Buffalo Trace’s Limited Ban Collection Spotted at Costco for a Bargain

Last October, whiskey distillery Buffalo Trace announced its new annual limited-edition Prohibition collection, to wide acclaim. If you haven’t already purchased a set of five whiskeys, you should know that Costco recently added the Prohibition Collection to its shelves at a significant 20% off the Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price (MSRP). According to one Reddit user, this reduced the cost from almost $1,000 to $800 at a store in Arizona. At this point, we’re not really surprised to see rare whiskeys sold at Costco, but this set has us a little perplexed.

For starters, the Prohibition collection hasn’t even been out for a full year. For most distilleries, this wouldn’t raise any red flags for us. But consumers have demonstrated time and time again that Buffalo Trace has their utmost trust and respect, resulting in a quick and competitive purchase of almost every limited release it releases. We tried and ranked every bottle in the Buffalo Trace Prohibition collection when it was released in October, and our team really liked what the set offered in terms of flavor.

But then we noticed that the asking price was a bit high, given that all five whiskeys came in 375 milliliter bottles, which is significantly less than the 750 milliliter volume that whiskey typically contains. It’s entirely possible that we’re reading too much into this, but the collection’s arrival on Costco shelves might indicate less success than the distillery had anticipated. Or they’re just clearing the shelves for this year’s release.

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Ban Collection Pays Homage to History

Aside from the hefty price tag, the Prohibition Collection is an exciting piece of bourbon archeology that honors the long history of the Buffalo Trace Distillery, which is the oldest continuously operating distillery in America. Prohibition lasted from 1920 to 1933, effectively killing the domestic whiskey industry. Luckily for us, there was a loophole that made bourbon legal during Prohibition, as long as it was labeled as medicine. The medicinal whiskeys produced and sold by Buffalo Trace during Prohibition are the inspiration for this collection.

There are five different whiskeys in the 2023 collection. Old Stagg and Walnut Hill are both straight bourbons, Spiritus Frumenti is a wheat bourbon, Three Feathers is a bourbon blend, and Golden Wedding is a straight rye (which we’ve graded as the best of the group). It’s hard to say for sure since Buffalo Trace hasn’t released the mash bills, but they appear to be variations on the original Prohibition-era whiskey recipes, adorned with exact replicas of the labeling that ‘they would have had at the time.

While the whiskeys themselves are perfectly fine for sipping, the price combined with the over-emphasis on marketing makes us feel like this collection is for taters (a tater is one of several bourbon terms and refers to a novice whiskey collector who easily falls for the hype). It would be different if the bottles were normal size. Either way, if you have some extra spending money and like the concept, know that it’s cheaper at Costco than almost anywhere else.

Read the original article on the tasting table