Sotheby’s has closed the book on The Great American Whiskey Collection with a final total of $2.5 million, officially making it the most valuable single-owner American whiskey collection ever sold at auction.
Not just that, but the most valuable single-owner spirits auction ever held in New York.
The low estimate was $1.17 million. That number did not survive contact with reality.
Behold: The Great American Whiskey Collection
One owner. One sale.
Held at Sotheby’s new global headquarters in the Breuer Building, New York, this was the first live, single-owner American whiskey sale in history. There was no online-only cushioning or split consignments. Just 360 bottles, offered across 320 lots, all drawn from the same private cellar and all sold in a single evening.
White glove does not really cover it. Every single lot sold. Nearly nine out of ten beat their high estimate. Collectors fought it out in the room, on the phones and online, with 96% of the bottles staying in North America. Nearly a third of buyers were new to Sotheby’s, and more than half were under 40.
The headline was inevitable once the hammer fell on the Old Rip Van Winkle 20 Year Old Single Barrel “Sam’s” (1982). Expected to make between $70,000 and $100,000, it instead sold for $162,500, becoming the most valuable bottle of American whiskey ever sold at auction.
Bottled exclusively for Sam’s Wines & Spirits in Chicago, just 60 hand-numbered bottles were produced. It was bottled at 133.4 proof, the highest strength Van Winkle ever released, and it had not appeared at auction for more than a decade.
The Great American Whiskey Collection Auction Room: where history was made
Van Winkle dominated, but it did not stand alone
While Van Winkle accounted for much of the value, this sale was not a one-brand victory lap. Private labels, regional bottlings and historic releases pushed prices into territory that would have felt unthinkable not that long ago.
The Van Winkle 18 Year Old “Binny’s” (1985) smashed past its estimate to reach $106,250. Distilled at Stitzel-Weller and bottled at 121.6 proof, fewer than 100 bottles were ever made. Most were opened years ago. This was its first appearance at Sotheby’s, and bidders treated it accordingly.
Then there was the Old Fitzgerald Very Very Old Fitzgerald “Blackhawk” 18 Year Old, a private bottling for the Wirtz family. It sold for $112,500, more than doubling its low estimate. These bottles were never sold publicly; in fact, they were gifts. That they still exist at all is remarkable.
The LeNell’s Red Hook Rye bottlings continued their long-standing habit of reminding people what modern rye can become when scarcity, quality and myth line up. Across four barrels, just 852 bottles exist. Each one is now firmly in blue-chip territory.
Imagine coming home to this: The Great American Whiskey Collection Cellar
The bigger picture
The previous record for a single-owner American whiskey collection was $965,813, set in 2021. Now that total has been more than doubled.
This is more than a single record, or even a cluster of them. It’s a bit of a moment for American whiskey. Scotch and Japanese have always taken the headlines, and there’s no one bottle here that makes the top 10. But the dial is moving, and the interest from younger bidders shows that American whiskey is not just ageing well. It is recruiting.
Private labels, regional bottlings, lost distilleries… Sotheby’s whiskey specialist Zev Glesta says these bottles are not just collectables. They are history. And the market now treats them that way.
