How To Start A Bourbon Collection For Only $200

Hey all, my name is Kurt and I'm here with Trenton. Welcome to SLB Basement Bourbon Bar and today Trenton, I thought it'd be a good idea, since we have so many new subscribers, to put our, dip our toe into the pool of starting your own bourbon collection for $200. That's a good idea. Now, quite a few other channels have done that. We never have. Yeah. We've never done this. So what is going to be the most fun, for me anyways, is how our collections vary from each other, from you and I. Well, and to give you a little bit of context, Kurt told me about this video like last week or sometime and he's like, I've been working on my list for a week. I just put my list together in a couple minutes when I got here. Yeah, it drives me out of my mind. He drives me nuts with that. But what surprised me is that none of the bottles on his list were the same as any of the bottles on my list. Yes. And I was surprised by that. And I'm kind of glad, too. And that's legit. Yeah. Because he didn't even see my list. I let him do his list in his ten minutes and it was not even, not one bottle was duplicated. So here's what I want. I want you to do, if you can, in the comments, let us know whose collection is better. Ooh. That's what I want to know. The loser will shave their head? Oh, no, we're not going to. Babe, are we going to go that far? No, we're not shaving anybody's head. Oh, sorry. Your mom said no. I'm sorry. I think you'd look good in all. Yeah, you know, I'd look good in about anything. That's about right. Oh, God. At any rate, please let us know. And of course, if you feel like something needs to be added into a collection or subtracted, you know, we appreciate all your recommendations and your opinions. Well, and did you say a price point? $200. $200 to build the collection. We both ended up with six bottles apiece, which I thought was interesting, too. Yeah. But, and there's a lot of bottles in here that we did miss only because we didn't have enough money left. So keep in mind, if you don't see a bottle that you think has to be in a collection, we probably would have put it in there, maybe if we doubled our budget or gave ourselves a little bit more wiggle room. But we tried to stay firm. I'm just like a couple bucks under $100, or under $200, I think you are, too. Okay. $1. Now, keep in mind, I will say this, too, Trenton. We can only go by the pricing that we have in our area. Good. Unfortunately, I'm sure it's going to vary in other areas. I actually talked to a lot of people that pay a little less for certain things than what we pay. Wild Turkey Rare Breed is one of those. I'm a little irritated. We pay $54, $54. There's people getting it still in the 40s, mid 40s. So, you know, and of course, some will pay more. But we can only go by what we have here and our pricing here, and so that's what we'll do today. And Trenton, I'm going to let you go first. Me? Yeah. I will say, I tried to give a lot of variety in my six bottles. I think you did, too. So I wanted to start out with a weeder that's low proof. This is Larceny. This is the original Larceny. It's not barrel proof. This is a weeded bourbon, and it's 92 proof. I think this is around ... I actually have a notepad for the first time in my life. I know. I almost fell over. This is about $28, $29 in our area. And I think this is a very good weeder to start out with. You could also go with Maker's Mark, but I'm personally a little bit bigger fan of the Larceny line, especially their 92 proof. I think it's a little bit sweeter. And if you're getting into weeded bourbons, I think it's a fantastic option. That's an excellent option for a starter weeder, that's for sure. My first bottle's going to floor you, Trenton. I know it will. It did. That's all right. Evan Williams bottled in Bond. Now, as most of you folks know, this really would not rank in any of my top five personally as a sipper. All right? It doesn't really appeal to me on that level. I'm not saying it's a bad sipper. If somebody poured that for me, I would drink it. However, when you're starting a bourbon collection, there is so many different assets with the Evan Williams bottled in Bond. It is a fabulous mixer. $15. That is a good price. The price point, it's an incredible mixer. I know tons of you folks out there love it as far as the taste profile concerns, so I put that in first. That's a fair point. My next one, I had to go with Knob Creek 9. I think this is a fantastic way to get into the Knob Creek lineup. You do get those leathery, tobacco-y, Jim Beam notes from this. It's still sweet. It's 100-proof. I think it's like $28, $29. Yeah, it's still under $30 here. I think all my picks are around $28 with a few splurges in there. This is fantastic. I think this holds up very nicely to the 12-year for half the price and 20-proof less, I think. No. The 12-year is 100-proof. Correct. Still, this is a very good option for getting into the Knob Creek lineup or trying out some different Jim Beam products. You can't