If you know anything about me, one of the things you’re likely to know is that I love whiskey (or whisky, if you prefer). I love all kinds, and second only to sitting back in the evening and slowly sipping on a good, peaty Islay Scotch whisky, I absolutely love the hunt for new and exciting, rare (to me at least) bottles of the water of life.
Okay, that may be coming off a little strong. I don’t actually drink as much as this makes it seem that I do. I would love to, but then I would be constantly running out, and liquor isn’t cheap!
Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, the hunt. For example: I was given a bottle of a whiskey made here in Lancaster, PA as a wedding gift in late 2014, Bombergers whiskey. It was good, I enjoyed it, I eventually ran out. Then, before I knew it, the distillery closed. Sad face. It eventually, sort of, was reborn as “Stoll & Wolfe”. When they opened their distillery/tasting room/bar, I went and got a bottle of their Rye. Good stuff as well. In talking to the owner (or one of the owners at least) of Stoll & Wolfe I realized that I had one of the last bottles of Bomberger’s. And it was long gone. I had search all over the place in PA (PA has really odd liquor laws, FYI), and couldn’t find it.
Fast forward to the summer of 2018. I’m on vacation with my wife and we’re visiting the small beach town of Montauk, NY, when we decided to check the local liquor stores for anything out of the ordinary or hyper local to the area. My wife looked down at the counter by the register, and lo-and-behold, you guessed it:
Holy hell! All the way out here in Montauk, NY, in some random liquor store, I find a whiskey from my home town that had gone out of business years earlier? Yeah, I bought a bottle.
Then, as we were walking around town, we decided to check out another liquor store (my wife can’t stand whiskey, but loves the hunt as well, says it’s like going back to her childhood and collecting pogs or something). And what do they have in there? Another bottle! I decided to leave that bottle on the shelf (but I did tell the owner of that liquor store that the distillery had gone out of business, so that bottle is getting more and more rare as time goes on), but I only decided to leave it because this store also had something else I’ve been trying to find for years:
I love absolutely anything and everything that I’ve tried from Michter’s (who, coincidentally is tied to Bomberger’s and Stoll and Wolfe, but that’s a long story that I’ll just add a link to… here.
Anyway, Michter’s Sour Mash is a small batch whiskey, so with the rise in popularity of all whiskeys, they ran out! I believe sometime in 2016 the distributors ran dry, from what I can tell. And while I’m sure that more of this will start appearing on shelves as Michter’s is able to make more, it has proven to be as elusive as it is delicious.
We bought three bottles (they had four in stock). Gave one as a gift to the person who’s house we were staying in, and kept two for myself.
I love this game, it’s delicious.