WRC - Info about Pappy Van Winkle and other bourbons

Whiskey Reward Club

It is that time of year again, fall releases of rare whiskey.  People start wondering about Pappy Van Winkle and other releases.  It is a good time to re-post this again.   Pappy and BTAC usually arrives late November/December


FAQ:
How do I get Pappy Van Winkle and BTAC?
The only way to get Pappy Van Winkle and Buffalo Trace Antique Collection is through our Whiskey Reward Club. This year's release will be based on 12 months purchases.  The 12 months prior to this year's release.  We will announce the cut off date as we get closer.   As you may know, many people come out of the woodwork this time of year just looking for Pappy, but we want to reward people that have supported us all year long.


How do I get other rare whiskey?
Through our WRC + random bottles will appear on the shelf without notice + through our WRC Pop up program (see more info below). The Pappy Van Winkle Raffle will include some other limited releases that come in between now and the raffle too.

I signed up for the WRC, but I have not received any emails about rare bottles of Whiskey?
We do not generally send out offerings to the whole list, only people whose name was drawn in the weighted raffle get emails informing them that they received a bottle. More info on the weighted raffle below.  Odds are still slim on limited releases.  We are doing the best we can.

How does the weighted raffle work?
How much do I have to spend?
Having accumulated enough data since we started the WRC, we have decided that for every 300 dollars you spend over the course of the 6 months prior to a release (an average $50 per month) you will get one raffle ticket in the lottery. If you spend $800 we will divide by $300 and round (800/300= 2.67, so you would get 3 tickets in the weighted raffle). This way people will not be in the dark on where they stand. You do not have to worry if you are at the top of the list, if you spend more than $300 over the course of the last 6 months, you are in the raffle for the current release. We still take half of our allocation and that goes to the top of the list of WRC and the rest is used for the weighted raffle.  For the Pappy Van Winkle release, it will be $600 for each raffle ticket since it is based over 12 months.  Still an average of $50 a month.

What counts towards the WRC in my purchases?

Everything you purchase counts:  wine, beer, whiskey, tequila, cheese, soda, nuts....everything in our store will count.

Can I retro my previous sales if I just signed up?
No, sorry there is no fair way to do this. We have been advertising on our blog, emails, twitter, facebook for a long time now about the WRC to sign up and telling people that this is how rare releases will be sold.

What are my chances on rare bottles of whiskey?
We do not want to give false hopes. Many releases we get 6 bottles or less, the odds still are not great. We have around 1,500 people in our WRC program now. This is why we started the WRC, how do you decide who gets these 6 bottles of rare whiskey out of thousands of great customers at all of our locations. We are just trying to be as fair as possible.

WHISKEY REWARD CLUB INFO: - click here to sign up This will be the only way to receive Pappy Van Winkle, the Orphan Barrels, Four Roses Limited Releases, Buffalo Trace Experimental, Buffalo Trace Antique Collection, Laphroaig limited releases, Balvenie Tun, limited Japanese Whiskey, and so on with other rare whiskeys.

Your phone number without the area code will be your account number. After you sign up, you must give your phone number without the area code (or last name) every time you check out at any of our stores.Your name will appear on your receipt at the bottom. If your name is not on the receipt you are not getting credit for the purchase. Tell the checker immediately if your name is not on your receipt (or the wrong name is on your receipt).  If you have family members or friends that do not care about rare whiskey, yes you can tell them to put their purchases under your account too.

Here is how we will allocate Whiskey
We base the allocation on the previous 6 months sales at the time of the release (12 months for Pappy, see above). We feel 6 months is a good amount of time to reward regular customers. We also feel that is a good amount of time to let new people sign up and eventually get in on the allocations. The goal of the program is to reward people that shop at the store on a regular basis. We can obviously sell Pappy Van Winkle 1000 times over, but we want to get them in the hands of our regular customers. Without our regulars, we would not be able to get these bourbons. There is no fair way to decide on these, we feel this is the best.

Release of bottles will be based on your total purchases: wine, liquor, beer, cheese, nuts...everything in the store.
The releases will still be a raffle method. But it will be a weighted raffle. The more you spend the better chance you will have as you will get more raffle tickets for each release. We take half of our allocation and that goes to the top of the list and the other half we use a weighted raffle. Now that we have received enough data, we have decided that over the course of 6 months, for every $300 dollars you will get a ticket in the lottery (spending $50 per month). If you spend $600, you will get 2 tickets and so on.


Another way to get bourbons if you join
We will still put random rare whiskey out on the shelf for shoppers to find.  Yes, we do!
Our POS system also allows us to randomly select a Reward member -- when you check out, a message will pop up on our screen saying something like "you have been allocated a bottle of Rare Whiskey from our Rare Whiskey shelf". Again, as a way of rewarding people for shopping in the store. This will be totally random and we will not know until you actually go to purchase something and this note will pop up. This has been very successful in our Beer Reward Club. You will only be allowed to win once every 6 months, then it will reset again.

More important information:
We will post updates when whiskey is coming and when allocation emails have been sent.
You will get an email if you get an allocated whiskey, you have 7 days to pick up or we will draw another name.
There is no fee to sign up, it is free to join.
VERY IMPORTANT: After you sign up, make sure you give your phone number each time you check out. This is how your purchases will be tracked. Sometimes when it gets busy the checker might forget ask you. Just tell them when you are checking out that you are a member of the one of our reward clubs. You do not need to mention if it is beer or whiskey. Plus, we will have some holiday help that will be working at the register that might not ask as they will be part time and new. Your name should appear on your receipt, if it does not, tell the checker immediately because that means your purchases are not being tracked.

You can join if you shop our online store also.
You can be a member of both of our reward clubs. Beer Reward Club and Whiskey Reward Club - you can "order" free memberships to both online.

Guidelines are subject to change. We will evolve the system to make it better based on customer comments and when we see fit. We have been evolving the Beer Reward Club over the past few years and it seems to be getting better and better. We will always give notice when we adjust the guidelines.