George T Stagg bottled 2013

@Victor - Thanks for a fine and honest review. Still a "some day" whiskey for me, but your reviews always help me taste things in my mind. Sounds like I'd prefer to taste another year, however.

I must have checked about 40 or 50 online sources for a Stagg in the past week. Every single one of them is sold out, even the ones selling it for $350 (and, yes, that's the 2013 release).

One small correction: the official age of the youngest whiskey in the 2013 release of George T Stagg is 15 years, 11 months.

@WhiskyBee, if your local odds are bad for getting Stagg or certain other allocated whiskeys, your best shot is probably finding and buying some scarce and in demand other bottles and then making trades to get some of the ones you haven't been able to get.

@Victor - Hadn't considered that. Thanks for the advice.

@WhiskyBee, ya gotta work it. The precious goods are very maldistributed. Helping one another get something we each want is the basis of trade. You have some hot bottles available to you that you already know about, like those Willetts at Binny's. Willett Family Estate Private Barrel bourbons and ryes are scarce and desirable. Decent barter goods. Really any whisky that you know is scarce and in demand, whether or not it is something you want to drink yourself.

Open 20 months this 2013 George T Stagg has really come into its own. Right now I score this same bottle 24-24-23-23 = 94 points. The wood is still strongly tannic, but the whiskey has relaxed a lot and harmonises much better. If you have the opportunity to acquire some 2013 George T. Stagg, I would suggest you buy it, but be prepared to give it a lot of air.

I finally found a bottle in the wild. Saw a Stagg on the shelf behind the register and did a double take. I asked the clerk how much they were asking for it...he scanned it in and the register displayed $489.99. Ouch. I left empty handed, although I did think about it for a minute.

@broadwayblue, yes, $ 489.99 plus tax is a scalper's price in the US, though only $ 50 more expensive than the wine-searcher.com world (secondary market) price. What would I pay for a bottle of Stagg? In other words, what would George T. Stagg be worth to me, relative to the rest of the market available? If I owned no Stagg at all, I think I would probably pay $ 200 for a bottle. Since I own a few bottles of it back from the day when there was more of a chance of getting some, I would probably not pay more than $ 125-150 for a bottle of George T. Stagg. It is true, though, that a bottle of Stagg usually lasts for quite awhile. Since 2010 I've been through about 3 3/4 bottles of Stagg,...one 2010, one 2011, one 2012, and 3/4 of a bottle of 2013.

These ridiculous 'status symbol and collector's' prices make people hate whiskeys which they would like if they cost an amount they could afford. Below $ 125 per bottle any Sazerac Company/Buffalo Trace Distillery Antique Collection whiskey is a wonderful acquisition and an excellent purchase. It is a shame that it is so damned hard now to pick up a bottle of it at all, much less at a decent price of $ 100 or less.

@Victor, yeah, even though I've been trying (unsuccessfully) for several years now, I couldn't justify spending more than about $200 for a bottle. I might be willing to go as high as $250, although I think that's a bit too much. But with plenty of people willing to spend $400 or even $500 I likely won't be able to get my hands on one for quite a while. Perhaps I would have better luck trading for a sample.

@broadwayblue, if you see a bottle of 2010 release George T. Stagg, up your price to $ 300 for a bottle. I wouldn't back off one point from the 98 points at which I reviewed that one.

Otherwise, let me know when you are in my neighborhood, and you can taste a bunch of BTAC with me.