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Bottle Hunting in the Pacific

Northwest

Sometimes the bottle hunting goes beyond just the Northwest as it did for me and my brother this
last April. It was time for the 40th MMBC show in St. Louis and although we normally fly (having
driven only one other time), this year we decided to drive. Now the last time we drove my son and
daughter–in-law came with us and, although there was some bottle hunting, there was more
sightseeing (Las Vegas, Grand Canyon, Badlands, Mount Rushmore). This time there was much
more bottle hunting. We travelled over 5000 miles (8000 km) though 15 states.

The first day of the trip we travelled from Tacoma Washington
to Twin Falls Idaho. We didn’t stop at any liquor stores in
Washington as we can do that anytime and I wanted to avoid
the 30-40% tax on liquor in the state. Our first stop was in a
small liquor store in Ontario, Oregon. I found this set of
Redbreast Irish whiskies and some Ciroc Black Raspberry
that I picked up to sell at the show. Pete found a boxed set of
Absolute Vodkas that had a bottle with a variation he needed,
not bad for our first stop. We stopped next at a liquor store in
Boise, Idaho. There was a Macallan Sherry Oak cask that I
didn’t realize was a new bottle until later in the trip, so I didn't
buy one. Also, we didn’t find anything of interest at a liquor
store in Twin Falls later that evening.

Next day we headed for Ogden, Utah with plans to visit Ogden's own distillery (they make 5 Wives
Vodka as well as some other liquors). We arrived early in Ogden so stopped at a liquor store only
to find no minis. When we got to the distillery we found it was more of a gift shop (no distillery
tours) and that although they make minis, they cannot sell them in the state of Utah. Pete got a T-
shirt and shot glass and we were off toward Wyoming. Based on the
Billboards in Wyoming the state has two main industries, selling alcohol
(complete with drive through liquor stores) and Fireworks. Many times you
can buy both at the same place and EVERYONE has the cheapest alcohol
and fireworks. We stopped at a few stores in Wyoming where I found a
375ml Huckleberry Vodka and some local liqueurs in plastic. I got the Vodka
for my wife partly as a joke (told her she can use it as a water bottle for
work) but did not want the plastic bottles. After spending the night in
Cheyenne, Wyoming we headed towards Nebraska.

We stopped at a few liquor stores in Nebraska and although I bought some
large bottles for my wife and daughter (the liquor store had a good sale) all
Pete found was a sleeve of new style Van Gogh Vodkas he already had but
could not pass them up at $1 a bottle. Due to flooding issues we were
detoured through Kansas where we found some local plastic bottles but
really had no interest in them. It was then on to Kansas City for the night.

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