On of the unfortunate things about living in a state with extremely tight liquor control is that there are spirits which you simply can’t find for sale. There was a period of time in Oregon when green chartreuse wasn’t being sold because the Oregon Liquor Control Commission had thought that yellow and green were basically the same thing and filled orders just for yellow.
In Oregon we also pay fairly high liquor taxes so it is often less expensive to order premium spirits online (even when you have to pay shipping).
Given all this and based on a recommendation from whiskey maven Lance Mayhew, I decided to give DrinkUpNY.com a try to pick up three premium spirits on my wish list:
- Parker’s Heritage Collection Golden Anniversary Bourbon
- Ardbeg Ten Year Single Malt
- Caol Ila 12 year Single Malt
Drink Up New York offers free shipping on orders over $100 and with an order of three premium spirits I hit that threshold pretty easily. My order was shipped via Fex Ex ground and took seven days to reach me in Portland. Everything was packed very well, which helps when Fed Ex brutalizes the package (as they did with this one).
The shopping experience at DrinkUpNY is pretty straight forward and they stock a number of hard to find spirits at prices which are extremely competitive. Drink Up NY has an Oregon whiskey – Clear Creek’s McCarthy’s Single Malt, Pot Distilled Whiskey which is absolutely impossible to find in Oregon and they’ve got it for $10 off the selling price.
It would be really nice to have more speciality stores locally that sold spirits, I’d love to benefit from the knowledge and experience of someone who sells spirits day in and day out, but with such good prices on top quality spirits it’s hard to pass up ordering it online.
I’d love to hear reader’s thoughts on other places online to order spirits. What is your favorite?
