This sale is led by The Camouflage Collection Part I, with highlights coming in the form of Pappy Van Winkle, Willett Family Estate, Michter's, Eagle Rare and the Buffalo Trace Antique Collection. Supporting these are the finest and rarest Scotch and Japanese whiskies including The Macallan Fine &amp; Rare 32 Year Old 1969, The Macallan 40 Year Old The Red Collection and The Yamazaki 18 Year Old Mizunara Cask.

From record breaking Bourbon and Rye whiskies to the finest Scotch and Japanese malts

Sale Highlights

The Van Winkle line of whiskeys needs little introduction. Praised by celebrities and the subject of a bestselling book, it is by far the best recognized and most widely coveted whiskey in America. The brand has its roots in a distillery called Stitzel-Weller, located just outside Louisville and overseen by a businessman named Julian Van Winkle, known affectionately as Pappy. Opened on Derby Day in 1935, it produced exclusively wheated bourbon.

One of the most recognizable American Whiskey brands, Pappy Van Winkle features heavily in the Camouflage Collection Part I

Pappy Van Winkle

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. Six years later, Joseph Magliocco, the president of New York-based Chatham Imports, acquired Michter’s abandoned trademark and moved its base of operations to Kentucky. There, he and his team began buying up barrels of well-aged whiskey from the state’s distilleries. To those distilleries, older, richer whiskey was too out of character to blend with younger spirits to create the cheaper brands they were used to selling.

Joe Magliocco’s Michter’s has firmly established itself amongst the best and most renowned bourbon and rye whiskies, famed for its depth and immense quality

Michter’s

The Willett family traces its roots to the 1690s, when Edward Willett immigrated to Maryland from England and started making whiskey and other spirits. The family eventually moved to Kentucky, where, a few years after the end of Prohibition, Thompson Willett founded the Willett Distilling Co. outside Bardstown. The industry hit on hard times in the 1970s, Willett included. The company ceased distilling in 1981, and was so desperate for cash that it tried to convert to making ethanol. For a moment, it looked as though Willett would go the way of so many other distilleries caught in the whiskey industry’s previous busts, leaving behind nothing but rotting old warehouses and rusted stills. Things changed however when Even Kulsveen, a Norwegian immigrant who had married into the family, bought the distillery in 1984.

Among bourbon and rye whiskey enthusiasts, bottles of Willett Family Estate are arguably as highly sought after as those from Buffalo Trace, Michter’s and Old Rip Van Winkle

The Family Estate With Unrivaled Pedigree

Willett

Whiskey distilled at Buffalo Trace Distillery features heavily throughout the Camouflage Collection Part I. From Colonel E.H. Taylor to Double Eagle Very Rare, O.F.C. to William Laure Weller, the collection spans the full range and spectrum of Buffalo Trace brands. We begin with the O.F.C. Vintages, named after the O.F.C. Distillery, christened by Colonel E.H. Taylor Jr. in 1870 and now a National Historic Landmark known today as Buffalo Trace Distillery. The collection includes vintages back to 1980 with each bottle made from hand-cut crystal and vintage-dated according to the specific year in which the liquid was distilled. From the Colonel E.H. Taylor brand, the collection includes one of the rarest and most coveted bourbons in the form of the Colonel E.H. Taylor Old Fashioned Sour Mash 100 Proof, Distilled in 2002. This is a modern replication of Edmund Haynes Taylor, Jr. technique of allowing the mash to sour naturally for days before distillation, dating back to the 1800s.

The Buffalo Trace Distillery produces many of the most well-known and popular bourbon and rye whiskey brands available today including Van Winkle, Colonel E.H. Taylor and The Buffalo Trace Antique Collection. 

Buffalo Trace Distillery

Whilst the sale features mainly American whiskies, there are some additional highlights in the form of some of the most sought-after and collectible Scotch and Japanese Whiskies. Leading the sale, The Macallan Fine &amp; Rare 32 Year Old 1969 and The Macallan The Red Collection 40 Year Old sit nicely alongside notable lots from Japan, including an older release of The Yamazaki 25 Year Old and The Yamazaki 18 Year Old Mizunara Cask, named after the indigenous Japanese oak used to mature the whisky.

More American Whiskey highlights alongside the finest Scotch and Japanese Whiskies from The Macallan and The Yamazaki

Further Highlights

The Camouflage Collection Part I offers an opportunity for collectors and enthusiasts to acquire some of the rarest bottles on the market. The following lots are sold with no reserve, giving anyone the easiest access to building a collection of their own, whether new to the whisky market or already a seasoned collector.

No Reserve Highlights

Vice President | Global Head of Spirits

Jonny Fowle

Director | Senior Whisky Specialist

James Gray

Whiskey Specialist

Zev Glesta

Property and Sales Manager

Hugh Machin

Department Administrator

Post-Sale Services

Morgan Risi

Meet our Specialists

For assistance with bidding and registration, please contact: +1 212 606 7000 
 
 <a class="Link" href="mailto:enquiries@sothebys.com" target="_blank">ENQUIRIES@SOTHEBYS.COM</a>

Sotheby's March whiskey sale in New York is led by The Camouflage Collection Part I, comprising some of the finest and rarest bourbon and rye whiskies ever bottled, and carefully assembled by a dedicated and passionate collector over a period of many years. The collection includes numerous bottles of high-end Pappy Van Winkle, Willett Family Estate, Michter's, Eagle Rare and many more. The full collection consists of around 1500 bottles, including full original cases, first editions and some of the rarest and hardest to find whiskeys ever bottled, a collection only made possible by the commitment and knowledge of a connoisseur who dedicated much of his life seeking out each individual bottle. Collections of this variety and scope rarely come to market, and provide an opportunity for collectors and enthusiasts alike to acquire the most sought after bottles, and all from a single source.

Whisky & Whiskey | The Camouflage Collection Part I