A 1982 bottle of Old Rip Van Winkle broke the record for the most expensive American whiskey sold at an auction on Saturday night. The 20-year, barrel-aged bottle sold for $162,500 at Sotheby’s in New York City as part of the Great American Whiskey Collection auction.
The offering as a whole garnered $2.5 million in total, setting the record for the most valuable single-owner American whiskey collection ever sold at auction, according to a press release from Sotheby’s. The company valued the collection between $1.17 million and $1.68 million prior to the live auction.
Collectors bid in person, over the phone, and online — vying to get their hands on a lot in the 360-bottle collection. Among the top-selling items were bottles from Old Fitzgerald, Red Hook Rye, and J.W. Gottlieb. The entire collection was sold, with the majority of buyers located in North America.
“Notably, nearly a third of buyers were new to Sotheby’s, with over half aged 40 or younger,” the release reads.
The most expensive bottle was a 1982 vintage of Old Rip Van Winkle 20 Year Old Single Barrel “Sam’s,” which was estimated to sell for $70,000 to $100,000, a benchmark the actual sale price significantly exceeded. The bottle is one of 60 in existence and is the highest-proof expression from Van Winkle at 133.4 proof.
The 1982 bottle of “Sam’s” unseated another Old Rip Van Winkle bourbon for the most expensive American whiskey sold at an auction. The title was previously held by Old Rip Van Winkle “Van Winkle Selection” 15 to 20 Year Old, which sold for $125,000 at the Kentucky Bourbon Festival Master Distiller’s Auction in 2007, according to the release.
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