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Dec 6, 2007 8:53 pm US/Eastern
$30,000 For 1 Bottle Of Booze? Only At Christie's
Crazy Cash Expected To Change Hands At Rare Auction
By Scott Rapoport, CBS 2 HD News
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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A bottle of booze like this one could fetch several thousand dollars at the first legal liquor auction in New York since prohibition.
CBS
What price whiskey? Or cognac? Or rye?
Well, if you have to ask you may not be able to afford the distilled spirits that'll be on the auction block this weekend.
Dusty old bottles filled with liquid gold.
"It's amazing to see, amazing bottles on the market like this," said Richard Brierley of Christie's auction house.
Imagine this: $30,000 for a bottle of whiskey. Another $20,000 for a bottle of rye. Those will be the prices once the bidding ends.
"They're very rare," Brierley said of the items to be auctioned. "These things don't come to market very often."
Lots of sumptuous spirits will be on the block at Christie's in what's being billed as the first legal auction of hard liquor and distilled spirits in New York since Prohibition.
"It had never been legalized after the repeal of Prohibition," said Frank Coleman of the Distilled Spirits Council of the U.S.
Though wine auctions are common, it seems booze auctions were a no-no until this year.
"They changed the law," Coleman said. "And in August, Gov. Spitzer signed the bill."
We're talking whiskey, Armagnac, cognac.
This to be sure is not your run of the mill hooch:
* A 1926 Macallan single malt -- aged 60 years in cherry wood before being bottled -- is expected to fetch $30,000.
* A cognac from the year 1811, named after Napoleon may go for around $6,000.
* A bottle of rye made from George Washington's original recipe could command $20,000.
"Only 24 bottles made," Brierley said of the rye. "They re-created the still. They re-created the recipe. Got the best distiller in the world to make it."
But all of this is just preview, including a tasting of sorts. Those thirsting for the real thing will get their chance Saturday at Christie's.
Perhaps appropriately that's the day after the anniversary of the 1933 repeal act which ended Prohibition.
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