Actors Paul Wesley and Ian Somerhalder discovered their friendship and a mutual love of Bourbon on the set of “The Vampire Diaries” television series. Once the show ended, they decided to launch their own Bourbon brand, Brother’s Bond, and it’s become one of the fastest-growing new Bourbon brands on the market over the last 18 months. While Wesley’s acting career now has him portraying the iconic character of James T. Kirk on “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds,” Somerhalder is practically a full-time whiskey blender. The Bourbon “brothers” join us on this week’s WhiskyCast In-Depth. In the news, the Kentucky Bourbon Read More »
Actors Paul Wesley and Ian Somerhalder discovered their friendship and a mutual love of Bourbon on the set of “The Vampire Diaries” television series. Once the show ended, they decided to launch their own Bourbon brand, Brother’s Bond, and it’s become one of the fastest-growing new Bourbon brands on the market over the last 18 months. While Wesley’s acting career now has him portraying the iconic character of James T. Kirk on “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds,” Somerhalder is practically a full-time whiskey blender. The Bourbon “brothers” join us on this week’s WhiskyCast In-Depth. In the news, the Kentucky Bourbon Hall of Fame’s Class of 2022 has been unveiled, while the state’s Bourbon distillers are raising more than a million dollars to help Kentucky flooding victims through a series of auctions and special bottlings. We’ll also explain what “a fifth” means in whiskey terms on Behind the Label, too.
Andrew Welford is described as a “truffle hunter” for whisky history, but his best find to date didn’t sell for a penny. In fact, he donated an original John Walker & Sons shares ledger from 1944 that he found on eBay to Diageo’s corporate archive in Scotland. We’ll talk with him and Isabel Graham-Youll of Whisky.Auction, who helped bring together the book with its new home. In the news, the Kentucky Bourbon Benefit auction to help the state’s flooding victims is underway with bidding already exceeding $250,000. We’ll have that story and much more, including a Major League Baseball team Read More »
Andrew Welford is described as a “truffle hunter” for whisky history, but his best find to date didn’t sell for a penny. In fact, he donated an original John Walker & Sons shares ledger from 1944 that he found on eBay to Diageo’s corporate archive in Scotland. We’ll talk with him and Isabel Graham-Youll of Whisky.Auction, who helped bring together the book with its new home. In the news, the Kentucky Bourbon Benefit auction to help the state’s flooding victims is underway with bidding already exceeding $250,000. We’ll have that story and much more, including a Major League Baseball team owner’s entry into the whisky business.
Scotland’s Isle of Islay is known for its distilleries, and construction will begin soon on the island’s 12th distillery near the shores of Laggan Bay. The Islay Boys, Donald MacKenzie and Mackay Smith, plan to build the new Laggan Bay Distillery across from Islay’s airport on the site of a former RAF World War II barracks. MacKenzie and Smith also own the island’s lone brewery, and plan to make Islay Ales part of the Laggan Bay development. We’ll catch up with Donald MacKenzie on this week’s WhiskyCast In-Depth. In the news, Kentucky’s Bourbon community is coming together again to help Read More »
Scotland’s Isle of Islay is known for its distilleries, and construction will begin soon on the island’s 12th distillery near the shores of Laggan Bay. The Islay Boys, Donald MacKenzie and Mackay Smith, plan to build the new Laggan Bay Distillery across from Islay’s airport on the site of a former RAF World War II barracks. MacKenzie and Smith also own the island’s lone brewery, and plan to make Islay Ales part of the Laggan Bay development. We’ll catch up with Donald MacKenzie on this week’s WhiskyCast In-Depth. In the news, Kentucky’s Bourbon community is coming together again to help fellow Kentuckians in need following this month’s floods. We’ll have that story and check in with one distiller affected by the flooding.
The Bonhams auction house will be offering their inaugural spirits sale at Bonhams Paris location at 4 Rue de la Paix in Paris on Tuesday, May 10, 2022. Bonhams’ 189-lot sale will feature several rare whiskies most “notably from Italian collections….such as rare bottles from [Silvano] Samaroli, one of the last Italian whisky trading companies,…including […]
The Bonhams auction house will be offering their inaugural spirits sale at Bonhams Paris location at 4 Rue de la Paix in Paris on Tuesday, May 10, 2022.
