Pappy Van Winkle’s Family Reserve 23-year is probably rarest of the most sought-after bourbon in the US, and this is the rarest of the bottles left in circulation (if you can call it that). This is a bottle of bourbon so treasured it was gifted to the Pope by a priest from Kentucky.
This is the 10th bottle ever produced of the 23-year and, apart from the mysterious absence of Bottle #6, all of the first ten bottles of the spirit are accounted for (the Van Winkle family owns the first five, and seven, eight and nine have been drunk). That makes this the second rarest bottle of Pappy’s most-prized bourbon on the planet. Opening online on September 21, it’s going up for auction.
The bottle, distilled at Old Rip Van Winkle’s distillery prior to its move to Buffalo Trace’s grounds, is expected to sell for a sum greater than $20,000.
Other bottles being sold off at the same auction include a handle of Blanton’s bottled in 1952 that may have been the first single barrel bourbon released to the public (valued at $10,000), an original Stitzel-Weller 7-year (valued at $5,000) bottled somewhere in the mid-60s and a host of other pricey bourbons.
The auction, organized and hosted by Louisville, Kentucky’s Speed Art Museum, is a part of the museum’s Art of Bourbon event
