Thanks to a visit to an obscure shop located under a Japanese train station, the auction for the world’s largest private collection of bourbon and American whiskey will take place starting tomorrow.
How are these two events connected?
The common thread is Pat, an anonymous whisky collector who after falling in love with the water of life 15 years ago is now auctioning 9,000 bottles of whisky from around the world, the largest private collection ever put on offer. Split across separate auctions organised by Whisky Auctioneer, a few hundred bottles of the overall collection were first sold off last month, but there’s plenty more on the way.
Tomorrow, Pat’s collection of over 600 bourbon and American whiskey bottles will go under the hammer. It is the largest private stash of bourbons and American whiskeys ever auctioned.
Here’s where the Japanese connection comes in. On a pilgrimage to Japan years ago to find out more about the country’s whisky, Pat followed a recommendation to stop at an obscure whisky shop under a train station and discovered bourbon for the first time:
“When I got to this incredible shop there was a bottle that really attracted my attention, it had a gorgeous label covered in handwriting.”, he told me.
“I asked the lady there what it was, and I found out it was a 19 year old bourbon, which is quite rare. I bought the bottle and I tasted it, a 19 year old Olde St. Nick, and I fell in love. It is still one of the best bourbons I’ve ever tasted.”
From there he began to hunt down bourbons and other American whiskeys. The collection on offer features a near complete set of the Buffalo Trace Antique Collection, many sought-after Pappy Van Winkle bottlings the legendary 1974 A.H. Hirsch Reserve, and almost 100 bottles of Jack Daniel’s including the Sinatra Century, the Old No.7 Inaugural Bottle and the Gold Medal series.
In the official auction announcement, top bourbon expert (and fellow Forbes contributor) Fred Minnick notes how special this collection is:
“Pat’s American Whiskey collection is a contemporary gold mine of ridiculously hard-to-find rare bourbons and ryes, ranging from nearly every bottle of the Buffalo Trace Experimental series to the coveted 1974 Van Winkle exports. It is one of the strongest collections I’ve seen in my 15-year career; near every bottle is allocated and impossible to find.”
Believe it or not, Pat claims his wider collection of 9,000 bottles was intended to be opened and drunk (he wryly notes “you can call me deluded, as my wife does, that I could get through so many bottles…”). Eventually, he realized that he wasn’t going to be able to drink them all, and made the bittersweet decision to release the bottles into the world:
“This was meant to be a collection for people to enjoy drinking, and this is the best way to ensure that as many people as possible are able to do that, rather than just being shoved away into someone’s cellar. This is how I’m able to come to terms with letting it all go! I’m very happy with the approach Whisky Auctioneer is taking, so I’m at peace.”
Heart and Soul: The American Bourbon and Whiskey Auction will take place from October 9th to 19th. Other spotlight auctions exclusively featuring bottles from Pat’s Collection will be announced soon, while other bottles from Pat’s Collection will also be included in Whisky Auctioneer’s regular monthly auctions.
(Editorial note: I used the spelling ‘whisky’ to refer to Japanese whiskies and ‘whiskey’ to refer to American whiskeys.)
