A Milestone for the American Whiskey Market:
Sotheby’s Presents the Most Valuable American Whiskey Auction Ever Staged, Featuring Two of the Most Significant Collections to Come to the Market in a
Single Sale, Including ‘The American Muscle Collection’
AUCTION IN NEW YORK ON 19 MARCH
NEW YORK, 15 MARCH 2022 – Advance bidding is now open on Bourbon & Rye Whiskey | The American Muscle Collection + The Three Continents Collection Pt III, the most valuable auction of American whiskey ever staged. With an overall estimate of $825,000 – 1.2 million, and featuring two of the most significant collections to come to the market in a single sale, the 750-lot auction will be presented live from Sotheby’s in New York this Saturday, 19 March at 10am EDT.
Jonny Fowle, Sotheby’s Spirits Specialist, said: “American Whiskey stands apart owing to its strength of character, and over the last two years has shown the beginnings of a meteoric rise in the secondary market. Maturing in virgin American oak barrels for years and sometimes decades, the resulting whiskeys are luxuriously rich, complex and unmistakably American. A muscular character can be attributed not only to this wealth of flavors but also to the high proof of the market’s most collectible bottles.”
The auction is led by the American Muscle Collection, which takes its name not only from its unparalleled range of rich and robust US Bourbons and Rye Whiskeys, but also from the collector who built this significant catalogue of bottles. Rich “RJ” Gottlieb is the owner of one of the most legendary Chevrolets in existence, the 1969 “Big Red” Camaro, referred to by many as “the baddest muscle car ever”. The collection is defined by its extensive selection of Willett Family Estate barrel picks.
The second significant collection is The Three Continents Collection Part III. These whiskeys were part of a 5,000 bottle-strong collection of Scotch and Japanese whisky as well as Bourbon and Rye from the USA that has been allocated across five Sotheby’s auctions in 2021 and 2022. It first hit the market in November 2021 as a single owner sale, doubling its estimate to achieve $2m just for Part I. This auction exclusively contains American whiskeys from this collection.
These two collections are supported by a number of other classic bottles such as Lanell’s Red Hook Rye, Pappy Van Winkle, Four Roses and Old Weller.
The American Muscle Collection is defined by the depth and breadth of its selection. Not only are there numerous bottlings from the likes of Pappy Van Winkle, Buffalo Trace Antique Collection and Black Maple Hill, but the extent of bottlings from producers such as Willett and Four Roses give an idea of the wealth of knowledge and prescience a collection such as this requires.
Among bourbon and rye whiskey connoisseurs, bottles of Willett Family Estate are as highly sought after as those from Buffalo Trace, Michter’s and Old Rip Van Winkle – if not more. Drawing on their immense stocks of well-aged whiskeys, the Kulsveens, the branch of the Willett family that now owns the distillery, create a variety of whiskeys but save the very best barrels, no more than three percent, for their estate brand, which they began to release in small amounts in the mid-2000s.
Over the last twenty years, Four Roses has developed a reputation as one of the best all-around distilleries in Kentucky, its portfolio ranging from a solid, inexpensive entry-level whiskey to a very limited and highly coveted series of annual releases, some of which critics rank among the best bourbons of the century.
Black Maple Hill is among the most coveted American whiskeys, with a history that connects it with some of the biggest names in Kentucky distilling. Like several other extremely limited-release brands from the early 2000s, Black Maple Hill did not make its own whiskey, or even bottle it. Rather, its owner, a California-based company called CVI Brands, hired Julian Van Winkle III to find high-quality barrels of whiskey and bottle it for them. At the time, Van Winkle was working out of the disused Hoffman Distillery in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky, where he bottled whiskey for his own brand, Old Rip Van Winkle, as well as for clients such as CVI, all of which have long since achieved legendary status among collectors.
Starting in the mid-2000s, Michter’s was arguably the first American whiskey to join Old Rip Van Winkle as a truly world-class luxury brand. The Michter’s name originated in the decades after World War II, when a Pennsylvania businessman named Lou Forman named a distillery after his sons, Michael and Peter. But the Pennsylvania whiskey industry was in a steady and terminal decline, and the distillery shut its doors in 1990.
The Van Winkle line of whiskeys needs no introduction: praised by celebrities, the subject of a bestselling book, it is by far the best recognized and most widely coveted.
HIGHLIGHTS
LeNell Red Hook Rye 23 Year Old Barrel #3 68.8 abv NV, est. $20,000-30,000
Pappy Van Winkle Double Vertical 2020 & 2021, est, $16,000-24,000
Willett Family Estate Single Barrel Bourbon 21 Year Old “The Wheated Patriot” 141.6 proof 1993, est, $8,000-12,000
Michter’s Single Barrel Rye 25 Year Old 117.3 proof NV, est. $5,000-6,000
Colonel E.H. Taylor Warehouse C Tornado Surviving 100 proof NV, est. $4,500-6,000
Black Maple Hill Single Barrel Rye 15 Year Old 98.2 proof NV, est. $4,000-7,000
Heaven Hill William Heavenhill Signature Anniversary 127.6 aproof NV, est. $4,000-4,800
Four Roses Single Barrel 17 Year Old 2012 Release 55.3 abv NV, est. $3,000-5,000
The American Muscle Collection: lots 1 – 534 (est. $580,350 – 825,150)
The Three Continents Collection Part III: lots 586 – 750 (est. $112,850 – 177,950)
Cotton candy, marshmallows roasting over an open campfire, baked apples, and cornbread batter start a whiskey that then offers hints of caramel apples, pumpkin pie, and roasted pecans. Water opens it up to more nuanced fruit, spice, and sweetness. Without water, brown-sugar butter dominates about mid-palate and leads to a long finish. Dilution makes this a completely different whiskey experience. (FM, fall 2017) 
