My fiancee Carly and I took a weekend road trip to Nashville for a friend’s wedding.  I thought I’d take advantage of some of the liquor stores in the area.  My goal: to find bourbons that aren’t sold in the New Orleans market.

Our first stop was Frugal MacDougal.  This place was huge, but their bourbon selection wasn’t as expansive as I’d hoped.  As I slowly made my way down their bourbon aisle, nobody bothered to ask if I needed help.  I nabbed a bottle of Jim Beam 7 year old for about $15 .  I knew Beam made it, but it was the first time I saw it.  Can’t wait to compare this to the standard 4 year old Jim Beam.

Then it was off to Midtown Wine & Spirits.  The store was a bit more upscale than Frugal MacDougal’s.   After chatting it up with an employee (who coincidentally taught at my old university), I picked up a bottle of Four Roses Single Barrel Barrel Strength at her suggestion, which was an exclusive store bottling.  I don’t remember seeing a barrel strength Four Roses here in New Orleans.  The frustrating thing about Midtown was most of what I asked for I was told they had in stock in the back, but the owner didn’t let employees sell that stuff.   No, I didn’t ask for Pappy Van Winkle.  Strangely enough, where WL Weller 12 year is practically falling off the shelves here in New Orleans, Nashville is experiencing a shortage of sorts.  Apparently very hard to come by up there.

The last stop on my mini-adventure was Grand Cru Wine and Spirits.  It was a much smaller wine and spirits store than the previous two, but the most helpful.  The two gentlemen there were quite helpful.  In fact, one used to live here in New Orleans.   Small world, right?  I grabbed the last two bottles of Old Forester Single Barrel, one for my buddy Hank and one for myself.  I was offered a taste of their selection of Blanton’s.  Boy, it was delicious!  I’ve had a couple of different sips of Blanton’s before, but I liked this one enough to pick it up.  I also walked away with a bottle of Old Grand Dad 114 after being offered a taste.

Grand Cru was by far the place I’d recommend people going to, if you’re not sure what you’re looking for.  The folks at Midtown were also pretty knowledgable.  All in all it was a pretty successful trip in terms of buying bourbon.  Next time, I’d like to hit some of the distilleries.  All the bourbons mentioned will be reviewed here on AdventuresInWhiskey.com at some point in the future.  I can’t wait.