WASHINGTON — Whether mixed in an Old Fashioned cocktail or enjoyed neat, Bourbon is the legendary corn-based, oak-barreled Kentucky-style whiskey.
"It took me a few years to find it at a reasonable price I was willing to pay."
From his Maryland home bar, Rob Edrington uses an app to track prices he's paid for hard-to-find bottles, including the Old Carter Bourbon he bought for $160 rather than $300 online.
"I would rate the bourbon market similar to the stock market. You can go out and listen to ten different people on what to buy today and tomorrow. It may plummet. For the bourbon, it's about the demand," added Edrington.
The bourbon market is divided into three ways.
When sold in Virginia or Montgomery County, Maryland, distilled spirits are sold at government stores close to manufacturers' suggested retail price, but with some bourbons rarely stocked.
"If your time is more valuable than your money, we can make it very easy for you," explained Prav Saraff, owner of 1 West Dupont Wines and Liquors.
In D.C., stores can legally buy liquors from private collectors. That makes rare-to-find bourbons common sights on shelves at places like Saraff's.
"Because we have this thirst from our client base, which is overwhelming, and because we have this client base, which is essentially the 'who's who locally and the country and somewhat globally as well, a lot of those guys, they don't care what things cost," explained Saraff.
A bourbon bottle with an MSRP of around $50 can quadruple in price, pricing out customers like Edrington.
"I have three daughters in college right now, and so there's certain things I'm just not willing to pay for."
D.C. is described by liquor store owners as "The Wild West" of Bourbon because of its lack of regulations. But in a throwback to Prohibition-era liquor raids, a Kentucky-based business had boxes of bourbon seized in January at their D.C. warehouse. It later admitted to not maintaining proper records about the bottles it imported into D.C. for sale on the unregulated market here.
The third way the bourbon market is divided is a compromise, as stores sell bourbon at close to MSRP, but tell customers they've got to wait up to several months to get a particular bottle.
"It's all matter what you're going to do to get these bottles. Are you going to buy other products? Are you going to have a conversation and build a relationship or are you just going to shell out the cash?," explained George Fotis, owner of Baltimore's Drug City Pharmacy.
We met with Maryland liquor store owners Fotis and Justin Jarvis at Drug City Pharmacy's upstairs bar. They say they're trying to keep bourbon open to a community, not just to those who can pay elevated prices.
"The domino effect of that is once stores hear about other stores getting $200 for this bottle, then they say, 'Well, why can't I?' And then it's a domino effect. And then in reality, when you want people to enjoy this whiskey because it is a consumable and they are making more, then it becomes, oh, it just depends on how much money you have," said Allview Liquors owner Justin Jarvis.
One idea these two have is for retailers to be fully transparent about what they paid for bottles, right next to how much they're charging.
"It would be a great move by all retailers just to throw it out there and their bottles will move regardless. But what that does is, is removes the buyer's remorse that happens down the road when they realize maybe they paid too much," said Fotis.
Liquor distributors tell us they believe the next major price boom they expect involves tequila and mezcal due to its increasing popularity.