In December 2022, a bottle of Pappy Van Winkle 23 Year Old Family Reserve sold at auction for $52,500—more than the list price for a base-model Tesla. The long-aged bourbon from the Buffalo Trace Distillery is arguably the most sought-after bottle of American whiskey in production today.
Pappy Van Winkle commands high prices on the post-retail market partly because it's so rare: About 84,000 bottles are released each year. By comparison, Jim Beam, a much more affordable and accessible brand, ships about 84 million bottles a year. The scarcity of Pappy Van Winkle helps explain the furor over the recent revelation that senior officials at the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commision (OLCC) had been diverting bottles for personal use.
