250-year-old Georgia whiskey, oldest known in existence, up for auction

It’s an auction for an item some say has been “aged to perfection.”

You can bid on a 250-year-old bottle of bourbon from here in Georgia, but it will cost you.

The whiskey is from a distillery in LaGrange.

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University of Georgia scientists said it was likely bottled between 1763 to 1803.

The auction is set for the end of June. Bids are expected to start between $20,000 and $40,000.

Auctioneers said the bourbon is the oldest whiskey in existence.

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Skinner’s Rare Spirits expert, Joseph Hyman, remarks “The Old Ingledew Whiskey, bottled by Evans & Ragland, Lagrange GA, c. 1860s, is thought to be the only surviving bottle of a trio from the cellar of J.P. Morgan gifted in the 1940s to Washington power elite.”

According to the auctioneer, the bottle is reported to have been purchased by financier John Pierpont Morgan during one of his frequent visits to Georgia. It is believed his son, Jack Morgan, later gifted this bottle to James Byrnes of South Carolina and two sister bottles to Franklin D. Roosevelt (a distant cousin to Morgan) and Harry S. Truman, circa 1942-1944.

Byrnes had been U.S. Congressman, U.S. Senator, and Supreme Court Justice before WWII. After leaving office, Byrnes gifted the bottle to close friend and neighbor Francis Drake. Drake and his descendants, being exclusively Scotch drinkers, safeguarded the bottle for three generations. READ MORE.

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