This is a textbook example of why I love running this site. A reader named Greg recently reached out after his wife made an unbelievable discovery stashed away under the basement stairway of their newly purchased 1955 home. Greg sent over a photo of what they found, which you can see here in this post.…
Here’s a Kentucky whiskey from the prohibition era (Bottled in Bond: Spring 1917 – Fall 1933) from my collection that is in excellent condition except for the poor fill level. Usually, the fill level on these examples will be about an inch higher or right above the label. Some of the corks from this…
“If you don’t know how to spell a word, I suggest you look it up in the dictionary”, is something one would hear often from a teacher while attending school. Now that technology has easily allowed us to eliminate the possibility of grammar errors, without the hassle of dusting off any books, we shouldn’t have…
For this installment of Collector Conversations, I bring to you, my dear old Dad! He has been collecting for over 60 years and has the collection to prove it. Find out the story behind the Old Rip Van Winkle 15yo miniatures that are not supposed to exist!
https://youtu.be/pV-budka-6U Be sure to watch this edition of Collector Conversations featuring Rotem Ben Shitrit. Rotem’s collection is nearing 10,000 miniature whiskey bottles and he admits he might be just a wee obsessed. Learn about Rotem and his collection, his favorite bottles, and the craziest acquisition he has ever been involved in. Follow Rotem on Instagram…
I spend so much time on whiskey that sometimes it is good to get out of my lane for a bit. For this installment of Something Different, I bring you Bourvier Buchu Gin. from the Bouvier Specialty Co., Louisville, Kentucky. This bottle is obviously pre-prohibition era and is somewhat ornate with the brand name embossed…
“Kentucky Bourbon is the ONLY bourbon”, they say. “You can’t really make bourbon outside of Kentucky because it’s a combination of the barrels and the limestone fed springs that give us water. That’s our story and were sticking to it.” Considering that only 5% of the world’s supply of bourbon is made outside of the…
I’ve been meaning to post this article for quite some time so today I bring you my Chicken Cock Whiskey collection. There are several interesting things going on here besides the greatest name ever bestowed upon a whiskey. Let’s take a look. We have 5 bottles spanning the prohibition era to the modern era (if…
Interesting note: the whiskey in this bottle spans the entirety of prohibition! Bottle Information Brand: Four Roses Size: Pint Barrelled: 1917 Bottled: 1934 Distiller: H.S. Barton, Owensboro, Kentucky Distillery No.: 24 District: 2nd Dist. KY Bottler: Frankfort Distilleries, Incorporated Warehouse No.: 4 District: Dist of Mo. Condition Fill Level: Poor – 33% Label: Mint Tax…
Over the years I have been chasing a complete run of the same brand of prohibition whiskey bottle sizes: quart, pint, 1/2 pint, 1/4 pint, and 1/10 pint. As it turns out, my quest is impossible to complete, which I will detail here in a minute. Because of this, I have done the next best…
Forrest Cokely who writes for Old Liquors Magazine was kind enough to reach out for a short interview and include me in this very informative article he wrote named The Last Call – Tasting History with Pre-Prohibition Bourbon. Give it a read as I’m sure you will not be disappointed.
The biggest thing I have learned from collecting prohibition medicinal whiskeys is that the brand doesn’t matter the vast majority of the time. For example, I have a 1/2 pint Old Fitz and a 1/2 pint Waterfill and Frazier. Both were distilled by Mary M. Dowling (one of the most fascinating female distillers of all time.…
In this post I want to share one of my favorite brands: Old Sunny Brook. It isn’t particularly hard to find and doesn’t excite many collectors but I’m a big fan of the evolution of this brand and its mascot, The Inspector. In the photo above we have four bottles that represent very different eras…
It has been yet another long while since I’ve posted to this blog so I thought I would focus on some of the more obscure bottles in my collection. Today I want to share a beautiful example of vintage label design. Not only does the color pop with rarely seen yellows and blues but you also get…
Today’s post is a salute to distiller Stitzel-Weller and the brand Old Fitzgerald. These bottles, all unopened, range from the prohibition era up to the mid sixties or maybe a little later. I’m more in the mood of posting photographs rather than storytelling at the moment, so for an exhaustive and fun historical read, please…
Hello fellow Whisky Benders! This time I’m going to let the pictures do the talking as I share photos sent in for appraisal or general information during 2014. Some are good, some bad, and some ugly. All of them interesting. Scroll down to see last year’s crop. Thanks to everybody who sent photos to me last…
