Where Did All the Bargain Bourbon Go? Blame the Whiskey Mania.

The pandemic drove demand higher by combining unexpected free time, in the form of quarantines, with unexpected money, from a booming stock market and government stimulus checks.

Social media then amplified the hype. For many, the so-called crotch shot, in which a lucky buyer posts a photo on Instagram of his latest find, ideally taken from the driver’s seat just after leaving a liquor store, has become a status symbol. Depending on the bottle, it can be as potent as a Rolex-clad wrist.

While some people will drink those bottles, others will flip them on the illegal secondary market, often for much more than they paid, or hold onto them as an investment.

“There’s some poor guy out there whose wife has been nagging them about the 120, 200 bottles in the basement,” said Taylor Cope, who edits the website Malt Review. “And he says, ‘No, you don’t understand, I paid X for these and they’re worth 2X or 5X or whatever,’ and maybe for him that’s some weird nest egg or retirement savings.”