How rare bottles work in Utah: allocations and drawings

Some bottles are made in such small amounts that there's never enough to go around: Pappy Van Winkle, the Buffalo Trace Antique Collection, Blanton's and friends. In Utah, the state is the store, so the state decides who gets them, and it uses two systems meant to keep that fair.

Allocated

First come, first served

At select stores on the third Saturday of each month

Rare high demand

A random drawing

Enter online; winners get the chance to buy

The monthly allocated drop

Allocated bottles are scarce but not the scarcest. Here's how it works:

1. In the week before the third Saturday of the month, DABS posts the list: which bottles, how many, and which stores, usually 5 to 10 of the bigger ones around the state.
2. On Saturday, those stores put the bottles out with signs. First come, first served.
3. One allocated bottle per customer per transaction. Want another? Get back in line.

Store staff don't know what's coming until it arrives and can't share the list before DABS posts it, so asking around won't help. The posted quantities are what each store starts the day with, not a live count.

The rare high demand drawing

For the very hardest bottles, DABS runs a lottery, the Rare High Demand Product (RHDP) drawing. Winning doesn't get you a free bottle; it gets you the chance to buy one at the state's price. The rules, from the official terms:

• Who: Utah residents 21 and over, plus active-duty military stationed in Utah. DABS and state employees can't enter.
• How: make an account on the DABS drawing page and watch for a drawing to open. Entry is free.
• When: each drawing is usually open for five days, and there's no advantage to entering early.
• How many: one entry per person per drawing. You can enter for every bottle in a drawing, but you can only win one.
• If you win: DABS emails you, ships the bottle to the store you picked, and contacts you when it arrives. You have 10 days to pick it up with a Utah ID (or passport plus a Utah utility bill). It can't be transferred to anyone else.
• If you don't: you won't hear anything.

The odds, honestly

DABS publishes the bottle and entry counts for past drawings. From its 2026 Pappy Van Winkle and Buffalo Trace Antique Collection drawing:

Roughly 7,000 people entered for each of those bottles. Those prices are also why the drawing is so popular: under Utah's pricing rules, these bottles often cost less here than elsewhere.

What you can't do

• Special order them. Rare, high-demand and allocated bottles are excluded from special orders.
• Resell them. In Utah, only licensed retailers may sell alcohol to consumers. Flipping a bottle you bought or won, online or in a parking lot, isn't legal.
• Enter twice. Duplicate entries are removed, and can get you disqualified.

Between drops

Hard-to-find bottles that aren't allocated or in a drawing still turn up on regular shelves. That's what Utah Drops is for: Worth a look shows scarce bottles that are in stores now, and a watchlist emails you when a bottle you want comes back.