Booze Stats

Finally let’s check out the feisty Thomas H. Handy Sazerac

Some things I see:

• Everyone talks about how epic the 2006 launch release was, and I must say I have to agree.  It is an epic pour.  The stats for the 2006 aren’t that different from all the other releases, but there must have been something about the extra 2 years that worked some magic.
• The rest of the Handy years have been pretty consistent in almost all aspects.  Only pulling from a few warehouses, mostly middle floor, with pretty consistent # of barrels.

“Phases”

• 2006: As mentioned above, the 2006 stands alone in its unique status.  In addition to its older age, it was also chosen from a high floor.  Evap wasn’t high, but who knows what else was going on up there on that 8th floor.
• 2007-2017+:  Things are pretty calm for Handy from here on out.  BT seems to have their “formula” down and don’t change much from year to year.  The only small change seems to be a a slight increase in barrel count over the last 2 years.

Notes for 2017:

• Again, nothing super wild for this year.  The biggest change seems to be the warehouse as “L” is back (which we haven’t seen since 2007) and the legendary “Q” warehouse is also in the mix.  Might be a good year to try Handy again!

Now let’s look at William Larue Weller

Some things I see:

• Of course the first few years are unique with the 19 year 90 proof product
• 2006 has always been a discussion point as some feel like it might be SW juice.  I myself have been lucky enough to have had a bottle of the 2006, and while it was very good I’m not sure if it is really SW or not?  The dates do show that it could theoretically be SW however.
• Just like many other BTAC releases, warehouse “I” becomes a favorite over the last 10 years.
• Due to it’s “lower” age, many of the barrels come from middle floors unlike the ER, Stagg, and Sazerac barrels which tend to be lower floors.

“Phases”

• 2000-2002: This one is easy as this is the 90 proof era.
• 2005-2014: Weller is back and this time it is cask strength!  Despite the open speculation about the 2006 release, the rest of the years tend to share the very common traits of low-ish barrel count, evap around the mid 50% range, and warehouse floor choice in the mid to high range.
• 2015-2017: Barrel count is up!  Weller starts to get much larger releases and starts to get pulled from more warehouses and more floors.

Notes for 2017:

• Just like Stagg, barrel count is WAY up in 2017 for WLW.  With a low evap rate and high barrel count this will be by far the biggest release of WLW ever.

Now let’s look at Eagle Rare 17

Some things I see:

• Poor Eagle Rare is always the unloved child of the BTAC group but it always tends to be a nice well aged whiskey.  In line with this is the fact that there hasn’t been many big changes or shifts over the years.
• The very first release gets special mention as the only BTAC bottling from warehouse “V.”
• As would be expected for a well aged product, almost all the barrels have come from low floors.  The “I” and “K” warehouses have tended to be the main choices over the last decade
• 2004 gets special mention as the lowest barrel release in BTAC history with only nine whole barrels being poured.  Good luck finding one of these ~1000 bottles!

“Phases”

• 2000-2006: The early years didn’t have many wild things going on.  Some mild warehouse and floor variations, but for the most part it was pretty much the same despite the oddball 2004 release.
• 2007-2010: BT flirts with larger barrel numbers and also starts to look in other warehouses.  The evap rate is also highly variable depending on the year.
• 2011-2016: This begins the slow and steady phase with nearly identical barrel amounts each year although there are slight variations in warehouse and floor choice.  The “I” and “K” warehouses tend to be popular here
• 2017+: Things get a little wacky in 2017.  See below:

Notes for 2017:

• BT throws a bit of a curve ball this year.  The barrel count is up a bit, but this is probably because the evap rate is WAY HIGH!  Nearly 90%!?!  I do wonder if this is correct?  If this is true, this will be a very rare bottle this year with only around 1500 bottles total.
• It might be because the warehouses got switched up for this year.  “C” is back in the mix and this is also the first time ever for “P.”

Notes for 2017:

• Very little difference from 2016 which was the first year of the BT distillate.
• The only strange thing is that they used the same 2016 distillate for 2017.  It isn’t clear if they stored this in stainless?  Or maybe just did a double bottling run in 2016?

Here I start to break down the BTAC series.  For this one, let’s dig into George T. Stagg

Some things I see:

• Warehouse choice is all over the place as the # of barrels has increased, with the clear “phases.” (see below)  Since 2005, I and K appear to be a favorite.
• The floor choice tends to be towards the lower floors which makes sense for this well aged release.
• Age is pretty consistent except for the older 2010 and 2011 releases
• Evap loss has gone up recently which makes sense since they are starting to pull a little more from higher floors

“Phases”

1. 2002-2005: These were probably all “Q’ warehouse barrels pulled from floor 2 and 4, with similar evap.  (I say probably because we don’t know the details for the 2002 and 2003 releases)
2. 2005-2009: This is the “I” warehouse phase with “K” coming in the blend at the end
3. 2010-2013: Bottle count starts to ramp up and warehouse choice increases.  They start to pull from higher floors as well and as a result the evap goes up.  John Hansell really liked these releases.
4. 2014-2016:  They are pulling from almost all warehouses and all floors at this point. Evap is high on these releases.  It is hard to say which warehouses are contributing to this high evap
5. 2017+: We are in new territory here as the barrel count has gone way up.  They also significantly changed up the warehouses as well compared to the last few years.

Notes for 2017:

• Holy cow at the barrel increase!
• And because the evap loss was relatively low, the bottle count is THROUGH THE ROOF!  Not sure the logic behind this one

Overall: This is always a pretty great release, but that being said, you can see different “phases” this has gone through.  I’m not sure if this will be a new thing, but the 2017 bottling will for sure be unique considering the bottle count!

I started this chart about 12 years ago when two things happened:

1. I became obsessed with this whiskey because it was so damn good
2. I realized that there was enough information floating around straightbourbon.com to figure out what was in each year’s release.

I’ve done a few updates over the years, but it would always become somewhat outdated as the Van Winkles would throw us a curveball here and there.  So here we are in 2017 and this is the latest to the best of my knowledge.

One key thing to note is that since they changed the font for the 2013 “D” bottling we are able to identify every year by information on the bottle alone.  This is unlike the Pappy series where the older bottles that don’t have the digital date code.  Not sure why they kept changing the label on this one?  In any case, it makes an OCD guy like me happy.

With the new distillate coming soon this might actually be the final update for this chart?

This was actually the chart that kicked off my idea for the site.  Hope you enjoy!