If you've ever asked a liquor store for Blanton's and gotten a laugh, you've run into allocation. The most wanted bourbons in America (Blanton's, the Weller lineup, E.H. Taylor, Eagle Rare, and the rest of the Buffalo Trace family) are not sold like normal products. They're rationed. This guide explains what allocation actually means, why these bottles are so hard to find, how to improve your odds, and which allocated bourbons Chips Liquor has available right now.
Shop allocated Buffalo Trace bourbon in stock
What "Allocated" Means
American liquor moves through three tiers: the distillery sells to a distributor, the distributor sells to retailers, and the retailer sets the shelf price. When a distillery can't make enough of a brand to meet demand, it stops selling it freely and instead "allocates" a fixed number of cases to each distributor, who in turn allocates a handful of bottles to each store.
Buffalo Trace's Andrew Duncan put it plainly: "a brand goes on allocation when we don't have sufficient supply to meet consumer demand." By his account, nearly every straight bourbon the company sells is now allocated. The distillery has no control over what retailers charge once the bottles leave the distributor.
How many bottles a store gets usually depends on its purchase history with that distributor. Shops that buy a lot of the distributor's other products, consistently, over years, get more. New accounts and small accounts get less, or nothing.
Why Buffalo Trace Can't Just Make More
They're trying. Sazerac, Buffalo Trace's parent company, committed to a $1.2 billion expansion in 2018. By 2022 the distillery had added 14 new warehouses and installed a new column still to double distillation capacity to more than 2,000 barrels a day. Each new warehouse holds about 58,500 barrels.
The problem is time. Weller 12 has to sit in a barrel for 12 years. E.H. Taylor is bottled-in-bond, which means at least four years. Blanton's ages in a single warehouse. Whiskey distilled during the expansion is only now starting to reach bottling age, and demand has grown faster than supply the whole time. As the distillery's Sara Saunders said in 2022, "we will not cut any quality corners by lowering proof or age" to catch up.
The Bottles
Blanton's
Introduced in 1984 by master distiller Elmer T. Lee and named for Colonel Albert B. Blanton, who ran the distillery for decades. It's marketed as the first commercially sold single barrel bourbon, bottled at 93 proof from a high-rye mashbill, and aged in Warehouse H, the only metal-clad warehouse at Buffalo Trace. The eight horse-and-jockey stoppers spell out B-L-A-N-T-O-N-S, which is why people collect them. In stock: Blanton's Single Barrel. See the full Blanton's collection.
Weller
Weller is a wheated bourbon, meaning wheat replaces rye as the secondary grain, the same mashbill family as Pappy Van Winkle. That connection is a big reason the whole line became allocated. The lineup, from entry to top:
- Weller Special Reserve, 90 proof. The green label and the easiest one to find.
- Weller Antique 107, 107 proof. The red label, and the one many drinkers consider the best value in the line.
- Weller 12 Year, 90 proof. The black label, with a 12-year age statement.
- Weller Full Proof, 114 proof. Bottled at the proof it went into the barrel, non-chill-filtered.
- Weller C.Y.P.B., 95 proof. "Craft Your Perfect Bourbon," built from a consumer survey on age, proof, and warehouse position.
See the full Weller collection.
E.H. Taylor, Jr.
Named for Colonel Edmund Haynes Taylor, Jr., who bought the distillery site in the 1870s, built Warehouse C in 1881, and led the push for the Bottled-in-Bond Act of 1897. That law requires bottled-in-bond whiskey to be the product of one distiller at one distillery in one season, aged at least four years in a federally bonded warehouse, and bottled at exactly 100 proof. The E.H. Taylor line launched in 2011 and most of it is bottled-in-bond, with much of it aged in Warehouse C.
- E.H. Taylor Small Batch, 100 proof, bottled-in-bond. The entry point and the most available.
- E.H. Taylor Single Barrel, 100 proof, bottled-in-bond, one barrel per bottling.
- E.H. Taylor Straight Rye, the rye expression of the series.
See the full E.H. Taylor collection.
The Rest of the Buffalo Trace Family
Several other Buffalo Trace single barrels are allocated just as tightly and get less attention. Eagle Rare is the best-known. Elmer T. Lee Single Barrel is named for the man who created Blanton's. Hancock's President's Reserve and Rock Hill Farms are single barrel bourbons from the same distillery that rarely get the hype and are just as hard to find.
How to Actually Get These Bottles
Pick a shop and stick with it. Every guide to bourbon hunting says the same thing because it's true. Stores decide who gets their handful of allocated bottles, and regular customers come first. Buy your everyday bottles where you want to buy your rare ones.
Get on the list. Most independent shops announce allocated arrivals by email or text before they hit the shelf or the website. At Chips Liquor, sign up for our email and SMS alerts and you'll hear about drops first.
Know your state's system. In control states, the state runs the sales. Pennsylvania runs a limited-release lottery through Fine Wine & Good Spirits, one entry per household. Virginia ABC ended its notify-and-drop system in 2024 and now puts allocated bottles on shelves at random times with a one-bottle limit. In an open state like California, it's all up to individual retailers.
Check back after release week. Hunters swarm shops the day a bottle lands and move on. A couple of weeks later, leftover allocations sometimes surface quietly.
Skip the secondary market. Unlicensed resale of spirits is illegal, there's no recourse if the bottle is fake or refilled, and secondary prices have fallen sharply from their 2021 peak anyway.
How We Handle Allocated Bourbon
Most shops sell their allocation to the first person through the door, and it's gone in minutes. We price allocated bottles to the market instead. That means a Blanton's or a Weller 12 costs more here than the sticker price on the box, but it also means the bottle is actually available: you can order it online today and have it shipped to most states instead of chasing a drop you'll never win. For bottles that matter to you, that trade is usually worth it.
Shop all Buffalo Trace bourbon in stock or browse the full bourbon collection.