I am lucky guy. After two miscarriages, my wife and I were lucky enough to have a wonderful little man who keeps me on my toes. Literally.

When he was born, I decided to start him a collection. A collection of bourbon that is. It all started a when I read an article about how a guy sold his collection of scotch to buy his first house and each bottle was a gift for his dad for each year he was alive. It sounded like a pretty good idea, but I wanted to do it with a little bit different twist.

Instead of a bottle of scotch for each birthday, I decided to buy my son a bottle of bourbon for each of his birthdays and saving them until he turned 21 years old. Once he turned 21, I will turn over the collection to him with the following recommendation:

Each year on your birthday, I would like to buy you a new bottle and we drink the oldest bottle you have. So we always have something to look forward to for your birthday.

Since his birthday is coming up soon, I figured I would put together an update of the collection thus far and use this as a running journal that I can share with my son once he turns 21 years old.

So here it goes. The start of the 21 year bourbon collection:

Year 1 – Henry McKenna Single Barrel – Bottled-In-Bond

This was an interesting pick because I haven’t tried this bourbon. I wouldn’t have done this, but the story is just too good. I made sure to tell it in the card I taped to the back of the bottle.

Here’s what happened:

I walked into a local liquor store on a Monday afternoon and I was staring at the bourbon aisle trying to decide how in the world to start this collection. I was bouncing back and forth between a few selections when the guy behind the counter asked me if he could help. I said:

Yes. I need to buy a bottle of bourbon for my 1 year old.

Me

After a strange look, I explained what I was doing and he got a big smile on his face. He walked back into the back room and said:

I shouldn’t do this, but that story is too amazing. Here you go.

Nice Liquor Store Guy

I have no idea if this will be good, but I think it has a fighting chance. A bottled-in-bond barrel pick can’t be bad. Right!?! At least that’s what I’m going to tell myself.

So that’s pick #1 – A blind pick of Henry McKenna Single Barrel – Bottled-In-Bond from a nice man at the liquor store.

Year 2 – West Fork Old Hamer Spiced Cherry Cobbler Barrel Pick (Indiana Liquor Group)

When it came to year #2, I had to try to top year #1’s story if possible. And I realized the only way to do that was to share a story of my own.

If you have read my story about the origin of the Bourbon Master, you know that my love for bourbon really drills down to the story. I want to be able to know the people, the distillery, etc and that helps me understand the craft I’m about to drink in a glass.

When I think back to the first barrel pick that really made me go “whoa,” I think back to the Spiced Cherry Cobbler pick of Old Hamer from Indiana Liquor Group. I tasted a few barrel picks before, but I never fell in love with one like I did with this one. I drank two bottles of this (with friends) and I would have drank this one if I didn’t put it on his shelf.

So when thinking about what bottle to get my son, I decided to get him a bottle of this pick. It was the last one on the shelf and I couldn’t pass it up.

My Next Pick – Year 3

As his birthday rolls around this year, I am stumped once again on which bourbon to select to add to my son’s collection.

If you were given the option, what would be your selection to add to my son’s collection? Would you go with a barrel select? Would you go with an allocated bottle? Would you go with something 100% off the wall?

If you are a distillery, why should I pick your bottle? What would make your bourbon special enough to be consumed 21 years from now with the best thing that has ever happened to me?

Let me know your thoughts below.