Is this UK basketball legends, museum special bottle release the oldest bourbon ever?
READ MORE
Game day: Kentucky 85, Georgia 71
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Tuesday night’s men’s basketball game between Kentucky and Georgia at Rupp Arena in Lexington.
Expand All
A Louisville history museum is releasing a new special bourbon that will appeal to basketball fans and bourbon lovers alike. It’s a special bottling that includes some of what has been called the oldest bourbon ever bottled.
The limited-edition 78 Legends celebrates the University of Kentucky’s 1978 NCAA men’s basketball championship and each bottle is signed by three players from the team: Jack “Goose” Givens, Rick Robey and Kyle Macy.
The Frazier Museum is offering the bourbon for $1,978 (plus tax) at its Feb. 2 release party, where the former UK players will appear and discuss the season with the program’s host, Kentucky’s all-time leading scorer Dan Issel. Each bottle comes with two tickets for the event, which is exclusively for bottle purchasers.
Bottles can be purchased online at fraziermuseumorg.
Each of the 1,978 bottles are numbered and hand-dipped in blue wax.
The whiskey inside is special too: It’s a blend of Kentucky 5-year-old and 50-year-old bourbons.
“This is a very limited-edition Bourbon,” Frazier president and CEO Andy Treinen said. “Some of it was already aging in the barrel when they won the title. This program is a chance to learn about the project and hear these legends reminisce about the championship.”
The bourbon was distilled at Yellowstone Distillery in Louisville and Kentucky Artisan Distillery. Some of this same bourbon was released in March 2018 as Final Reserve when it was 45 years old and is now selling on the secondary market for $3,999 per bottle, according to a museum spokesman.
What is the oldest bourbon ever bottled?
At the time five years ago, that was reportedly the oldest bourbon ever bottled.
Technically, the 78 Legends release cannot be considered the oldest bourbon ever bottled, even though it contains some of the longest-aged bourbon. Because a blend is only as old as the newest bourbon used, 78 Legends is considered a 5-year-old bourbon.
According to The Bourbon Review, the bourbon was set aside in the 1970s for a 2000 release marking the turn of the century by Buddy Thompson, the great-grandson of the founder of Glenmore Distilleries, which owned Yellowstone at the time. Thompson personally owned the barrels, so when the distilleries and warehouses were sold off, he kept the inventory. In 2017, the 45-year-old bourbon was sold to benefit the Frazier History Museum and the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation.
This story was originally published January 17, 2023 at 5:05 PM.
