A Rare Bottle of Jack Daniels From the 1940s Is up for Auction
If you follow whiskey auctions, you know what the usual suspect bottles are that start fierce bidding wars: The Macallan, Pappy Van Winkle, Buffalo Trace Antique Collection, to name a few. But there’s a new auction going on now that has some truly rare bottles available to bid on, including some that were produced before Prohibition.
The American whiskey auction is taking place at the website Whisky.Auction, and you should act fast if you’re interested because bidding closes on July 4th. The collection comes from The Crobar, a bar in London’s Soho neighborhood owned by Richard “Crobar” Thomas that opened in 2001 and closed during the pandemic in 2020. There is a pretty staggering array of bourbon to bid on at this auction, including the aforementioned usual suspects: the entire range of Pappy Van Winkle and selections from the BTAC like Thomas H. Handy Sazerac rye whiskey. But things get truly interesting when you consider the selection of vintage bottles, a.k.a. verified ultra-dusties, that are on the auction block.
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Jack Daniel’s introduced 10 and 12-year-old age statement Tennessee whiskeys to its lineup over the past few years to great acclaim. But nearly a century ago there were some younger whiskeys available, like a six-year-old expression estimated to have been bottled in the 1940s that is up for auction (current bid is £800). Four Roses had a long period of decline during the time it was owned by Seagrams, when it was exporting its bourbon to Japan and only making cheap blends for the U.S. market You can find a bottle of four-year-old blended straight whiskeys from the distillery that was produced in the ’30s or ’40s at this auction (£230) if you’re curious what that tasted like. If you’re a Jim Beam fan, there’s a vintage bottle of Beam’s Choice, an eight-year-old bourbon produced in the 1960s for the Italian market (£210). Or if you’re looking for something that pre-dates the Noble Experiment, check out the bottle of Old Charter bottled-in-bond whiskey distilled in 1917 (£120). And Weller fans should take note of a bottle of Weller’s Antique Reserve 10 Year Old Original Barrel Proof Kentucky Straight Bourbon distilled at the Stitzel-Weller distillery in the 1960s (£420).
The auction website has high-quality images so you can see what the condition of the bottle and label are like, as well as what the fill level is, and they do ship to the U.S. There’s no guarantee of quality given that some appear to have been opened, so bid at your own risk and be aware that there is some whiskey counterfeiting going on out there. Presumably the Whisky.Auction team has done their due diligence when inspecting these bottles, but note the fine print: “All spirits, liqueurs, wines, sparkling wines and fortified wines are therefore bought at the buyer’s own risk and we do not take responsibility for corked or faulty bottles.” All that being said, you can bid at the Whisky.Auction website, so happy dusty hunting.
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