go wrong with that. No, you cannot. I guess this is our time for the no-brainers for you and me, because that's not shocking whatsoever. This won't be shocking for any of you either. I've got Wild Turkey 101. No. I do. Trenton, that's $23. I will tell you, since it took me a week to put this together, I did go and actually check pricing. I physically checked pricing. That sounds about right. It's $23 in our area. For me, I know there's just a few of you that really do not like Wild Turkey in general. For those, I apologize. You can switch this out with something else. For me, for $23, it's stellar. I love the flavor profile, your caramel, your vanilla, that beautiful charred oak note. Love it. $23. Solid choice. Next, obvious one for me. This is the Old Forester 100-proof bourbon. I love this one. To me, this is like the quintessential of your Wild Turkey 101, but you get that banana Old Forester flavor in there, like a banana and nut bread kind of thing going on. It's $27, $28, maybe a little bit less. You just can't go wrong. They also have an 86-proof. If you're not a huge fan of the 100-proof, you want to stay kind of in the 80s if you're just getting into bourbon, they have an 86-proof that's also very good, but I tend to lean towards the 100-proof. I would too. That's an excellent choice. My next choice, also I threw Trenton off a little bit, but I had to put it in there. Buffalo Trace. You just had to do it. You know what? It was in, it was out, it was in, it was out, and it was in, it was out, but at the end of the day, when I'm thinking trying to help somebody to start a collection, this one's a little bit more lore-proof, and it's a fabulous introduction to bourbon because it's sweet, you got that caramel, you got that toffee. It's about 90-proof. If you get it for the right price over here, we can get it for like 24 bucks. I put it in there because it's just such an easy sipper with great quintessential Buffalo Trace flavors. Now, I got to dig on this a little bit. Yeah, go ahead. Because I think even in our area, I found that Buffalo Trace is getting more difficult to get, even the regular one. A year ago, maybe we could buy it by the case, and now it's like I see it by limit one, or I see it and the quantities are a lot lower than what they used to be. But if you want a Buffalo Trace product, this is probably the most readily available of all of them, and it's really good for the money. The only dig that I have is that it's just getting a little bit more ... Have you found that, that it's getting a little bit harder to find right now? I got two more like a month or two ago, and here when it comes here, it's usually limit two, and I got two more. As you can see, this is almost done, and I have two more. Once I have that many, I don't even look anymore. But I know why you said that, because it leads up to your next pick. Yeah. What do you got? You got Cast Rank next? Okay. So, my next one, oh, granddad. I thought you were going with the other one, to ... Well, you have three. I have three. That's all right. No, no, no, no. I thought you were going with that one over there to prove your point of what should be in the lineup. But go ahead. Yeah. You're fine. My next one, old granddad 114. This is ... If I had to recommend a Cast Strength option to folks that are just starting out a collection, to me, this would be my go-to. It's 114 proof, around $28 to $32 in our area, and it's got pretty much everything that you would want in a high proof or a higher proof bourbon. It's a high rye mash bill, so it's going to be a little bit spicier, so if you're not a huge fan of the spice of rye, or if you're a little bit more conscious about the proofs that you're drinking, this might not be the best option. But for mixing cocktails with a higher proof bourbon, I drink this neat at home often. There's really not much to dislike about it for the proof point, and it's pretty readily available. Right. It's a great pick. For my Cast Strength option, Trenton, I'm putting in Maker's Mark Cast Strength. This one is 110 proof, my bottle, and I chose it because it is a Cast Strength option, and also it's the only bottle in my collection that's actually a weeder, so a weeded bourbon option as well. You know I've talked about this before, I love this bottle, I really do. You get the butterscotch, the deep caramel, and for $40. It's hard to beat that for $40. Great buy. So that's my Cast Strength. You got Single Barrel next. All right. So my choice for Single Barrel, I wanted to include one, it's not Blanton's, I did the New Riff Single Barrel. This one is actually 113 proof, I didn't realize this was our pick. I do have another one on the shelf over there. New Riff's Single Barrels, I think, are a fantastic bargain for the money. It's a four year old bourbon, and they're single barrels, and the proof point on those is really nice, and it is a single barrel, so the taste and the palate on those are going to be different depending on which bottle you get. But I have not gotten a single