Did this bottle ruin everything for rye whiskey Fans?
I’ll begin this feature with a question: Did this bottle ruin everything for rye whiskey fans? I ask because there was a time when it was simple to acquire any new rye whiskey that came to market. I call it “Before Jack Daniel’s” or BJD. There is BJD, and AJD, and the before time was great. When a new rye was released, things were easy. One would simply gas up the Chrysler, go to the store, and buy it. Or, if it wasn’t in market, order online, or put a call out to the riverboat captains. BJD was a period of zero stress rye shopping, with plenty of product to go around, precious few competitors for a bottle, and no hype bottles (seriously, think of just ONE hype rye bottle not named Willett; I’ll wait).
When Jack Daniel’s announced their barrel proof rye, I was keenly interested because their Tennessee Tasters series in the gift shop was crazy good, and the proof was an extraordinary 134.6 (with some variation because single barrels, duh). This was something I had to have without question. The only ryes I’d had in that proof range were some of the exquisite Canadian ryes that Barrell Craft Spirits was releasing, and I was excited to compare.
This is how I knew that the Jack Barrel Proof release was going to be so damn good. This was BJD.
I didn’t prepare for the release with any sense of urgency. I didn’t put out feelers, I didn’t ask locals when they were going to get them, or how many. I just didn’t need to move quickly. It was rye after all, and the majority of Jack Daniel’s fans were notoriously resistant to trying anything outside of the standard. Whiskey insaniacs overall tended to side eye most things Jack, ignoring just about everything except the barrel proof bourbon (sue me). With so many exceptional ryes still sitting on shelves collecting dust, a need for haste was the furthest from my mind. I would simply walk into a store and get it when I got it. Easy as that. What happened in reality changed everything.
The bourbon (sue me) release, was an easy one. Found readily I went through a few of them. I presumed the rye purchasing experience would be no different. This was BJD.
When the rye finally hit stores, I was able to live my Groundhog-Day-style rye purchasing experience. I walked in, saw it on the shelf, and bought two. I left several on the shelf and went home. I could be forgiven for thinking “Great to be a rye fan,” with no problem finding what I wanted to drink. That it was yet another reason to be grateful I wasn’t obsessed with Buffalo Trace, facing the daily disappointment of visiting multiple shops looking for bottles with animals on them.
I arrived home, opened one up, had myself a glass and quickly realized that this was a “touchdown Oklahoma!” bottle. It was not just a good rye release from Jack, it was a phenomenal bottle of rye period. Holy crap tots…I had to get more. The very next day I went back to the store where I’d left multiples behind and, curiously, the shelf was empty. It had only been a day! GONE. I wasn’t terribly worried, but if this was a horror movie, this would have been the part where the audience starts yelling at the protagonist to pay attention. Because there were more stores, becuase I was in California, I was unconcerned and confident I would have another series of chances to acquire several. That belief would soon come to haunt me.
This bottle was selling for the cost of a car payment on secondary really damn fast.
It turns out that I was unable to locate another bottle in California. For some reason, this bottle was hit by the hype machine HARD. I couldn’t understand it. Yes, it was an exceptional rye, but it was JACK rye. No one cared about the single barrel rye they put out (people still don’t), or their standard, or the Taster’s… what was going on here? There was plenty of Kentucky Owl Rye still on shelves, and that was better! Something had changed- the people had taken notice, and quickly! Stores were sold out, and a robust aftermarket activity bubbled up. Suddenly this bottle was selling for $300 or more. The collectors market frenzy which had historically neglected rye that wasn’t Van Winkle or Willett, was now going ape shit over JACK FUCKING DANIEL’S! I was left clutching my pearls at the thought that my days of easy rye shopping might be over…
Very few things live up to secondary pricing, sadly this one does.
I moved to New Orleans (you all know this by now), and I happened upon a second wave release at a local. I was fortunate to find the last bottle in the store, the rest having sold in minutes. I instinctively purchased it, not because of the value on secondary, but because my previous bottles were almost kaput. I was still shook over how quickly this rye had sold out seemingly everywhere, and how coveted it was on Facebook secondary groups. How could this rye out of Tennessee have become so got damned hype when so many other examples of rye hotness went overlooked (seriously, Kentucky Owl Batch 1 rye can still be found for $150)? That question remains unanswered to this day, but something important happened.
After the release (AJD, try to keep up), it became more and more difficult to land bottles of higher end rye releases. Sure, the standards were all there, as well as the ubiquitous craft MGP, but anything with age on it became a real fucking chore to get. Anything over 8 years in the rye field just gets swooped up (oddly, Canadian rye is stealthily dodging the hype). Seelbach’s has recently been releasing Maryland Heritage ryes (14-year-old MGP), and those things have sold out in seconds! SECONDS! Smokewagon released some experimental MGP ryes, and those things hit $800 on secondary the moment they came out. The collector’s market which had only ever acknowledged Willett rye has finally spilled over into the rye category as a whole, elevating prices, increasing demand (and flipping), and generally ruining it for the rye fan.
In the end, the question is perhaps left unanswered- "Did Jack Daniel’s ruin everything for the rye whiskey fan?” The way this bottle struck the aftermarket like lightning leaves me having experienced that is that it has become increasingly difficult to find rye that stays off the radar. Gone are the care free days of a serendipitous purchase. Before Jack, everything was easy, after Jack, nothing but struggle.
Share your thoughts on this topic below in the comments, and as always thank you for reading.
-Mickey Pinstripe