Over $185K of Whiskeys Like Pappy Van Winkle and an Old Forester From 1947 Are Up For Auction

The vertical lineup of Pappy Van Winkle is up for auction at Kentucky’s Speed Art Museum. (Photos: The Speed Art Museum)

The Speed Art Museum announced on Wednesday that its seventh annual Art of Bourbon Auction will run on Sept. 12, featuring over $185,000 of rare whiskeys. The auction will take place from 7:30 to 9 p.m. EST. Thirty-five lots are listed, and their curation was led by famed whiskey critic Fred Minnick and Mac Abrams, the museum’s appraiser and chair.

“Since 2018, I’ve worked closely with the Speed to auction the rarest whiskey bottles and experiences ever, raising millions of dollars for this institution,” Minnick said in a news release. “These rare whiskeys can make a huge impact on one of our country’s best art museums. We have the vintage and rare, and the new and unique. These sort-of-in-the-know bourbons don’t come up very often.”

Bourbons featured in the lineup include a six-bottle vertical of Pappy Van Winkle signed by Julian Van Winkle III. The collection is valued at up to $30,000.

The Speed Art Museum additionally shared a rare expression of 2017 Michter’s 25 Year Old will hit the auction block. This rare bottling potentially worth $30,000 because just 317 bottles exist. The museum will be additionally auction a “dusty” (a term used to describe vintage whiskeys) bottle of Old Forester from 1947, expected to fetch approximately $20,000.

Besides these rare gems, the museum will auction a 1979 Bicentennial Commemorative Bourbon that dates back to 1959 from Willett, and it could fetch up to $50,000. Other whiskeys include a 14-year-old Dowling Delux from the 1960s and a bottle of Very Old Fitzgerald that dates back to 1958.

The auction will additionally feature whiskey relics lost to time, including a bottle of Golden Wedding Whiskey from 1941. Golden Wedding is a ghost brand that dates to 1869 and was made by Schenley Distilling at Joseph S. Finch Distillery in Pennsylvania. The brand was discontinued in the late 20th century. The lot is expected to reach $10,000.

Golden Wedding is a rye brand that was discontinued.

“It’s not every day you can get your hands on these,” the Speed Art Museum Appraiser/Event Chair Marc Abrams said. “You’re buying a piece of history in a bottle. And over the years, our auction followers have come to expect these iconic bourbons at this auction. After all, the Speed Art Museum is in bourbon country.”

In addition to rare whiskeys, the Speed Art Museum is also offering barrel and distillery experiences from brands like Maker’s Mark, Green River and Bardstown Bourbon.

For the Maker’s Mark experience, six individuals will get to tour Maker’s Mark’s facilities and participate in a Private Selection Process from the brand. The barrel will mature after nine weeks, and bottles with the Speed Art Museum’s chosen recipe will be featured. The winner will receive three cases.

Bardstown Bourbon is offering an Origin Series Single Barrel Selection, where the winner will get to choose one out of the inaugural 100 barrels from the brand’s Origin Series single barrel release. The experience hosts an estimated worth of $20,000.

The upstart brand, Green River, is also offering a barrel pick selection experience that is worth approximately $15,000 to $20,000. Green River is cementing its reputation as an affordably priced darling of the bourbon world, and its Green River Full Proof made our list of the Best Whiskeys We Tasted In August. For the complete list, you can read the article here.

On Thursday country music star Dierks Bentley announced the release of his new whiskey — ROW 94 Bourbon — in conjunction with Green River. Click here to read our review of ROW 94.

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