Bonhams’ 189-lot sale will feature several rare whiskies most “notably from Italian collections….such as rare bottles from [Silvano] Samaroli, one of the last Italian whisky trading companies,…including the now coveted 15-year-old Laphroaig, 1967 ($29,000 – $40,000 estimate).”
Other whiskies being offered up by Samaroli include a 12-year-old Springbank, was part of a small batch produced and imported exclusively for the Italian market ($15,800-$21,000 estimate).
Another whisky being offered is a 19-year-old Highland Park also exclusively distributed for the Italian market with a run of a mere 60 bottles and accompanied by a numbered Edinburgh crystal decanter ($1,685-$2,100 estimate).
Yet another offering is a 10-year-old whisky from The Macallan which was bottled at 57% alcohol by volume [114 proof] by Gordon & MacPhail ($1,155-$1,475 estimate).
Also being offered is a Longmorn 1974 ($2,315-$3,155 estimate) and a rare Cognac Hardy 1914 Grande Champagne which emerges directly from the personal collection of Jacques Hardy and was aged for several decades before being found in a demijohn by Hardy ($5,790-$6,840 estimate).
The world’s largest bottle of Scotch whisky – a massive 311 liter-container of a 32-year-old Macallan single malt called The Intrepid – is set to go up for live online auction on May 25, 2022 at Edinburgh-based auction house Lyon & Turnbull. The Intrepid was officially certified by Guinness World Records in September 2021 and […]
The world’s largest bottle of Scotch whisky – a massive 311 liter-container of a 32-year-old Macallan single malt called The Intrepid – is set to go up for live online auction on May 25, 2022 at Edinburgh-based auction house Lyon & Turnbull.
The Intrepid was officially certified by Guinness World Records in September 2021 and the 311-liter, nearly six-foot-tall bottle contains the equivalent of 444 standard 700ml bottles. The former record-holder was a 228-liter bottle of The Famous Grouse whisky in 2012.
The Macallan’s The Intrepid was matured in two casks at The Macallan’s Speyside warehouse for 32 years, bottled at 43% alcohol by volume [86 proof] and was named after a collection of 11 adventurers and explorers depicted on the bottle label.
If the winning auction bid exceeds $1.6 million, 25% of the proceeds will be donated to the Marie Curie charity.
Additionally, a small number of bottle sets comprised of a collection of 12 bottles, each filled with the remaining 32-year-old Macallan whisky from the same casks used to fill the 311-liter bottle and including a replica of the main bottle design, along with individual versions dedicated to each explorer, will be available.
UK-based auction house Bonhams is putting a bottle of Yamazaki 50-Year-Old First Release on the block in an upcoming auction. Yamazaki 50-Year-Old First Release was launched in 2005 and only 50 bottles were originally released, of which only a mere 12 bottles are thought to still be intact. One of those 12 bottles will go […]
UK-based auction house Bonhams is putting a bottle of Yamazaki 50-Year-Old First Release on the block in an upcoming auction.
Yamazaki 50-Year-Old First Release was launched in 2005 and only 50 bottles were originally released, of which only a mere 12 bottles are thought to still be intact.
One of those 12 bottles will go under the hammer at the Bonhams Fine and Rare Wine and Whisky Sale in Hong Kong on May 20, 2022 and is expected to generate a selling price between $445,000-$575,000.
Yamazaki distillery was founded in 1923 – Japan’s first commercial whisky distillery – and there are three editions of 50-year-old Yamazaki, bottled in 2005, 2007 and 2011.
Yamazaki’s 55-year-old bottling, will also be auctioned in May and is expected to bring an auction price between $510,000-$640,000.
The original whisky bible – a first edition copy of “The Whisky Distilleries of the United Kingdom” by Alfred Barnard – went under the hammer and was sold for $4,690 by London-based, Pernod-Ricard-owned Whisky.Auction. In the 19th century, Barnard was secretary for Harper’s Weekly Gazette and went on a two-year journey [1885-1887] to originally publish […]
The original whisky bible – a first edition copy of “The Whisky Distilleries of the United Kingdom” by Alfred Barnard – went under the hammer and was sold for $4,690 by London-based, Pernod-Ricard-owned Whisky.Auction.
In the 19th century, Barnard was secretary for Harper’s Weekly Gazette and went on a two-year journey [1885-1887] to originally publish features on each of them in the Gazette, however, after visiting 162 distilleries in Scotland, Ireland and England, he published his findings in 500-page book form as “The Whisky Distilleries of the United Kingdom”.
