Jackpot!
Posted on July 6, 2012 | By The Bon-Vivant | Comments Off on Jackpot!
You’ve decided to do some home repairs, and as you’re rooting around in the attic, you stumble upon this…
From ABC news, comes this heartwarming story.
To save money on the installation of central air-conditioning in his St. Joseph, Mo., home, Bryan Fite began replacing the wires in his attic, prying up the floor boards on the rafters. Along with possible savings, he found a treasure beneath the floorboards: 13 bottles of century-old whiskey.
[…]
All the whiskey in Fite’s attic was bottled in 1917 and distilled between 1912 and 1913. Fite, a self-proclaimed history buff, said the four bottles of Hellman’s Celebrated Old Crow whiskey he found may have been among the last of their kind. In 1918, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of Edson Bradley, the maker of the still-popular Old Crow whiskey bottled by the makers of Jim Beam, allowing him exclusive rights to the “Old Crow” label.
In addition to the Old Crow bottles, Fite’s attic was keeping cool a few bottles of Guckenheimer, the erstwhile Pennsylvania rye whiskey, and W. H. McBrayer’s Cedar Brook whiskey.
Thirteen unopened bottles of pre-Prohibition whiskey! Wowzas!
And what does, Mr. Fite plan to do with his treasure trove?
In 2017, when the bottles turn 100, Fite and his friends will pop them open, he said. But for now, they are simply antiques.
“Part of the allure for me is having them in their original state,” said Fite, who identified bourbon as his drink of choice. “I have high expectations of what they’ll taste like, and I’m afraid if I open them I’ll be disappointed.”
An admirable decision, sir. I salute you.
I would also name you an honorary Liquor Locusts, but the true Liquor Locusts would have had the first bottle already opened in the attic, and likely be through the rest in the next couple of months.