Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board Doing More Rare Whiskey Lotteries

For those of us who live in control states, it is often a crapshoot knowing whether the powers which be (i.e. the state liquor control board) have a clue as to the craze around rarer whiskies like Van Winkle and the BTAC bottlings. One who definitely gets this though is the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board (PLCB), who we’ve highlighted before for their rather innovative use of a lottery system to determine sales eligibility. They are now back again with use of this technique, planning four separate lotteries which are being run simultaneously for residents and licensees.

The PLCB said its second set of these lotteries for this year will be held on Monday, Aug. 22, offering 366 bottles of four bourbons and one rye whiskey for sale to lottery winners. Residents will have until 11 PM on August 20 to register for the following five products:

• Lottery One features 150 bottles (113 for individual consumers, 37 for licensees) of Colonel E.H. Taylor, Jr. Seasoned Wood Bourbon. Each 750 milliliter bottle costs $89.99.
• Lottery Two features 72 bottles (54 for individual consumers, 18 for licensees) of Four Roses Elliot’s Select Limited Edition Single Barrel Bourbon. This barrel-strength bourbon, released in June, is Brent Elliot’s first limited-edition release as master distiller, a post he assumed in September 2015. Each 750 milliliter bottle costs $124.99.
• Lottery Three features 48 bottles (36 for individual consumers, 12 for licensees) of Willett Family Estate Single Barrel Three-Year-Old Rye. This cask strength, non-chill filtered rye is a small batch Kentucky straight rye whiskey distilled, aged and bottled at Willett Distillery in Bardstown, Kentucky. In bottling the whiskey, the distillery commingled a higher percentage of high rye Willett mash bill (74 percent rye, 11 percent corn, 15 percent malted barley) with a lower percentage of the low rye Willett mash bill (51 percent rye, 34 percent corn, 15 percent malted barley). Each 750 milliliter bottle costs $52.99.
• Lottery Four features 48 two-bottle sets (36 for individual consumers, 12 for licensees) of Buffalo Trace offerings that experimented with applying infrared light to barrels to learn how new and different flavors could be drawn from the oak. Each two-bottle set costs $129.99 and includes one 375 milliliter bottle of each of the following products.
  • Group 1 Buffalo Trace Experimental Collection Infrared Light Wave Barrels Bourbon came from barrels exposed to 15 minutes of short- and medium-wave frequency at 70 percent power prior to char.
  • Group 2 Buffalo Trace Experimental Collection Infrared Light Wave Barrels Bourbon came from barrels exposed to 30 minutes of short- and medium-wave frequency at 60 percent power prior to char.

If this happens to grab your interest, and you are a Pennsylvania resident or licensee “age 21 or older who [can] provide both a verifiable Pennsylvania billing address and a Fine Wine & Good Spirits store address at registration,” then you are eligible to enter. Purchase is limited to one bottle per household, per lottery, and to enter visit the Limited-Release Lottery web page at the state’s online liquor website, which can be found under the “Events” tab.