Food & Wine reported on a rare collection of old whiskeys from iconic brands like Four Roses that might just be a dusty hunter’s dream — and it’s going under the hammer at Sotheby’s until June 12. The collection additionally includes one of the first bottled cocktails — a Sazerac bottled around 1902.
The collection belongs to Mark Wade, whom the outlet refers to as an “amateur whiskey historian.” Wade co-founded the Vintage Whiskey Society and was into hunting old bottles — or dusties — before it was cool.
“I just fell in love with the idea of tasting history,” Wade explained to the outlet.
The collection is impressive, to say the least. With offerings like a Four Roses Albert B. Blanton 16 Year Old 100 Proof 1917 Bottled In Bond and a bottle of Old Stagg 19 Year Old from 1914. The collection additionally features whiskeys from extinct brands like John Poindexter, a whiskey brand that disappeared during Prohibition.
One of the bottles, a 24-year-old Old Stagg Reserve, dates back to 1920 and Albert Blanton distilled the whiskey himself, according to the listing.
“I don’t think there’s any other 24 year old,” Sotheby Spirits Specialist Zev Glesta said to Food and Wine. “In fact, I guess at that point it was probably the oldest age statement of any whiskey out there… This has never seen auction before.”
Though some fear that whiskeys with this much age on them might be overly tannic and undrinkable, Wade appears to believe they hold a distinctive appeal, and offer drinkers a foray into a lost era.
“Well, the wood is different,” Wade expressed. “Barrels are different. The grains are different. The water is different. You know, the great ryes of Pennsylvania and Maryland can no longer be produced because of the pollution… This is lost in time. Grains and yeasts and wood that just can’t be recreated. It just doesn’t exist anymore.”
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