Posted 13 years ago
srw1964
(2 items)
These are just a few samples of liquor that was found in the basement of my friend's bar & grill. The bar has been in their family since the 1920's. There are literally cases of booze unopened and so far we have found bottles dating back to 1942. We were wondering if there is any value to these and if they are collectible. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
20's??? Bar??? your family was bad!!! They must've owned a illegal bar then. cause it was the probition. not a whiskey expert, but I think vintage whisky like that could be sold easily. sometimes it can depend on age or even brand. But like I said, i'm an expert on this kinda stuff...
that wilsons bottle is probably from the 30's... check the copyright on the lower right corner of he label.
Ok so sometimes you gotta be bad to be good :). The dates on these particular bottles - the earliest is 1942. We haven't ventured through the entire dirt, dark, low celingind cellar yet. All the bottles are in their original cases from the "distributer" and they are all sealed (by the way they all have corks). I think they are pretty cool, but know nothing about them. I will have to check the Wilson's bottle tomorrow for the copyright - but I SO appreciate any help you can give me.
SRW1964 : Not familar with laws in all states but to sell liquor would guess you have to be a registered dealer.Just a word to the wise.
Thanks for the advise. We just don't want to throw out anything with value.
This is amazing. I'm not sure what the value of these bottles would be (it may not be as much as you think, since I don't know if there's a market for old bottlings of relatively unremarkable whiskies) but you still have a treasure trove of history on your hands. I would love to go through some of those boxes to see what else is in there. If you find any defunct products (no longer made) that are still sealed, those could be worth something. For instance, Abbott's bitters, Forbidden Fruit liqueur, and so on. I'm curious to know what happened to the rest of the bottles you found? Did you take an inventory of what else was in there? I'd love to know!
Yes there is. I'm just starting my website ibuyoldbooze.com
Yeah I agree with oldbeer. They can be very valuable. For example I recently found a bottle of 1971 Jack Daniels Old No.7 that is worth approximately $1000.00 unopened. A bottle of unopened whiskey from the 1870's I believe sold for around $65,000.00. So make sure you do your research to get the full amount of what they are worth.
Also keep in mind that old whiskey/booze that is still sealed does not go bad. Jack Daniels as well as some others get much better, and tastier, with age thus fetching such high sale values. Or they can continue to be kept as an investment.
There's an old saying that comes to mind, "old whsikey and Harley's, get better with age". VERY NICE find, Congrats and good luck with your adventure.
I don't doubt that old bottles are valuable--they're worth whatever a buyer is willing to pay for them. But I don't know that there is a well-established market for it. The $65,000 figure you cite is exciting, but seems a bit inflated to me, unless there are other historical concerns that contributed to the value (such as its provenance). I know of one high-end liquor store in my area (Boston, MA) that recently sold a bottle of 1860 Rye whiskey for about $1,200. Also, you're correct that whiskey (and any high-proof spirit) will not spoil in the bottle, but it also doesn't change or "age" the way good wine does. The age of a whiskey comes from the amount of time spent in barrel, not the amount of time spent in glass after bottling. Once bottled the quality of a whiskey remains essentially static (assuming the bottle is properly sealed and not otherwise compromised).
You are very accurate in the additional details you mentioned aphonik. Thank you for pointing them out and clarifying what I said. Below is a link that mentions a bottle of Glenavon whiskey from 1851 that sold for $29,000.00. I will continue to make an attempt in locating the link that mentions tha bottle I made a note of above.
http://www.artofdrink.com/archive/research/old-unopened-bottles-of-whiskey/
Very good article, electobacco. Many thanks for sharing. That confirms my initial understanding that old bottles of blended whiskies such as Canadian Club or Crown Royal aren't significantly more valuable than their modern counterparts (I first started researching this topic to find out whether the unopened 1954 bottle of Crown Royal in my father's bar had value, and I discovered it does but not astronomical, maybe $75-100).
I've spent the better part of today reading up on remarkable old and rare bottles of liquor at FinestAndRarest.com. Definitely worth a look if you enjoy reading about and seeing photos of truly rare bottles:
http://www.finestandrarest.com/
Please do share if you're able to find more info about the $65,000 sale. Very intrigued by that.
Cheers!
You are welcome. Will do. Thank you for sharing the additional link. I will have make sure to check it out as well.
What ever became of this awesome stash?
Cheers,
Scott