Buffalo Trace kicks off holiday round of PLCB’s rare liquor lotteries
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Anyone who ever wanted tickets to a massively popular concert is familiar with the scenario: Tickets go on sale, and immediately giant blocks of them are snapped up in the first few minutes.
Before the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board instituted its limited-release lotteries in 2015, the same thing happened to state residents hoping to snag a bottle of a rare whiskey.
The web robots also significantly slowed down the state website, said Shawn Kelly, a PLCB spokesman. Pennsylvania residents often lost out on the rare bottles to buyers from other states.
“This year, we have products where there are 135 bottles and some where there’s literally one bottle,” Kelly said. “When you’re dealing with a state as big as Pennsylvania, you want to make sure it’s as fair as possible.”
For the past six years, that has meant conducting a lottery for individual consumers as well as licensees such as bars, restaurants and hotels.
More than 400 bottles from the Kentucky-based Buffalo Trace Antique Collection will be part of the initial lottery. Participants can register for five separate lotteries, one of which includes multiple drawings, and they can opt into one, several or all of the lotteries.
Winners are limited to one bottle per participant.
The top entry, which will be sold for just under $2,000, is a single bottle of Eagle Rare “Double Eagle Very Rare,” a 20-year-old, 90-proof bourbon. Bottles are individually numbered and include a letter of authenticity.
The other bottles subject to their own auctions include:
• Mister Sam Tribute Whiskey, 133 proof, $249.99: 15 for individual consumers and four for licensees.
• Colonel E.H. Taylor Jr. Warehouse C Straight Bourbon, 100 proof, $69.99: 23 for consumers, seven for licensees.
• Old Forester Birthday Straight Bourbon 2020, 98 proof, $129.99: 45 for consumers, 15 for licensees.
A second collection of bottles will be sold via a single lottery for $109.99 each, including:
• Eagle Rare Straight Bourbon, 17 years old, 101 proof: 12 for customers, three for licensees.
• Sazerac Straight Rye Whiskey, 18 years old, 90 proof: 23 for consumers, seven for licensees.
• William Larue Weller Straight Bourbon Barrel Proof: 68 for consumers, 22 for licensees.
• Thomas H. Handy Sazerac Straight Rye Whiskey Barrel Proof: 135 for consumers, 45 for licensees.
Kelly said PLCB officials monitor the demand for certain well-regarded whiskey and bourbon varieties when determining what will be included in each year’s lottery.
“They either have a reputation or there’s a cultural popularity around them,” Kelly said. “Next year, you’ll see Pappy Van Winkle bottles available. Those have a real following.”
Lotteries are open to state residents who can provide a verifiable Pennsylvania billing address and a Fine Wine & Good Spirits store address when they register. Entries are vetted for duplicate names, addresses and other information, and lottery drawings are witnessed by a verified third party.
“We hold the lottery to give folks time to register instead of just sitting at a computer, waiting for the very second it goes on sale,” Kelly said.
Deadline to register is 5 p.m. Friday.
To register, go to FineWineAndGoodSpirits.com and click on “create an account” under the “account” menu at the top of the page.