A quick update!

coming soon!First of all, I want to apologize for letting Bourbon Central sit dormant for far too long now. Life has gotten in the way a bit these past 6 months or so. I must say it’s largely been in good ways, so I can’t complain! Even so, I owe you better.

Suffice to say, we have more articles and reviews queued up and are looking to refresh the design of the site in the coming months.

For those few loyal readers / subscribers, again, sorry for the delay! I hope that as we get back in to the swing of things, we win back your attention. And for all you newcomers, stay a while and enjoy what we have on offer, maybe read a few of our essential or popular bourbon articles.

Stay tuned, there’s plenty more to come.

Happy sipping!

The Dusty Hunt – Part 2

Continued from Part 1

Ever take a close look at a bottle of bourbon? Probably only close enough to check out the price tag and maybe the proof, but there are a couple of clues that reside on that bottle that tell a story few consumers will ever know.

By loose definition, a dusty bottle is any bottle of bourbon that is out of production and the dusty hunt is the act of rummaging through a liquor store looking for older, out of production bourbons. The sheer volume of information on out of production bourbon’s is too much to articulate in these short articles. What I will attempt is to give you some basic information and guidelines on what to look for and where to look for older bottles of bourbon. Believe it or not, there are many stores that still carry bourbon that are 20, 30 or more years sitting on the shelf just waiting for someone to come along and snatch them up; or, if not on the shelves, sitting in a cardboard box in the back store room.

I’ll digress for a moment and tell a story that happened the summer of 2007. My brother and I were hunting in a major metropolitan city and walked into a downtown liquor store. Instantly my eyes began to scan the shelves looking for bottles that would tell me this store had gems to offer. Within a few moments my eyes locked on a bottle of Old Fitzgerald Bottled in Bond. Instantly I knew that bottle was a prize so I asked the proprietor if I could see the bottle. Sure enough, this is a major find, a 1965 distilled Stitzel Weller Old Fitzgerald Bottled in Bond. The bourbon was 6 years old so the bottling was done in 1971. One of the holy grails of dusty bottles and I now held two of them in my hand. The damage? $11.95 each. So, do the math, 2007 minus 1971 would make that bottle 36 years sitting on the shelf. Oh, and by the way, it’s one of the best bourbons I’ve ever had.

I promised in the previous article that we would discuss some of the factors to look for when seeking out that dusty bottle. First, we’ll discuss the bottle itself. The glass bottle comes with various markings on the front, back and in particular, the bottom of the bottle. Most, but not all, bottle manufacturers place a 2 digit number on the bottom of their bottles denoting the year the bottle was produced. This is important because this is a key indicator of the year the bourbon was bottled. Distilleries do not store glass bottles and when delivered, those bottles go into the bottling line. So, if you see 78 or 82 or 99 on the bottom of a bottle, you can reasonably assume that the bottle was produced in 1978, 1982 or 1999 respectively. Another indicator of a bottles age is whether the volume is listed in metric or standard. A pint, quart or gallon bottle will indicate pre 1980 before metric took over. A bottle that has both metric and standard will indicate the transition years typically between 1978 and 1980. Metric only will then indicate early 80’s and on.

In part 3 we’ll continue our discussion on visual indicators to look for when dusty hunting.

Happy hunting!

The Dusty Hunt – Part 1

If you’re dusty hunting in your home you’re probably spending an afternoon cleaning the house. If you’re a bourbon enthusiast and dusty hunting, you’re more than likely lurking in some seedy downtown liquor store looking for that special “dusty” bottle of bourbon.

Dusty hunting can be described as looking for that out of production bottle of bourbon that once found elevates the heart and respiration rate as the excitement of finding such a gem is realized. Holding the bottle in your hand, turning it over and looking for those special markings that give tell tale signs of what you now hold is something special. That’s right, an older bottle of bourbon has markings that will give away its heritage, age and many times the goodness that resides on the inside.

While finding that special bottle is terrific, that’s only half of the game. The other half is the actual hunt. Moving from store to store scouring the shelves for bottles that are no longer in production, just sitting there waiting for someone to notice it. The whole process is an exciting one for the true enthusiast.

In the articles that follow, we’ll go through the information you will need to be truly educated in the art of dusty hunting. With this information, you will notice bottles that once eluded your gaze but now jump out and scream “I’m here….buy me!”

In part 2, we’ll discuss the specifics of what to look for on bottles that give away their true value to the enthusiast such as the glass bottle itself; the label; the cap; and sometimes, the lack of information says it all.

Read on to Part 2