Rare Van Winkle bottles make $20,000 at auction
One lot of rare Pappy Van Winkle Bourbon signed by Julian Van Winkle has fetched more than US$20,000 at a charity auction in the US.
One lot of Pappy Van Winkle Bourbon has sold for US$20,000 at auction
Hosted by Wally’s Auctions, the event raised money to restore the historic Locust Grove farm-distillery outside of Louisville, Kentucky.
The lot consisted of five Old Rip Van Winkle Bourbon bottlings of different age statements, each individually signed by Julian Van Winkle, president of the Old Rip Van Winkle Distillery.
All bottles in the lot greatly exceeded their pre-sale estimates.
The 10-year-old offering sold for US$1,400, the 12-year-old US$2,400, the 15-year-old US$3,000, the 20-year-old US$4,400 and the 23-year-old US$9,000. In total, the lot fetched US$20,200, while Wally’s decided to waive the special auction.
“The success of The Old Rip Van Winkle Distillery Charitable Auction surpassed our hopes and expectations for this sale, and it propels Locust Grove beyond the first goals of our campaign to recreate a farm distillery as it would have been on the American frontier of the early 1800s,” said the Van Winkle family.
“This is the beginning of a story never told in Kentucky – or for that matter – in America. On behalf of Louisville’s historic family distillers who are behind this project, we thank the team at Wally’s for their amazing support and passion for this auction from day one.”
The Farm Distillery Project at Locust Grove aims to create small-scale distilling activity in Kentucky prevalent in the 19th century.
