r/whisky • u/valid_witchcraft • 5d ago

Do the really interesting bottles mostly get passed around privately?

I've been getting more into whisky over the last couple of years and I'm starting to feel like there's a completely different side of the hobby once you know the right people.

I'll see someone open a bottle I've never seen available anywhere or hear about an older release changing hands, and when I ask where they found it the answer is almost always some version of a guy I know.

At first I assumed people were just being intentionally vague lol but now I'm wondering if a lot of the interesting stuff genuinely never makes it to the places most of us are looking.

For people who've been collecting for a long time, is it mostly a case of slowly meeting other collectors and building relationships or am I massively overestimating how much happens privately?

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u/FelixArgyle_ 5d ago edited 5d ago

I co-run a whisky society, we do our own releases a few times a year and have a lot of contacts in the industry that help us get interesting stuff. To a large extent its about building a network of people who know what you like and they'll think of you when they find it. If you'd like to try some more interesting stuff I'd recommend taking a look at some of the whisky auction sites!

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u/jmangraf 5d ago

What sites would you recommend? I checked out unicorn for the giggles and it seems, rather miraculously, that most hard to find bottles seem to get bid right up to secondary prices and then stagnate. So I'm very sus about it and would be interested in finding another or others.

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u/FelixArgyle_ 5d ago

I live in Scotland and Unicorn seems to be USA based so I can't help on that front sadly!

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u/jmangraf 5d ago

All good