The old bottle:
Every once in a while you get a truly unique tasting opportunity. I had one such recently.
A friend of mine was visiting family and they wound up going through an old attic and found this unique bottle.
Every once in a while you get a truly unique tasting opportunity. I had one such recently.
A friend of mine was visiting family and they wound up going through an old attic and found this unique bottle.
She knew that I’d be interested in it and brought it back for me to look over. The bottle itself had some staining on the outside, but seemed to be sound and still sealed.
The original label was torn however.
The original label was torn however.
The bottle was of a limited run in 1985 called "Old Fitzgerald - Aged 10 years". The number on the seal is: 007600824. Old Fitzgerald has since been acquired, and currently Heaven Hill owns the brand.
When pulling the stopper out, it seemed stuck for a moment. Then with a little added force, the cork on the stopper broke, leaving cork sediment in the whiskey.
In order to remove the largest pieces of sediment I ran the bottle through cheese-cloth.
On first taste, my reaction was “This tastes like gas”.
Not exactly what I was expecting from this classy looking old-school bottle. Turns out, the whiskey needed time to breath. Something I had never taken seriously with the way things are produced now. Every bottle of Jack Daniels tastes the same upon opening as the last drop!
For a bottle like this to be (nearly) vacuum sealed for this long, the chemical interactions within would have produced some near-toxic fumes which could have easily effected the whiskey.
With time, about half hour or so, I gave it another taste. Much more pleasurable to the pallet.
A deep taste, similar to a Booker’s I had tasted recently on a visit to a BBQ joint named Porkchop in Chicago. I would highly suggest the flight. You can see it on my Instagram here: www.ig.com/joshlaw312.
Deep taste, like the over-proof Booker’s is. Smooth, with a lengthy finish.
Would I recommend this bottle? Yeah.
Do I know anywhere you can find it? Nope.
In my research I found out that a bottle like this would go for about 100 to 400 dollars on Ebay. However, to anybody looking to purchase or sell booze, liquor, beer, etc. on Ebay, be very careful and know your laws. Alcohol cannot be sold to minors, and there are a lot of rules about how it should be shipped and/or sold.
I think that many who are selling collectable alcohols do so under the guise of the bottle being the collectable, while the liquor would be an unintended but necessary(to keep the bottle in mint condition!) part of the sale.
My advice: Don’t buy or sell alcohol online. Not worth the trouble. Go to a licensed retailer or specialty shop to find high-end additions to your liquor cabinet.
Have you ever run across a unique find like this? What did you find out about it? Please comment down below!
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