Inside Bourbon Bonanza, the Ultimate Charity Event for Whiskey Fans

“Rye from 1898?” The fellow holding the bottle pushes it forward, showing a typewritten label with “Stewart Distilling Company” and “Made in 1898” and little else. I hold my glass out and listen to the tale of how the owner acquired a case of these in an estate sale in Connecticut. The whiskey, soft, herbaceous, and delicious, goes down too quickly. Within moments, someone else produces a bottle of James E. Pepper Bottled in Bond from the ’50s, and my glass is refilled.

And so it goes at the wildest bottle share I’ve ever attended. Held the night before Bourbon Bonanza at The Last Refuge—a grandiose Louisville church converted into a bar—100 whiskey aficionados gather, all of whom have brought the very best from the depths of their collections. “There’s probably $150,000 worth of bottles here,” says one of Bourbon Bonanza’s organizers Quintin Wise. “This is the roots of bourbon, though; bringing bottles and sharing with friends.”

A glance at a self-serve table by the bar reveals it’s nearly buckling from unicorns. Two dozen rare Willett Family Estate single barrels. A dozen Rare Character Brook Hill bottles (including a 161.64 proof 12 year old bourbon, one of the highest proofs the label has produced). A smattering of Old Commonwealth options, Buffalo Trace Antique Collection offerings, and Premiere Drams bottles brought by founder Bill Thomas (who is here). However, the best pours come from the owners cradling their offerings.

“It’s 1950s VEP green chartreuse,” grins Mike Jasinski, another event organizer, as he splashes delicious herbal liqueur “distilled sometime in the ’40s” in my glass. Tommy Patrick, who owns Seattle’s whiskey-centric The Ballard Cut venue, brought a 1990 L’Encantada armagnac single barrel. “I figure like six people will get this bottle,” he quips, “but those six will love it.” I count myself among them; it’s one of my top pours of the night.

Also around the room: Delilah’s Mike Miller, Gemor Bar’s Takuo Ishida, in from Tokyo, Bien Eleve’s Lee Smith (pouring sublime 2007 calvados), Subtle Spirits owner Joshua Thinnes, Rare Character owner Pablo Moix, Unicorn Auctions CEO Phil Mikhaylov, and Neat Bar and Bottle Shop owner Owen Powell.

Preservation Distillery owner Marci Palatella brought a 2.2-liter bottle of brand new 17 year Very Old St. Nick True Religion, which features Van Winkle-era Stitzel-Weller alongside a 20 year whiskey, and a 2.2-liter of Very Old St. Nick Super Freak, two 11 year old bourbons blended with an 18 year old. “I had these made especially for tonight’s event,” Palatella tells me, spinning them around to show “SAMPLE NOT FOR SALE.” Both empty within an hour, unsurprising given the quality of the liquid.

Zev Glesta, assistant vice president of whiskey at Sotheby’s, doesn’t stress when the cork on his 1940s Remy Martin cognac disintegrates. Flagging down a server, he asks for toothpicks and proceeds to wedge them in and expertly jimmies the cork out.

This isn’t even the main event. “This bottle share is to get all the VIPs together, the folks who all flew in for the big ticketed event,” says Wise, in from Seattle. The aim of Bonanza, posits Jasinski, is to “take all the excess money in bourbon, and turn it into magic for people who don’t have a lot in life.”

Started in 2015, Bonanza’s been in multiple cities, including Seattle and Chicago, and raised more than $700,000 for charity over the past three years. The two charities for this year’s event are Bethany Haven, an emergency shelter, and Guthrie Opportunity Center, serving those with developmental and intellectual disabilities, both in Nelson County. “That’s where Willett, Bonanza’s biggest sponsor, is located,” says Emerson Shotwell, an organizer. “Drew [Kulsveen, Willett’s owner] only does one event, and this is it.”

In addition to pouring his own whiskey at the main Bonanza event—a 225-person, $350 affair at the Louisville Thoroughbred Society—Kulsveen gave Wise the extremely rare opportunity to pick six barrels of rare Willett Family Estate for the event, in one single day. Two to sell by the bottle at the event, “a 10 year old bourbon named For the People, and a 13 year bourbon named Head of the Table, because it was Drew’s favorite during our picking session,” says Wise.

At the main event, guests enjoy cocktails from Jeff Knott, owner of Louisville’s Tartan House, cigars from Davidoff, and fare from Nashville’s Strategic Group, which counts four James Beard-nominated chefs among its stable. In between caviar and foie gras, guests can have black truffles shaved into their mouths.

The event’s TVs display a live feed of the 87 lots of Bourbon Bonanza’s Unicorn Auction. This auction concludes during the event, though the drama is palpable as lots close; those in the room engaging in bidding wars met by cheers and whispers from other attendees. (Unicorn Auctions, a Bonanza sponsor, is donating all its proceeds and fees to the event’s charities, Wise says.)

All in, $240,000 is raised. The biggest hammers? An opportunity to select a barrel of whiskey with Kulsveen ($87,000, whiskey sold separately), a bottle of LeNell’s Red Hook Rye from barrel number four ($32,700), and the ability to select a barrel of Binder’s Stash ($21,000, whiskey not included). Shotwell’s donation of a12 year bottle of a single barrel of Willett he selected called Red Thread of Fate hammered for $5,050.

Missed Out?

Three more Bonanza auctions open on Unicorn on Sunday, September 14th. “Marci [Palatella] and Preservation Distillery donated two single barrels: an 8 year old rye and a 20 year barrel,” says Wise, adding these lots also include the bottles of whiskey. There’s also a Heaven’s Doors barrel membership, where the winner selects a single barrel, then tastes it along the way until it’s ready for bottling.

If buying a barrel is out of reach, the other four Willett barrels that Wise and crew selected will be sold by the pour at Bonanza-sponsoring bars, including Delilah’s (Chicago), Jack Rose (Washington D.C.), The Ballard Cut (Seattle), and Mr. Tubs (Bardstown).