Expert: Paul Wagner - 3/10/2009

Question
I would like to know the rareness and the value of the following:

A sealed 750ml bottle of Tom Benton's Missouri Straight Bourbon Sour Mash Whiskey?  The bottle is numbered, and the back label has an excerpt from one of his writings which includes a copy of his signature.

This bourbon was brewed in honor of famed artist Thomas Hart Benton.  I believe McCormick only bottled it one (1) year!  

Answer
Hi Curtis

This is a nice commemorative bottling--but there are a couple different version of this, as I understand it.  The first version was bottled to celebrate a Bourbon Bash in memory of T. H. Benton's 98th birthday.  There have been subsequent celebrations since, and some of those have also mentioned the Bourbon Bash.

It's decent whiskey, but these commemorative bottlings are never very exciting to connoisseurs.  I would estimate this at about $75 a bottle, at most.  But bottle collectors sometimes pay more than what the liquid is worth--because the package is interesting to them.  I would check with the folks at antiquebottles.com to see if they have any interest in these bottles.

Hope that helps!

Paul Wagner