I was in the liquor store and saw Doc Holiday and Wyatt Earp bourbon. They are expensive. Doc is $44 and Wyatt is $74. Has anyone tried these?
OT: Bourbon question
- Thread starter Olegreyboy
- Start date
Good branding, since this is how bourbon generally treated me:
I'll give you my standard thought on bourbon. You're almost always going to waste money buying something new in the bourbon world unless it's coming from one of the traditional distillers. It's usually sourced from somebody else and way overpriced.
Try the standard offerings from Wild Turkey, Brown Foreman, Beam, Buffalo Trace, Heaven Hill, Four Roses etc, and figure out what you like. There's a whole world of great reasonably priced bourbon out there. Don't chase the marketing.
If you want to go down the rabbit hole on a particular whiskey, I think these guys do a good job reviewing things honestly...
www.breakingbourbon.com
Doc Holliday Bottled in Bond Straight Bourbon (2025) Review | Breaking Bourbon
The Doc Holliday brand breaks into the Bottled in Bond scene with an affordable and adventurous Oklahoma-sourced bourbon, but its unique flavor profile may turn off some. Review and tasting notes for Doc Holliday Bottled in Bond Straight Bourbon (2025).
www.breakingbourbon.com
ThanksIf you want to go down the rabbit hole on a particular whiskey, I think these guys do a good job reviewing things honestly...
Doc Holliday Bottled in Bond Straight Bourbon (2025) Review | Breaking Bourbon
The Doc Holliday brand breaks into the Bottled in Bond scene with an affordable and adventurous Oklahoma-sourced bourbon, but its unique flavor profile may turn off some. Review and tasting notes for Doc Holliday Bottled in Bond Straight Bourbon (2025).
1. $44 and $74 isn't expensive bourbon.
2. A Doc Holiday at $44 isn't bad. Hard to find decent pours below $50 these days. I'd personally go with Green River if I'm going cheaper.
It's true for me. For what I like, it's hard to find bourbon below $50 (In MS). Now, Scotch, I can find it for much better prices. I can go out of state and find more. MS's monopoly game has run up pricing and pricing was already stupid.
Then you simply like higher dollar bourbon, which is fine, but saying it's hard to buy a decent bottle for less than $50 is silly.
And yes, $75 is an expensive bottle of bourbon. Even today.
I would like to know where you are finding Scotch at much better pricing, that has not been my experience at all. Could also be just my preferences in Scotches.
To answer the OP's question, Bourbons are a matter of preference, there will be folks that swear by Blanton's, but I would much rather have BT or Eagle Rare that is a fraction of the cost. How you consume this is a factor as well, neat or on a block is a huge swing from mixing it with Diet Coke. To each his own, but everyones taste preferences vary.
Definitely not. I have a friend who gives me moonshine in a variety of flavors. I summoned the courage to drink some strawberry about a week ago because he was drinking it in front of me and I didn't want to insult him. He is about 6 feet tall, weighs about 280, and slings a big chainsaw around like it's part of his hand. It didn't kill me or put me in the hospital. Not yet anyway.
I've found two I like in MS that are less than $50. That's it.
To the OP I haven't had either of those bottles.
1. Expensive bourbon is all a matter of perspective. If you regularly spend less than $30 a bottle then yes $75 is expensive. Personally I believe that expensive whiskey is usually better but there is a diminishing rate of return. In other words a $60 bottle is usually twice as good as a $30 bottle but a $150 bottle isn't twice as good as a $75 bottle, it is probably better but not twice as good. I will also add that in a blind there are several expensive bottles that might get their feelings hurt against Wild Turkey Rare Breed.
2. I agree that the legacy distillers are hard to beat and their prices for their core line-up are impossible to beat. However, I disagree that there isn't good whiskey coming from some of the craft distillers and some of the Non Distiller Producers (NDP). There are plenty of good NDPs that source or contract distill whiskey, sometimes blending them and putting out some great whiskey. I recently received a great bottle from a friend that was distilled by MGP then sourced and aged in Colorado. Then the barrel was picked by a whiskey club.
I'll put up Pursuit United's rye up against any legacy distiller's rye with exception of maybe JD, granted you can't get Pursuit United in Mississippi. But there other NDPs that are good blenders that you can get in Mississippi, K. Luke for example. I would recommend trying craft whiskey before you buy. There is some good craft whiskey but it is going to be different than whiskey produced by legacy distillers. I personally like J T Meleck, it's a rice whiskey and I promise that most would not know that it isn't a bourbon.
edit to add that probably my 2nd favorite bottle that I have open on my bar (and I have more than a few open) is a Short Barrel rye SiB pick that is sourced from MGP.
3. Can you get a good pour from a $50 bottle? Yes. Rare Breed (I understand it is over $50 some places but I get it at Costco for $39), Four Roses SiB, Early Times BiB, 1792 BiB, Knob Creek 9 y/o, Wild Turkey 8 y/o there are many more examples but those are just a few off off the top of my head and I didn't name any BT. Are they as good and as complex as Michter's 10? No but if you can't drink those neat and enjoy them then that's a problem.
