There have been a few special opportunities to get your hands on some of Buffalo Trace’s most coveted whiskeys in recent months: The distillery auctioned off a single barrel of Pappy Van Winkle to benefit the victims of the L.A. wildfires and launched its 100 Bourbon Sets for 100 Charities program last week. And now there’s another chance for whiskey collectors to throw down big bucks for bottles, albeit without an altruistic bent, via the new Whisky & Whiskey auction from Sotheby’s.
According to the auction house, this is a chance for collectors to get their hands on some of the “rarest bottles ever produced from both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.” In other words, there are a whole lot of unicorn bottles of American whiskey and scotch that are up for grabs. And one of the most popular is likely to be an extremely rare, one-of-a-kind bottle of Pappy Van Winkle. Specifically, this is a 2007 expression that was originally bottled for a charity auction—Old Rip Van Winkle ‘Van Winkle Selection’ Kentucky Bourbon Festival Master Distiller’s Auction 2007 125.6 Proof NV. This particular Pappy expression is a blend of 15- to 20-year-old whiskey, most likely distilled at Stitzel-Weller, that was created by Julian Van Winkle himself. At 125.6 proof, it’s the second-highest proof listed on a Pappy label, and it features a homemade label that Julian says was created by his son Preston specifically for the 2007 charity (the Oscar Getz Museum of Bourbon History in Kentucky). This bottle is estimated to fetch between $30,000 and $50,000.
There are, of course, some other bottles of note at the new Whisky & Whiskey auction. One of these is a very interesting dusty from 1963 that has Pappy connections, the Very Very Old Fitzgerald 12 Year Old “Blackhawk” 112.0 Proof 1951. According to Sotheby’s, this bottle, which is making its auction debut, was a “private bottling exclusively for the Wirtz family, owners of the Chicago Blackhawks NHL team as well as alcohol distributors Wirtz Corporation.” It was also produced at the Stitzel-Weller Distillery under the supervision of Julian “Pappy” Van Winkle and bottled at barrel strength of 112 proof. This lot is also expected to fetch up to $50,000.
Other bottles of note that are up for auction include the Macallan Distil Your World Mexico Single Cask Edition, just one of two bottles of this limited release that were ever produced. (Proceeds from the sale of this lot will go to benefit Mexican charity Esperanza International.) There are also about 60 other bottles of various Pappy Van Winkle expressions, eight bottles of A.H. Hirsch bourbon, and dozens of bottles of Eagle Rare, Four Roses, George T. Stagg, and WhistlePig Boss Hog. You can bid on the Whisky & Whiskey auction at the Sotheby’s website until 12 p.m. EST on March 21, so act fast if you want to try to snag one of these valuable whiskeys.