The book catalogs 129 distilleries in Scotland, 29 in Ireland and four in England and is typically used as a reference often for old and rare whiskies from the multiple distilleries that no longer exist.
Of all the distilleries listed in Barnard’s book, only 58 of the Scotland-based distilleries still remain in existence, while all but one [Bushmills] of the distilleries based in Ireland have closed along with all four England-based distilleries.
The massive tornado that ripped through Western Kentucky overnight on December 10, 2021 caused tremendous losses. But, as Kentuckians have shown throughout history, we’re resilient, and as distillers and bourbon fans have also shown, we answer the call. In fact, the Kentucky Distillers’ Association…
The massive tornado that ripped through Western Kentucky overnight on December 10, 2021 caused tremendous losses. But, as Kentuckians have shown throughout history, we’re resilient, and as distillers and bourbon fans have also shown, we answer the call. In fact, the Kentucky Distillers’ Association and the Bourbon Crusaders set a new bar for fundraising.
The morning after the storms, KDA president Eric Gregory was on the phone with me, Fred Minnick, the Bourbon Crusaders, and all Kentucky distillers (not just KDA member distilleries) to begin planning how we could help with relief efforts.
Within only a few days, the KDA had secured incredible once-in-a-lifetime donations from Kentucky’s signature distilleries, the Bourbon Crusaders had lined up donations of epic “unicorn” bottles from members and friends, and Fred Minnick mobilized his resources to present what would become the largest charitable bourbon auction ever—The Kentucky Bourbon Benefit.
Over a four-day period, the Kentucky Bourbon Benefit listed about 100 new auction items per day, ending with 429 items. Bidding began immediately, with over five thousand total bidders, ending with a live auction of the top items on December 21 at Westport Whiskey & Wine in Louisville. By the following morning as final bids were tallied and donations were still coming in, the Kentucky Bourbon Benefit had raised about $3.5 million for tornado relief efforts, which will all go to Governor Andy Beshear’s Team Western Kentucky Tornado Relief Fund.
The top two items were exclusive barrel experiences donated by Willett and Four Roses. The Willett barrel experience—a 19-year-old barrel selection—sold for $401,001, which set the individual barrel record ever, and Willett doubled it the next morning when the second-place bidder agreed to pay the winning bid price. Similarly, the Four Roses experience, which offered a barrel between 17 and 24 years, sold for an astounding $278,000, and Four Roses doubled its donation too, so the second-place bidder increased his bid to net $556,000 for the Four Roses barrels.
Both Four Roses and Willett donated other rare bottles and barrels to the Kentucky Bourbon Benefit, so that just from the generosity of these two distilleries, Western Kentuckians will receive over $1.7 million.
Other distillery partners like Brown-Forman/Woodford Reserve, Heaven Hill, Maker’s Mark, Angel’s Envy, New Riff, Michter’s, Rabbit Hole, and Castle & Key, among others, all made remarkable donations that raked in never-before-seen bidding. And individual donors like Chris Morris, of Brown-Forman, and Larry Kass, retired from Heaven Hill, donated bottles that are impossible to find anywhere. Only one major distillery did its own auction, but individuals affiliated with that distillery made generous donations on their own.
The Kentucky Bourbon Benefit also included 14 bottles from Carr’s Steakhouse in Mayfield, Kentucky, which was devastated by the storm. While Carr’s was demolished, 14 bottles of bourbon survived and were added to the auction, most with matching funds from KDA-member distilleries, Independent Stave Company, Vendome Copper & Brass Works, and the Kentucky Travel Industry Association.
KDA President Eric Gregory said, “The outpouring of support, care and love for Western Kentuckians is truly unparalleled in the history of Bourbon. We are forever grateful for the generosity of distillers, donors and bidders.” Bourbon Crusaders President RJ Sargent added, “The response was tremendous, far beyond our wildest hopes. Our members pulled out treasures from their collections and the community responded enthusiastically.”
Bourbon enthusiasts across the country proved again that it’s not just about the bourbon.
**You can still donate to the official Kentucky relief site here: https://secure.kentucky.gov/formservices/Finance/WKYRelief or to the Bourbon Crusaders, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization. If you donate to the official fund, please designate “Kentucky Bourbon Benefit” in the “Fundraising Event” field.
