Buffalo Trace Announces 2017 Antique Collection

Bourbon powerhouse Buffalo Trace Distillery has announced the lineup for its 2017 Antique Collection. The hotly anticipated release includes three bourbons and two ryes, all with a suggested retail price of $90 a bottle. Of course, fans of the Antique Collection know that the actual retail price often comes in well above what the distillery suggests—with secondary market pricing climbing much higher year after year. Buffalo Trace doesn't disclose how many bottles are available of each whiskey, but there are never enough to satisfy demand. The bottles will hit shelves in October.What to do if you want to get your hands on a bottle? Hope that your local liquor store gets an allocation, and find out how it plans to distribute the wealth. Some stores put the bottles on the shelf, but many hold drawings or lotteries, or announce the release and allow customers to line up ahead of time. If you don't manage to get a bottle at retail, auction houses often have past releases (and these days, even recent releases are showing up at auction, as "flippers" buy the bottles at retail price and immediately try to resell them for much more).Read on for full details on this year's Antique Collection.

Buffalo Trace Distillery 2017 Antique Collection

George T. StaggStyle: BourbonAge: 15 years oldProof: 64.6% ABVPrice: $90Number of barrels: 309This batch is slightly larger than last year's—309 barrels were bottled from warehouses C, K, M, and Q.William Larue WellerStyle: Straight bourbonAge: 12 years oldProof: 64.1% ABVPrice: $90Number of barrels: 155This whiskey was distilled in winter 2005 and aged in warehouses D, I, and P.Thomas H. Handy Sazerac RyeStyle: Straight ryeAge: 6 years oldProof: 63.6% ABVPrice: $90Number of barrels: 72Distilled in spring 2011, the barrels were aged on the third, fourth, and fifth floors of the K, L, and Qwarehouses.Eagle Rare 17 Year OldStyle: Straight bourbonAge: 17 years oldProof: 45% ABVPrice: $90Number of barrels: 36This whiskey's barrels matured on the first, second, and third floors of warehouses C, K, and P.Sazerac Rye 18 Year OldStyle: Straight ryeAge: 18 years oldProof: 45% ABVPrice: $90Number of barrels: 25This whiskey was distilled in the spring of 1998 and spent 18 years aging in new charred oak barrels. In 2016 the barrels were emptied into a stainless steel tank to prevent further maturation and evaporation.