A bottle of Buffalo Trace-owned Pappy Van Winkle 23 Year Old Family Reserve bourbon garnered a $52,000 sale price at a recent Sotheby’s auction earlier this month in New York – setting a new auction record for the brand.
The bottle held a pre-sale estimate between $3,000 and $4,000 but whenever a bottle of Pappy Van Winkle appears, a predictable bidding frenzy ensues and this one escalated to create a final sale price approximately 17 times higher than the original estimate.
Released in 2008, the 23-year-old bourbon was sold with its original black velvet bag.
As expected, all 14 of the individual bottles of Pappy Van Winkle at the Sotheby’s auction sold for more than their estimates. Individual records were also reached for Pappy Van Winkle 15 Year Old ($9,375) and 20 Year Old ($27,500).
The Pappy Van Winkle brand has achieved a cult-like following among collectors as much of the bourbon was distilled at the now-closed [in the early 1990s] Stitzel-Weller Distillery in Louisville, Kentucky, with production having since moved to the Buffalo Trace Distillery in Frankfort, Kentucky.
