A Rare Bourbon From Pappy Van Winkle’s Original Distillery Is Heading to Auction

Jonah Flicker
·3 min read
11

Sotheby’s is no stranger to rare whiskey auctions, but there are some that truly encompass the meaning of that oft used term. Bidding on the Rare American Whiskey Selection 1976-1982 starts on April 14, and this collection of five prototype bottles certainly deserves that descriptor as it includes whiskey from shuttered distilleries, including the previous source of Pappy Van Winkle.

Robb Report spoke to Sotheby’s global head of spirits, Jonny Fowle, about the auction and the concept of what makes a whiskey rare. “I’ve been trying to measure what qualifies something as ‘the rarest’ thing in this market of commodity items,” he said. “Is it its uniqueness? Is it its unrepeatability (i.e. from a closed it significantly altered distillery)? Is it its historical significance? Is it that it’s something that has never been seen before? These bottles represent all of these qualities and more. Bottles so elusive that not only have they never been seen in public, other than during tasting sessions in the late 1990s, but the very history of them is one we are having to piece together to be able to tell the full story.”

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The details of this auction lot are rather fascinating if you’re a fan of American whiskey. According to Sotheby’s, this collection was conceived of in the 1990s as a series of whiskeys from closed distilleries, but the idea never got past the prototype stage. The Classic Kentucky Bourbon Company was behind this flight of whiskey fancy, a subsidiary of United Distillers which owned both the Bernheim and Stitzel-Weller distilleries (the latter closed in 1992, the former in 1991). Stitzel-Weller was the home of the Pappy Van Winkle brand before it was acquired by Buffalo Trace and became the unicorn collector’s item it is today (if you’re lucky enough to get an older bottle of Pappy, it might contain whiskey from S-W).

Unfortunately, before the project could get up and running, United Distillers merged with International Distillers & Vinters to become part of Diageo, and the whiskey series was put on the back burner. Sotheby’s says that the original plan was to release five whiskeys every year, each with different barrel proofs and high age statements—which sort of sounds like a precursor to the Buffalo Trace Antique Collection. After bottling two sets of five whiskeys with prototype labels (but real liquid inside, to be clear), the series was scrapped. One collection went to Stitzel-Weller, and according to Fowler it is believed to have been destroyed in an office fire there in the late 1990s, although this cannot be verified. The other was shipped to the U.K., and that is what will be available for auction.

The details of the bottles are as follows:

  • Old Quaker Indiana Corn Whiskey 21 Year Old Limited Edition Barrel Proof (65% ABV, 1976, distilled in Lawrenceberg, IN, pre-MGP)

  • Stitzel-Weller Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey Limited Edition 17 Year Old Barrel Proof (53.5% ABV, 1980, distilled in Shively, KY)

  • Taylor-Williams Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey Limited Edition 17 Year Old Barrel Proof (56% ABV, 1980, distilled in Jackson County, KY)

  • George T Stagg Kentucky Straight Rye Whiskey Limited Edition 16 Year Old Barrel Proof (57% ABV, 1981, distilled in Frankfort, KY)

  • Buffalo Springs Kentucky Rye Mash Whiskey Limited Edition 15 Year Old Barrel Proof (62.5% ABV, 1982, distilled in Franklin County, KY)

As mentioned before, the bidding on this collection starts on April 14 with the opening bid set at 7,500 GBP. The auction is taking place in the U.K., but the collection can be shipped internationally. If you want a chance to own a piece of whiskey history, go to the Sotheby’s website to register now.

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