Bidding War for a Barrel of Pappy Van Winkle 15 Year Bourbon Reaches $800,000 in Auction to Support LA Fire Victims

Bidding for a barrel of 15-year-old Pappy Van Winkle Bourbon has reached $800,000. (Photo: Sazerac)

Update (Feb. 24): While the auction website previously displayed a highest bid upwards of $3 million, as this story previously indicated, the highest bid was later changed to appear as $800,000. The original story from Feb. 18 follows:

Last week, Sazerac made the groundbreaking announcement that it would be putting an entire barrel of the coveted Pappy Van Winkle 15 Year Old Bourbon up for auction in an effort to raise money for the victims of the Los Angeles wildfires.

The bidding began last Tuesday at $10,000 and is open until 11:59 p.m. EST on Sunday. Already, as of Tuesday morning, the bidding had reached a ridiculous $3,105,000, per a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, from Phil Kollin.

The auction page was listed as “down for maintenance” Tuesday afternoon and evening, so we were unable to confirm whether that bid has been beaten.

In any case, if you’re hoping to win a barrel of Pappy 15, you’ll have to pony up more than $3.1 million — good luck with that.

That the bid has reached such a high number is an overwhelming positive. The money raised is set to benefit two non profits: World Central Kitchen and Another Round Another Rally, which provide food relief and funding, education and emergency assistance for bars and restaurants, respectively.

(Extremely wealthy) bourbon fans interested in bidding can do so here. At the same link, they can donate to World Central Kitchen for a chance to win a complete set of the Pappy Van Winkle Bourbon Collection or donate to Another Round, Another Rally for a chance at a bottle of the incredibly rare Eagle Rare 25 Year Old.