Drink what you like the way you like it. Cheers
1. Expensive bourbon is all a matter of perspective. If you regularly spend less than $30 a bottle then yes $75 is expensive. Personally I believe that expensive whiskey is usually better but there is a diminishing rate of return. In other words a $60 bottle is usually twice as good as a $30 bottle but a $150 bottle isn't twice as good as a $75 bottle, it is probably better but not twice as good. I will also add that in a blind there are several expensive bottles that might get their feelings hurt against Wild Turkey Rare Breed.
2. I agree that the legacy distillers are hard to beat and their prices for their core line-up are impossible to beat. However, I disagree that there isn't good whiskey coming from some of the craft distillers and some of the Non Distiller Producers (NDP). There are plenty of good NDPs that source or contract distill whiskey, sometimes blending them and putting out some great whiskey. I recently received a great bottle from a friend that was distilled by MGP then sourced and aged in Colorado. Then the barrel was picked by a whiskey club.
I'll put up Pursuit United's rye up against any legacy distiller's rye with exception of maybe JD, granted you can't get Pursuit United in Mississippi. But there other NDPs that are good blenders that you can get in Mississippi, K. Luke for example. I would recommend trying craft whiskey before you buy. There is some good craft whiskey but it is going to be different than whiskey produced by legacy distillers. I personally like J T Meleck, it's a rice whiskey and I promise that most would not know that it isn't a bourbon.
edit to add that probably my 2nd favorite bottle that I have open on my bar (and I have more than a few open) is a Short Barrel rye SiB pick that is sourced from MGP.
3. Can you get a good pour from a $50 bottle? Yes. Rare Breed (I understand it is over $50 some places but I get it at Costco for $39), Four Roses SiB, Early Times BiB, 1792 BiB, Knob Creek 9 y/o, Wild Turkey 8 y/o there are many more examples but those are just a few off off the top of my head and I didn't name any BT. Are they as good and as complex as Michter's 10? No but if you can't drink those neat and enjoy them then that's a problem.
Drink what you like the way you like it. Cheers
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I'm not talking moonshine, I'm talking bourbon. I can get some dang good shine anytime LOL.
Meleck is solid. I've had some Canadian that's solid. K Luke is real hit or miss, Batch 3 was lights out! And it's way over priced. The legacy distillers have some many off brands now, even they hit sometimes. Bardstown has several and I think Green River is one of theirs. Honestly, bourbon is way overpriced with secondary pricing still killing us in MS. I can get a solid Whiskey Tree in LA for around $50 but in MS it's $90. Old Dom says some around $50 that are good. You can get a good 12 yr old Scotch for less than a bad bourbon in a lot of cases.
Bardstown is a great example. They aren't a legacy distiller and they got started sourcing whisking until their own juice got old enough. And their best whiskey (the Discovery Series) is stilled sourced.
Just to be clear, I didn't mean that sourced whiskeys can't be good. They absolutely can and many are.
But it just stands to reason that if they're sourcing the whiskey and marketing a new brand, you're paying a premium for it. That's why I said you're likely wasting money. Especially if you're new to the bourbon world.
And there are a lot of $35 to $50 bottles out there that don't come close to measuring up to EW Black or Wild Turkey 101 or hell even Benchmark in some cases.
There's a bunch. If you can't enjoy 4-5 of the following, you probably should find something outside of bourbon to drink.
Early Times BiB
WT Rare Breed
Russell's 10 year
WT 101
Evan Williams BiB
Maker's
Maker's 46
Maker's 101
Maker's Cask Strength
Old Grand Dad BiB
Cooper's Craft
Knob Creek
Woodford Reserve
4 Roses
JW Dant
JTS Brown
There's many more, but I shall stop here.
Have you seen a doctor? Jk, I personally can't stand BuffaloTrace. Taste like they left a trace of the buffalo in the bottle.
I would fall on the side where $44 is mid-priced so not in the expensive category. If you want a good strong Bourbon that is low priced can't do much better than Evan Williams BIB. I use that to put in my fancy ship in the bottle decanter.
I like trying new Bourbons but since it takes 5+ years to make the better ones if you haven't seen it on the shelves before it is probably sourced.
A few years back I bought a Bradshaw Bourbon. It was 103.8 proof and had 4 Roman numerals on the label. I got it because it was different and didn't really think about it much. I was halfway through that bottle when I finally realized those were Superbowl numbers and it was Terry Bradshaw (the ABV is 59.1% same as his completion percentage). It was in the 40 range and was fine drinking. However I am pretty sure Terry Bradshaw isn't going to the distillery every day to oversee his Bourbon.
I like trying new Bourbons but since it takes 5+ years to make the better ones if you haven't seen it on the shelves before it is probably sourced.
A few years back I bought a Bradshaw Bourbon. It was 103.8 proof and had 4 Roman numerals on the label. I got it because it was different and didn't really think about it much. I was halfway through that bottle when I finally realized those were Superbowl numbers and it was Terry Bradshaw (the ABV is 59.1% same as his completion percentage). It was in the 40 range and was fine drinking. However I am pretty sure Terry Bradshaw isn't going to the distillery every day to oversee his Bourbon.
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