Bourbon Sales Soar And Hit Record Prices At Auction
No one twenty years ago would have predicted that bourbon—the corn-based “brown spirit” out of Kentucky—would make a comeback as the 21st century’s biggest surprise whiskey. And certainly no one could have imagined a single bottle—23-Year-Old Pappy—could fetch $35,000 at the Art of Bourbon auction held last September at Louisville’s Speed Art Museum. Sports gambler, author and philanthropist Billy Walters bid $21,000 for a George T Stagg prohibition bottle from 1928. (Total sales topped $318,000 at the non-profit event.) A month later Michter’s distillery ranked first overall in the 2023 World’s Most Admired Whiskies top 50 list published by Drinks International, surpassing some of the biggest labels in Scotland, Japan and Ireland.
