Happy Friday!

Thanks to everyone who’s been helping us test our new will call system with the website this week. Lots of people taking advantage of our ridiculous $24.99 price on Lagavulin 9 year and the other Game of Thrones whiskies.

Here’s what’s happening in the world of booze this week:

• Our friends at Four PIllars have done it again! Two years in a row as the world’s best gin. Now do you believe me when I tell you it’s the best gin in the world?

• We just got a bunch of Old Tub Bottled-in-Bond Bourbon in today and I’m very excited to try it. This came out during my hiatus from retail, so I’ve never tasted it. Let me say this: things have completely flipped with Jim Beam since I left. They used to have—in my opinion—one of the less interesting portfolios in Bourbon, but now I’d have to say they’re the best value option for mid-tier quality around, and the quality has gone up, up, up since the Suntory merger. The new Baker’s 7 is OUTSTANDING. Knob Creek 9 year old at 100 proof is rocking my world (and having the age statement back helps with credibility). Now we can get 4+ year old, 50% classic Beam for $18.95 with Old Tub. How can you not help but get excited, especially when I read reviews like this?

• Watches…..the more I read about them, the more I realize it’s just another version of the whisky industry. I’ve been going through this book called 100+ No BS Watch Tips and if I ever wrote a book, this is the format and the style I would use—quick points, lots of cussing, etc. In any case, I was fascinated that at one point 80% of all watch movements (the motors) all came from one manufacturer; meaning you’d start a watch design and marketing company, but the base of the watch was outsourced. However, one day that movement manufacturer, owned by Swatch, decided they didn’t want other companies getting rich off their materials, so they shut off access. Sound familiar? This is exactly what happened with blended whisky. Everyone used to buy from what is now Diageo, until they cut off supply. That’s why every corporation in the world began buying up distilleries in Scotland—so that they could have enough whiskey for their blended brands like Chivas, Dewar’s, etc—once they could no longer purchase from Diageo distilleries. Apparently the same thing happened with watches, so now companies have to produce their movements in-house—and they’re expensive. Just like when small distillers do everything in house. It costs more.

-David Driscoll