I’m about to go on a trip and I always try to get a special bourbon for the occasion. Would love to hear some great bottles y’all love to broaden my horizons. Here are some of my favorites that are difficult to find:
Blantons
Eagle Rare
Weller 12
Buffalo Trace
Elijah Craig Barrel Proof
Russel Reserve Single Barrel
Elmer T Lee
Barrel Bourbon
Some bottles I have yet to try that I want to are:
I’ve had Pappy 12 but none of the other ones
Eagle Rare 17
George T Stagg
Old Fitzgerald 15
I know most people who have good sources of the good juice rarely reveal their secrets, but would love to hear some insight for those that have had success finding the good stuff (without just money whipping).
For those of you who like this kind of thing, the book Pappy Land by Wright Thompson is a fantastic read.
Bourbon is insane right now and not getting any better any time soon. The chances of finding one of those bottles just sitting on a Shelf for a reasonable price are astronomically low. Store owners who were not aware of the bourbon bubble got picked over and have nothing left on the Shelf and those who pay attention to the market have raised prices for any of those bottles that they may have in stock.
Just two days ago I walked into a nondescript store that appeared to cater to a low-income clientele and a saw a bottle of Old Rip Van Winkle and Old Fitzgerald 8 year on the Shelf. The Old Rip was $999 and the Old Fitzgerald was $899.
Your best bet for trying limited edition bourbons right now is to find a bar that has some for reasonable prices and buy a pour or two.
If you really want to pursue bottles of allocated bourbon here's how you do it... spend tons of money (probably tens of thousands of dollars) at small stores and develop a relationship with the owner(s) so that you get a call when those bottles come in or get lucky and win a lottery drawing for the right to purchase one of those bottles at something close to retail. Although sometimes even the lotteries require you to purchase large amounts of liquor beforehand. Either way there is likely to be a significant investment of time and money on your part. In the case of the Old Fitzgerald, you might also get lucky and get it at the distillery if you happen to be in Bardstown on the day of a release.
Based upon your list it seems that you enjoy products from the Buffalo Trace Distillery. Unfortunately, Buffalo Trace is probably the hottest distillery in the bourbon market, so it's difficult to get a lot of their offerings off of a shelf. I would recommend looking at A. Smith Bowman products. Bowman ships Buffalo Trace distillate to Virginia and distills it once more. There are still a lot of similarities between the products despite the extra distillation run. If you enjoy higher proof bourbon, they have a cask-strength offering that is pretty good.
Private Barrel selections, AKA store picks, are a good way to expand upon whiskey's that you already like or try quality bottles from other lines that you might not be familiar with. Unfortunately, these are also getting tougher to come by but at least they make it to a shelf. Of the brands you listed as already trying every one offers store picks except Weller 12 and Elmer T Lee. Blanton's is probably the hardest to find and Elijah Craig and Eagle Rare are probably the easiest to find.
My personal favorite bourbon is Four Roses. It's easy to find their core lineup on the shelves and their store picks, while increasingly popular, are not impossible to find on a shelf.
I find Bottled-in-Bond (BiB) bourbons to be the best value in whiskey, even though E.H. Taylor is BiB and it has jumped the shark. Henry McKenna, Heaven Hill, Evan Williams, Old Granddad, and Old Forester all have great BiB offerings that sit on the shelf. A lot of smaller distilleries also have BiB offerings that can be very good, although pricier than the ones above.