Here’s the simplest advice if you want to buy incredible whiskey without paying ridiculous prices: Shop the store picks. When they’re selected by experts, these bottles are a cheat code for world-class spirits.
I lucked into my first store-picked whiskey. My favorite local shop in New York City, Blue Streak Wines and Spirits, has a generous tasting policy. Yes, this makes it an easy favorite, but it’s also a safe spot to invest in a new bottle. I went in chasing the experience of Old Rip Van Winkle 10. The youngest entry in the storied Van Winkle family of wheated bourbons had sucked me into whiskey a decade earlier with its bold yet stunningly balanced flavor. In the ensuing years, its price steadily crept up from splurge territory to ri-god-damn-diculous price tags pushing a grand — I lately haven’t seen it for less than $900 — so I was shopping for replacements. While store owner and whiskey nerd Rob Bralow walked me through his favorites, I quickly realized the standouts weren’t the standard, off-the-shelf labels. They were Bralow’s single-barrel picks from the likes of Elijah Craig, Wilderness Trail and Larceny.
The concept of store picks wasn’t new to me. But from past experiences, I’d thought of them along the same lines as a shop popping their logo on a nice white label zinfandel or Costco hiring Deschutes Brewing to make its Kirkland Lager. These are perfectly fine products, typically at a slight discount (like Kroger-brand peanut butter).
Bralow’s picks were elevating whiskeys I thought I knew and enjoyed to new heights. Fruit or toasty caramel elements were bigger, if not necessarily on-brand. And though there was no discount, the increase in price for the picks was typically a modest $20 or so.
After about eight small, responsible (I swear) samples, I had a clear winner, though I’d admittedly lost track of which bottle it was. Bralow, a true professional, kept his eye on the ball and pulled out a fresh bottle of his 135-proof Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel Barrel Strength.
He got my $90, but I was all the richer. It was bursting with sweet crème brûlée and vanilla, a massive Tennessee whiskey that approached the venerable Jack Daniel’s Coy Hill Special Release. (The high-proof, often 140+, Coy Hill typically goes for more than $500.) I also tasted my bottle against an ounce of Jack Daniel’s 12, which sells in the range of $200 to $300, and was happy I owned Bralow’s pick instead of the 12.
What Exactly is a Store Pick?
A store pick is a single-barrel product selected by a shop’s staff. Like popular single-barrel bourbons such as Blanton’s and McKenna 10, the whiskey isn’t blended in batches to achieve a uniform flavor profile. So while there’s more variation in flavor from the quirks of every barrel, there’s also a potential for greater or unique aromas and flavors.
“You can get a whiskey’s flagship profile, but on steroids, or something off-profile that’s really funky and interesting,” says Blake Riber, owner of online spirits retailer Seelbach’s.
And while distillers can predict to a degree how certain barrels will turn out, there’s still no telling how they’ll taste until they’re tested. “We see, all the time, where you have two barrels distilled on the same day, aged in the same place in the warehouse, and then you taste them side by side, and they taste completely different,” Riber says, who estimates he’ll make 250 barrel picks for Seelbach’s this year.
Private Barrel Picks Make Your Favorite Whiskey More Interesting
An increasingly common practice for spirits connoisseurs, “store picks” and private barrel selections head up Whisky Auctioneer’s upcoming eventIdeally, the store staff travels to the distillery to taste a handful (or more) of individual barrels and then picks one to have bottled. But often, because it’s cheaper than a flight to Louisville, KY, a distillery will send samples to a store for their pick.
Bralow first had his eyes opened to store picks in 2013 when he snagged a high-proof Four Roses Private Selection. It was in the neighborhood of 120 proof, while standard Four Roses bourbons are still rarely released over 100 proof. “It was a ‘wow’ moment,” he says, “The high proof character really hit me — and then I wondered how I could sell something like this at my store.”
In a big year, Bralow picks up to 30 barrels for his cozy, neighborhood store and says he prefers to choose in person. “It’s super important to have the smallest distance between the barrel and the glass I’m sipping it out of,” he says. Once you’re shipping samples, he adds, you introduce variables that can affect the flavor. “If you’re putting something through FedEx, you’re adding vibration, you’re adding potential oxygenation, you’re adding distance and time. And those things matter.”
While Bralow sold me my first great pick, it was Prav Saraff of Dupont Circle Wines and Spirits in D.C. who first told me about the potential of store picks. In another chat about Old Rip and Pappy alternatives, he offered a more strategic answer: Instead of hunting labels, find a barrel picker who shares my taste and let them do the hard work of finding world-class alternatives.
“Some of the barrel picks we’ve released, you put them in a blind and pour them against some of the best whiskeys around the world, and they’ll hold their own,” Saraff says. Sensing I wasn’t wrapping my head around his advice (he was right), Saraff also offered something I was ready for: Maker’s Mark Private Selections could deliver the wheated bourbon I was after.
“Find someone with a decent palate, and you get a cask-strength offering of a leading bourbon that’s in a similar age-range as the entry-level Weller bottle,” Saraff says, referring to the Van Winkle adjacent Weller brand. “It’s around 100 bucks, and you can find it at any time.”
Finding that barrel picker is the key, agrees David Othenin-Girard. The spirits buyer for K&L Wines in southern California has been making barrel picks for 16 years and expects to make 70 to 80 single-barrel picks this year. “I hear horror stories from suppliers where groups or stores pick a barrel just because it has the highest proof or the oldest age statement,” he says. “And, the brand is sitting there thinking, ‘Wow, this is the worst one, we actually shouldn’t be putting this in the bottle.’”
To find your man or woman with tastes you can trust, Othenin-Girard’s advice is to visit a shop and talk to the picker about how and why they made their selections. If the liquor store you’re shopping at has picks on shelves and nobody to explain their background, look elsewhere.
Getting access to great barrels is often a mix of relationships and status for stores, Riber explains. But overall, there’s no shortage of amazing whiskey right now, and there’s never been a better time to try single-barrel picks.
Though demand from whiskey fans is steady, there’s currently an oversupply in the barrel market. “For drinkers, it’s a great time to expand their options,” Riber says. “I had a conversation today about a 12-year-old Indiana bourbon pick, and that just didn’t exist three, four years ago. It’s cool to see double-digit age statements coming back.”
While I haven’t bought any picks old enough to start middle school, I’ve been back to Bralow for his self-described “sweet tooth” of a palate that I appreciate. My latest purchase was his Larceny Barrel Proof selection, a $70 high-proof wheater that didn’t exactly approach Old Rip but certainly helped me move on.
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