously joining patreon.....have to see if I can afford another membership. You are awesome!!
Four Roses Single Barrel is the best bang for your buck in Ontario, Canada. I'm in Toronto and it's $57.25 for 750ml. That's like $43usd and we are taxed heavy on alcohol, especially over 80proof. Weller's Antique was available here 10 years ago before the bourbon craze went nuts and it was in line cost wise with the FRSB. Used to have it in my bar. I think it's sold with various Pappy and Blanton's now via lottery. Blanton's used to be available too, but just cost quite a bit more than Antique.
I can find Bowman brothers easily now in Maryland but the John J. Is like a unicorn now! Even in Virginia where it’s from is damn near impossible to find now. It’s being shipped off to other areas and the price has risen from $55 a year ago to over $200 on secondary market.
I’m with Jill as well. I have all of the 7. The Woodford DO is fantastic (nothing similar to Blanton’s) ER is a long time favorite. OWA is almost in a class by itself if you can find it. The Bowman SiB is a solid 56 bottle and agree the most similar to Blanton’s of all the bottles mentioned. The Eagle Rare 17 Well that was just mean to show us 😂😂 Only seen 2 bottles on shelf and one was $2k the other was down the street from it at $5k Still just a dream atm but someday
great list. At the start of your video, I was thinking of one bourbon that does indeed outshine Blantons, and you had that pick on your list as well. It's hard to beat Four Roses, Single Barrel.
In Ohio they have to sell at MSRP so it was nearly 5 years since I got a Blantons original, was around the holidays when the delivery day at our local Kroger changed and just happened to see a couple people waiting outside for the open. Still have about half of that bottle left and it's great whiskey, worth the retail but prob not the secondary prices. That was until last week when Ohio dropped a Blanton's Gold/SFTB/Elmet T Lee Bonus Release announced by email 2 hours before open, we rushed down to our local agency and it was even more insane bc their internet was down and they were only taking cash. We got our two bottles: a Gold for $129 and SFTB at $160 - waiting for special occasions to drink, still prob a lot of $$$ for the whiskey but if you don't have one (and probably will never be able to ever again) I'll take my chances.
Great vid, thanks! I've had WT Kentucky Spirit picks that are fantastic. These are more similar to the price & proof of Blantons. For the money though, I'm RR SB all day.
I went to a random liquor store in Pueblo, CO on a trip to Vail. Met the own and after 10 minutes of talking about bourbon she took me in her office and let me grab a bottle of single barrel Blanton's for $75. By the way, Jill is right, the single barrel Four Roses is great stuff. I currently have a bottle of Eagle Rare 10 and the bottle of Blanton's (see above) and the ER is much better.
I feel like Baker's could be a good alternative to Blanton's for some people. Beam and Buffalo Trace products have different flavor profiles, that's just a fact. But if you want a product with a certain amount of age on it, Baker's is 7 years. Baker's delivers a higher proof at 107, which some people will prefer. And similarly to Blanton's, it's a single barrel product exclusively. Plus it is often much easier to find on shelves around the country for around the same retail price.
Yep, Blanton’s is good and I’ll always buy one when I find it at MSRP. I’m not paying secondary price for it ever. Regular BT is always available here in So Cal and
I recon not a lot of people must be into Whiskey/Bourbon/etc. where I live in the South of France (makes sense, here the culture is wine and other more local spirits), because up until I watched a bunch of content creators like you talking about Blanton's bottles being unobtainable, I had no idea that was the case. Even before getting into Whiskey for real, I loved that brand and bought it all the time. Whenever I was out of it, one of my local shop would always have some on hands. Not like there was a full rack of it, but i've never seen them not having some in stocks whenever I dropped for one, never had to shop around in different places to find one. Can't be just luck with the number of times it happened over the years. So the guys around here must be getting some but almost no one must be buying them for some reason. Not gonna complain, though. I have half a mind to invest in all of their stocks every time I can and sell them for a profit over the internet lmao
I blinded Blantons gold against a Russels Reserve single barrel store pick and without a doubt I preferred the Russels over it. The straight from the barrel however is a different story and worth every penny in my opinion.
I am with Jill, Four Roses SiB is better than Russels 10. Thanks for the list. Blanton's is great, but not worth the hype... Blanton's Gold however that is worth hunting.
Jill, well done. Weller SR is easier for me to get than Blanton's and it's cheaper. Jill, the ladies 1st started in medieval times. The lord of the castle would send the lady 1st. If there was an enemy on the other side of the door, then the lady would get killed and the lord could run away. It's meaning has changed a little over the years. Ha!
Anceint Ancient Age 90(cheap 24$ if you can find it, also made by Buffalo Trace) is almost the exact mash build in blantons, except aging and the rick house barrel placement.
It is the same mash bill, as is Elmer T Lee and Rock Hill Farms. But to say placement and aging is the “only” difference is a little disingenuous. That’s like saying Buffalo Trace or Benchmark are just like Eagle Rare 17 or George T Stagg except for placement and aging. Those factors are major factors in the final product.
My four roses single barrel doesn’t taste anything like y’all’s. The one I grabbed is batch 88 and it’s sweet with suppressed notes of any oak or wood of any sort. Kinda sucks for 50 bucks I’m not sure if I want to try again but I definitely will eventually just bought this one though so I’ll have to use it for some special occasion mixers😂
Eddie and Jimmy Russell do not make a bad whiskey. I love the Wild Turkey for that price point, the RR Single Barrel is one of my favorites, the 6 year Rye is phenomenal, and the 10 year is damn good, too.
