Quote:
Originally Posted by El Diablo
Dem,
How many people were in line? Did people know that prob something like only the first two or three would get a bottle of 20/23, or were there a bunch of really disappointed people?
We got there at 2:45. The third guy showed up at 4 o'clock. By 6 o'clock there were five of us. By 9 o'clock there were 25. I think the total by time of open was 50-60. No one in the top 15 people was there last year, which was odd to me. Last year they announced it the Saturday before Thanksgiving at noon for release the next day at 12:30 PM. I had to work that night and got in line at 4:30 AM and was 11th in line. So I'm not sure if it was just a matter of having three days to prepare, more hype, or a combination of both, but people lined up way earlier this year.
What was kind of annoying was that most of the people in line were just there for "pappy" and really didn't know much about whiskey in general. This older guy who brought his wife was legit going to get a 10 year Van Winkle over a William Laurie Weller and it took some real convincing to make him understand that was an idiotic choice. He ended up with a Van Winkle Rye and WLW.
There was a lot of disappointment because the allocation was much, much smaller than last year. Last year there were 3 of each Family Reserve and a ton of 10 and 12 year. A lot of people towards the end of the line where walking out with Weller Special Reserve this year.