20 year old. One of the local liquor stores holds a lottery every year when the Pappy gets released. It’s too hard to get so they thought it would be fair to do it this way. Hundreds of people signed up in advance (required.) They had 1 bottle of 23 year, 2 bottles of 20, a few 15, 12 and 10. They also had a very nice assortment of other hard-to-find bottles. People were jammed into the store. It must have been over the fire code limit. Anyway, they finally begin and call the first name. Not me. The guy goes up to select his bottle (only allowed to buy one.) They announce the 23 year old was gone. The crowd groans. They call the second name, but this time I can’t hear what he purchased. The 3rd and 4th names were no-shows. Then… me! I NEVER win stuff like this. I made my way through the envious crowd to the front and they told me 20 year old was still there. I had not really thought it would be an option so I didn’t even contemplate the cost, but I got caught up in the moment.
I already have 2 people I know offering to buy it for $100 more than I paid. I think I’m going to hold onto it for awhile…
Congrats. A few years ago before the great bourbon inflation my brother in law gave me some. I don’t remember how old it was. It looks like online stores are asking around $2,000 to $3,000 for the 20 year. I wonder if they really have a bottle or they will find one if you are willing to spend $2,000.
Just because it’s well marketed doesn’t make it bad. Nobody would buy it if it was. I have a close friend that loves that kind of thing. My palate is a little closer to my wallet by necessity. I have to admit I smiled when I saw it inserted into a TV show.
I think what the store is doing is really great. Hopefully the person who wins isn’t a scalper as that defeats the purpose of the lottery.
Lucky bastard. I won a lottery last year and got a bottle of the 12. It’s still in the cabinet, waiting for the appropriate moment.
For those who lack the wallet or taste buds for the Pappy, find a bottle of W. L. Weller Special Reserve or Old Weller Antique. Same mash bill, just different aging and blending. Good stuff.
I used to get the 15 every year if I could or every other year before the craze sent the prices sky-high. I was happy to pay $75 but there’s no way I’m paying what it fetches today; lots of other very good bourbons in the world…
Over 20 years ago a good friend gave me a bottle of limited edition Old Potrero Single Malt Rye Whiskey, produced by the Anchor Distillery in San Francisco and bottled in 1999 in a numbered series of 1800 bottles. After he left I examined the label and noted that it was bottle #0001.
I have been SO IN AWE of this bottle that it still has 1/3 of its contents. Also because it is 100 proof and kinda tastes like shit.
At the moment I am enjoying a glass of Heaven Hill bourbon with ice and a little seltzer. Heaven Hill runs me around $17 a liter in Brooklyn.
Back in 2011, my wife hit the jackpot and got me a 15 year old pappy, two 20 year olds and a 23 year old. The problem? I don’t care for wheated bourbons, so I gave it all away. This was before the market went insane, of course. Had I just held onto it a year or two I could have made serious money. This was back when it was all the mythologized Stitzel-Weller disatllate. Now it’s all Buffalo Trace, distinctly different, so I.m not sure why the craze continues.
At the risk of increasing the hint of sourness, it is morally unexceptionable to dispose of prizes for money, and in some cases — say if one swapped the win of a luxury car for the asking price, say a Koenigsegg, to buy a small home — it would be inadvisable not too.