A fellow whiskey enthusiast and a reader of this blog (aka a “WhiskeyBender”) sent the following amazing specimen of a pre-prohibition bottle of Golden Wedding Whiskey. For those of you who remember my Dad’s Golden Wedding post, this is quite the polar opposite of those examples. Distilled by Jos. S. Finch & Co. of Pittsburgh, PA, this…
Here is one of my favorite bottles in my collection. I’ve seen two others out there that are sealed and unopened and one is a permanent guest at the Getz Whiskey Museum in Bardstown, Kentucky. Scroll to the bottom of this blog post from the Alcohol Professor to see one of them (among some other…
It has been too long since my last post, what with life and all. I have so many delicious whiskey posts planned but with so few Spock mind-meld techniques at my disposal, I must submit to the available hours and the speed of my fingers. I’ve been blessed to have been born into whiskey royalty. My father,…
<movie_trailer_voice> Imagine a world where Coca-Cola is bottled in Pepsi containers. Imagine a world where Pepsi is put inside RC Cola cans. Imagine a world where the new Brand Promise is no promise at all. Welcome to Soda Prohibition. </movie_trailer_voice> While there was no such thing as Soda Prohibition, unless you consider Mayor Bloomberg’s attempt to…
As a relative newbie to the American whiskey scene, I am truly fascinated by the heritage of the brands, distilleries and those old pre-prohibition whiskey men (and women). I have a penchant for all things Americana and I love collecting artifacts that shaped who we are now as a nation. My original collecting sin was…
Being a marketing guy by trade, I really admire these old advertisements from National Distillers (circa July 1934). Create sense of urgency. Check. Weave a tale of romantic scarcity. Check. Create F.U.D. (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt). Check. The only gaff by today’s standards is the typical wail of the modern ad agency client: “There’s way too…
This week, as I devoured the blog posts of my fellow whiskey bloggers, I realized I’m more of a museum curator rather than a historian. That’s ok because now I know my place in the WWW (Wonderful World of Whiskey). Don’t get me wrong, I love the history. As your curator, today I’m taking you…
Circa 1950, these Old Fiddles have been in the family for a while and I’m the current caretaker. Known for their “fiddle” shape, they were inspired by the song “My Old Kentucky Home” written by Stephen Foster. Bourbon doesn’t get any more Kentucky than this. Old Fiddle was a product of Bardstown Distillery out of,…
After doing some of my typical Internet hunting I bring back to my whiskey tribe a beast of an article. Tom Eblen, from the Lexington Herald-Ledger, writes about cracking open his Old Barbee Whiskey and sharing it with longtime Wild Turkey master distiller Jimmy Russell. As it turns out, the bourbon came from the author,…
I thought I would go north of the border with this post and share my Lincoln Inn Old Rye Whiskey bottles. One is a full pint and the other is a 1/10th pint. The pint bottle has never been opened while the mini was consumed years ago. Either way, these are very neat bottles that…
Let me introduce myself. My name is David Spaid, former editor of The Miniature Bottle Collector, which is now out-of-print. I’ve been collecting bottles of all sizes for over 50 years and, apparently, I’ve had some impact on my son, Scott. From time-to-time I will be writing for WhiskeyBent.net. Cheers! Now, on to the article. Perhaps some…
This magazine ad from October 1934 sheds light on the fact that there was a lot of prohibition era whiskey left over after Repeal. Since we basically had to start from scratch aging American whiskey via the relatively few distilleries that survived, the only “good old stuff” was bottled before 1920 (aka pre-prohibition). What is…
You know, it really doesn’t dawn on you that people could easily get whiskey during prohibition until you see the medicinal whiskey prescriptions and logs that were used during the time period. Meticulous records were required by the Treasury Department’s U.S. Prohibition Service similar to the FDA today. Just as some of the bottles of…
So, I was slumming around on Craig’s List the other day looking for a swing set, yeah a swing set, and I found this delicious looking bottle of Thompson Select Straight Kentucky Whiskey. In about 5 years this hooch will be at least 100 years old. Heck, they knew prohibition was coming and sent flyers…
During one of my typical Google outings I stumbled upon this photograph of a nice old collection of prohibition whiskey bottles. The owner of this collection is unknown as the photo was snapped and uploaded to Reddit by the owner’s grandson according to the original post. My goal is to identify every brand in the…
Have you ever wondered what a bottle of medicinal whiskey distilled nearly 100 years ago tastes like? Yeah, I’m sure you’re thinking what most people think. Ewww! Hasn’t that stuff turned by now? Well, in most cases, the answer is no. If the seal is intact, no sediment at the bottom, and only a bit…