Happy New Year Everyone! We are coming down to the wire now that we are just a few weeks away from our massive Rare Whiskey Raffle! This is your one stop shop for raffle items, process details, and strategy towards the end. Let’s get to it!

Raffle Process

Our January raffle will follow a top-down model that we’ve used for our last several raffles. It goes like this:

Sunday 1/19 - The last business day to make purchases eligible for raffle ticket accumulation.

Tuesday 1/21 - The top 147 ticket holders will be emailed a link to fill out their top selection survey. This number reflects the number of available lot choices.

Friday 1/24 - Each customer should submit your survey preferences by the end of the business day. You may provide 1-10 choices, but in submitting this form you are committing to purchase the highest remaining bottle in your ranking. 

Wednesday 1/29 - Customers will be called with their raffle win and to arrange purchase. Once final winnings are announced and purchased, a Second Wave of raffle email links will go out to the next raffle ticket customers in line and the process will repeat. 

Ticket Reduction

Starting Total → New Total

200+ Tickets → 100 Tickets

150-199 Tickets → 75 Tickets

100-149 Tickets → 50 Tickets

40-99 Tickets → 25 Tickets

1-39 Tickets → 0 Tickets

Rules & Fine Print

• By indicating your 1-10 selections you are committing to purchase any of the listed bottles. Refusing a bottle or lot that you’ve chosen will result in a point deduction and forfeiture of your raffle place. Please include only those bottles you agree to purchase.
• Bottles must be purchased within 48 hours of notification of bottle winnings.
• If bottles are not picked up within 60 days, the transaction will be cancelled, point deduction will be taken, and bottles put forward to the next raffle.

Strategy

We bet folks are wondering how to play this out: you’ve got ten possible selections and a whole field of loyal Gordon’s customers to compete against. What’s the dream play? What’s the smart play? Let’s look at the numbers and see how the competition stacks up:

At Last Count:
Let’s take a look at our raffle ticket leaders as of yesterday, January 7th:

1st - 309 Tickets
10th - 217 Tickets
20th - 172 Tickets
50th - 112 Tickets
100th - 82 Tickets
147th - 64 Tickets

There’s plenty of opportunity left to climb the leaderboard, especially our single barrel tasting on 1/18!

Last January Raffle:
What did people win last January using the same system?

1st - George T Stagg 2023
5th - Van Winkle Family Reserve Rye 2023
10th - Parker’s Heritage Combo 16th/17th Eds.
20th - Old Forester Birthday Bourbon
50th - Wild Turkey Master’s Keep Unforgotten
80th - Parker’s Heritage 17th Ed. Rye

Here might be some helpful rules of thumb:

• If you’re not in the top 10, odds are really low at snagging a Pappy or BTAC. Some Lot B or ORVW will be on the board, but we don’t expect the others to remain. 
• Whiskies that have multiple bottles available are excellent odds, especially for folks outside the 30-40th place range.
• Combo packages are incredible ways to enhance the power of your raffle tickets - it’s like winning 2 or 3 raffles!
• Filling your list of 10 selections increases your chances. 
• Internet research, Youtube reviews, and whiskey apps can be incredibly helpful to ranking. You will find that in many cases, the lesser known allocated whiskies score far higher with both critics and general audience than the big names. 

2025 Raffle Calendar

Monday, 1/13 - Point Totals Update Emailed to Customers
Saturday, 1/18 - Last Pre-Raffle Tasting of New Single Barrels (Main St.)
Sunday, 1/19 - Last Day to Purchase Bottles Eligible for Raffle (End of Business Day)
Tuesday, 1/21 - Forms of Top 10 Choices Emailed to Customers
Friday, 1/24 - Form Submissions Due by End of Business Day
Wednesday, 1/29 - Bottle Winnings Announced to Customers 

Thursday, 1/30 - Green River Tasting at Main St
Wednesday, 2/22 - Scotch Walk-Around Tasting at Main St.  

Raffle Items

We’ve got 147 total lots this year, and you’ll notice that, back by popular demand, there are bundles and multi-bottle packages galore!