Bourbon Hunters, or "Bourb Hunters" as they are known, go on a spirited chase every year for some of the most sought after annual releases - Buffalo Trace's Antique Collection, Pappy Van Winkle's, Forester's Birthday Bourbon, and so on. Some have decidedly sought an even more difficult path - to unearth long lost, small batch Bourbons of cult status.

Yet, what is likely the rarest of them all, and interestingly one of the least known is the Rare American Whiskey Selection.

In fact, if not for its showcase on the April 2023 round of Sotheby's New York auction that most Bourb hunters would have first heard of it.

The set which was created in the 1990s features five American Whiskeys that were originally meant to be an annual series from United Distillers. The idea shares many similarities to the better known and hotly collected Rare Malts Selection of Scotch - the 1980's was a bad time for American whiskies, and United Distillers had wanted to revive demand.

United Distillers had acquired American distillers from Schenley to Glenmore and Stitzel Weller, and thought it was best to put on a showing of the best from these American distilleries they had acquired - the Rare American Whiskey Selection (the name is even similar to the Rare Malts Selection). After all why not apply the same strategy as they had with Scotch.

The Rare Malts Selection. (Image Source: McTears)

This task at hand was charged to a subsidiary named The Classic Kentucky Bourbon Company - their solution was an annual selection of five different barrel proof, well-aged whiskies. The inaugural, and what was to be the only iteration, would see a total run of 6,000 bottles.

In prototyping what the series would look like, the company had bottled two showcase sets of the collection - one had gone to United Distillers' London headquarters, while the only other set was held at the Stitzel Weller Distillery in Kentucky.

By 1997, just as the series was ready to roll, United Distillers' parent Guinness had come to an agreement to engage in a merger with Grand Metropolitan, the combination of which would be Diageo.

In the process, the Rare American Whiskey Selection project ended taking a backseat and was eventually shelved. 

In April 2023, Sotheby's unveiled a set of the Rare American Whiskey Selection much to the excited gasps of collectors, which eventually hammered at 15 times its pre-sale estimate, placing its value at US$187,245, going to an American private collector.

Now, you might be wondering if the other set is still out there. Well, unfortunately the only other set is thought to have been lost in a fire that broke out at the Stitzel Weller Distillery.

The set of five bottlings from the Rare American Whiskey Selection are as follows:

• Old Quaker Indiana Corn Whiskey 21 year old Limited Edition Barrel Proof (distilled in 1976), 65% ABV
  
• Taylor & Williams Kentucky Straight Bourbon Limited Edition 17 year old Barrel Proof (distilled in 1980), 56% ABV
  
• Stitzel-Weller Kentucky Straight Bourbon Limited Edition 17 year old Barrel Proof (distilled in 1980), 53.5% ABV
• George T Stagg Kentucky Straight Rye Limited Edition 16 year old Barrel Proof (distilled in 1981), 57% ABV
• Buffalo Springs Kentucky Rye Mash Limited Edition 15 year old Barrel Proof (distilled in 1982), 62.5% ABV

The Distilleries

• Buffalo Springs Distillery was established in Georgetown, Kentucky in 1868, finally shuttering a century after when it was acquired by Schenley. Today, a portion of the distillery still exists as part of an inn of the same name.
• Old Quaker Distillery was located next to Seagram (now, MGP) in Lawrenceburg, Indiana. It was originally owned by Schenley before it was acquired by United Distillers (Diageo) in 1987.
• Taylor & Williams Distillery (in Shively) was owned by Glenmore, which was acquired by United Distillers/Diageo in 1991.
• Stitzel Weller in Shively, Kentucky was acquired from the Van Winkle family before it came to belong to United Distillers/Diageo in the early 1970s.
• Stagg, today the Buffalo Trace Distillery, also belonged to Schenley which later came under United Distillers' ownership.

As to how these fabled American treasures might taste, we can only couch spirits expert Dave Broom's tasting notes for two of the five bottlings:

George T Stagg Kentucky Straight Rye Limited Edition 16 year old Barrel Proof (distilled in 1981), 57% ABV

‘Pungent and powerful. Lemon balm/lime zest leaning to aftershave. Clean, bitter chocolate spiciness that hits the mouth and then explodes and expands. Stunning, but not for the faint-hearted.’

Old Quaker Indiana Corn Whiskey 21 year old Limited Edition Barrel Proof (distilled in 1976), 65% ABV

‘Pale Yellow. Fragrant and gentle with cream and clover aromas. Gentle and smooth to start, then an astringent bite which yields to mellow stweetness on the finish.’

Images courtesy of Sotheby's.

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@111hotpot