barrel from New Riff that I have been disappointed in. It's about $50. So this would be probably my splurge if I were to recommend something for a new bourbon drinker. It's great. I don't see these on people's lists all that often, and it's a shame because New Riff does really cool stuff, especially with their finishes, but their single barrels are awesome, I definitely recommend those. Don't pass them up. Just because it's a four year doesn't mean that it's going to be bad. That was one of our best barrel picks of 2022. Yeah, it was. New Riff, fantastic. All right, my single barrel is Four Roses Single Barrel, about $42 Trenton, 100 proof. I picked this because this is the particular bottle in my collection that is higher rye. That's only $42? $42. I would have thought a little bit more. That's a great deal. $42, great deal. It's the higher rye, so you do get some of that caramel in there, but it also is going to deliver in those orange notes and other things with the high rye mash bill. This is one bottle that I will refill every time it empties. That's a good one. I love it. If you can find the single barrels too, like the store picks, those are usually even better, but we don't see these around here. Great. Yep. All right, last but not least. I was just going to say that, what's your last but not least, Parker? My last but not least, and we've talked about this a lot, is going to be the Early Times Bottle & Bond, obviously 100 proof. You get a liter, and it's about $28. This has ... Where did this come in our bourbon madness? This came like top five, I think. Yeah, it was up there. It's done well. Let's just put it this way. It's done very well in any blind taste that we've had. This is such a sweet, quintessential bourbon, in my opinion. I tend to lean towards the sweeter side. You tend to lean a little bit more towards, I feel like, the oaky, like a nice balanced oak. I don't feel like you get as much oak on this as you would do, like, maybe a Wild Turkey 101, but the sweetness is incredible, and it's very well balanced. It's readily available. You get a bang for your buck for one liter at $28. I don't see how you could miss out on this one. If you see these, pick them up. I've heard that they're getting a little bit more difficult to find. Unfortunately, this is a Sazerac product, so that's my six. For your info, just so you know, with the Buffalo Trace in the early times, that was the duo that moved in and out of my list 17 times before I actually finalized it, yes. That's a great pick on your part, a beautiful bourbon. Yeah, I know my list is going to win. We'll see about that. My last but not least is my splurge bottle, Trenton. I could have went a few different ways here, and I might get a little razzmatazz. It just might get a little razzmatazz for this pick. What does that mean? I might get jeered a little bit in the comments for this one because, unfortunately, it's not Wild Turkey rear breed. That's another one in and out of my list. I didn't even notice you didn't put that up here. Well, you know what? I will promise you this. If it would be the same price point that we paid before, like $38, $40, it would be on here, but right now it's- Yes. Wow. Right now it's $54. Oh, that sucks. What I put in there for the sake of everybody and what I was thinking was this Old Forester 1910. You're getting down there a little bit with a little bit lower proof, you get a 93 proof, but it's an extremely sweet. It's a beautiful bourbon, and it's going to run you about $55. I already have a cast strength option here with the maker's mark that I would not take out because of the price point for sure, and I didn't want to duplicate another cast strength with Wild Turkey, so that's why I went with the Old Forester 1910, and I didn't have enough money left to put in an Old Forester 1920. Well, if we ups it to like, what, $250, I would have been able to put another really good one in there. Right, but we didn't, so we got to stick by the rules. I'm happy with this because this is a great option. Again, it's another beautiful sweet sipper, little bit of a splurge for your $200 collection. At the end of the day, I was happy with what I finalized my list with. I'm very happy with what you had because mine's better. You have some good picks out there, but let us know in the comments who has the better six bottles. I know your mom will be counting. I know that for sure. She'll probably be voting for you, though, unfortunately. Let us know what six that you would recommend, and if you're a new bourbon beginner, head down to the comments, scroll through them, see if there's a couple bottles down there that you recognize. Yes. I'm sure that some of these are going to get a lot of praise because they're all very good. All right, that's all we got for you today. I hope you enjoyed it. We had a lot of fun putting this together. As always, we ask you to please drink responsibly, and we'll see you next time right down here with Trent and I in the good old basement bourbon bar. See you later.