Will This Be the Next American Whiskey Brand to Command $100,000 at Auction?

“Every day, I’m paranoid someone will open a bottle of something I’ve picked and call me a hack,” says co-founder and co-owner of Rare Character Whiskey Company Pablo Moix. The 49 year old entrepreneur still struggles to wrap his head around the exploding success of Rare Character bottles; all of which are personally selected by him. “Selling bottles at $99, knowing they’ll hit resale markets for $400 or more, and having it not drink like a $400 and the buyer is upset—that pressure is intense,” Moix says, adding, “I have no fallback plan; this has to work.”

But work it has. Rare Character Whiskey Company has become the next “it” brand in American whiskey.

What started as a pandemic business in 2021 has blown up into six sub-brands, each with rabid followings, many of which are already selling at ten times the suggested retail price at Sotheby's and Unicorn Auctions. Rare Character (RC) fan groups on Facebook boast thousands of members, some showboating immense collections. When liquor stores post their single barrels, the entire allocation is often sold out within minutes.

Under the purview of Moix and business partner Peter Nevenglosky are two resurrected whiskey brands, Fortuna and Brook Hill, as well as newly minted labels including Old Cassidy, Pride of Anderson County (in connection with Wild Turkey), The Exceptional Cask Series (most of which are Kentucky straight malts), and the Rare Character Single Barrel Series. Except for Fortuna, which is sourced and blended, the remainder are all single barrel offerings, and from the thousands of barrels Moix and Nevenglosky have purchased, more than 500 barrels of Rare Character and 100 barrels of The Exceptional Series have been released.

Rare Character has quickly cemented a place among the upper strata of successful non-distiller producers. Think Old Commonwealth Distillery under Julian Van Winkle’s stewardship back in the ‘80s, or LeNell’s Red Hook Rye (Willett single barrels). Bottles produced by both have fetched up to six figures at auctions. Within years, you should expect to see Rare Character Whiskey achieve record auction numbers, too.

How Rare Character Whiskey Was Created

Initially, Moix sought to launch an independent bottling company, similar to Lost Lantern Whiskey. “But [Lost Lantern] focuses on craft and I didn’t want to do craft,” Moix says, so he called people like Bruce Russell at Wild Turkey and Drew Kulsveen at Willett, and asked for ultra-aged barrels. Despite being interested in Moix’s business model, they couldn’t accommodate him. So Moix switched gears. “I’ll find good, interesting whiskey, bottle it, and sell it,” he says. “A modern LeNell.”

Many brands have been built upon the bulk whiskey market, sourced from the likes of MGP in Indiana or Bardstown Bourbon Company then blended together, but Moix sees a valuable opportunity in the space outside the normal flavor profiles those upstarts commonly seek. The Rare Character name typifies this belief, hailing from Moix’s emphasis on finding unique whiskeys with rare characteristics. “American whiskey is largely boring. A big problem with bourbon brands is that they need to be consistent, whether you’re drinking that bottle in Kentucky or Singapore,” he says. “I wanted to pivot to an idea of taking odd or unusual whiskeys—they still have to be approachable and good—and bottling those.”

Most Rare Character customers have bourbon rooms or lairs, which got Moix thinking about what he can find that’s so singular and special—in terms of liquid weight, finish, color, and flavor profile—that will get a consumer to make room on their shelves.

Where Rare Character’s Unique Barrels Come From

Each Single Barrel Series bottle receives a short alphanumeric code that denotes its barrel’s mashbill, place of distillation, and barrel number, helping RC fans hone in on specific flavor profiles they love. Sometimes those flavor profiles are reminiscent of beloved highly allocated products.

Take RC’s KBT 5 year 9 month old Kentucky straight bourbon barrels. These are supposedly, per Moix, “Buffalo Trace’s mashbill number one—60%, corn, 36% rye, and 4% malted barley—but made by someone else.” (Moix won’t disclose who distilled it, but RC forums point to Bardstown Bourbon Company as the distiller.) With the KBT bottles at barrel proof—about 121-proof, depending on the barrel—you’re effectively drinking Stagg Jr. made in an alternate universe.

Rare Character’s TKO rye barrels (8 plus years ) feature a 70% rye, 25% corn, and 5% malted barley recipe, distilled in Tennessee. These are “doppelgangers for [Jack Daniel’s] Coy Hill,” says Moix, noting the proofs verge on 140, nearing hazmat territory . (Again, Moix demurs on the distillery, but Internet sleuths point out it may rhyme with “nickel.”)

There’s also RIO, “the oldest aged whiskey from the Castle and Key property, which was laid down before the remodel and the new stills,” says Moix, adding it's reminiscent of the first 17 year old Wild Turkey Master’s Keep. And several offerings under the Pride of Anderson Country (PoAC) label were (somehow) sourced from Wild Turkey. Some PoAC bottles are 13.5 year old bourbons, which may put them shoulder-to-shoulder with Russell’s Reserve 13 year old.

How is Moix procuring these coveted barrels? Some are through solid relationships with distilleries; Bruce Russell shares that Moix will come by for Sunday supper whenever he’s in town. Many are experimental barrels that distilleries can’t move themselves. “I found a 9 year old wheated bourbon that we tasted blind against William Larue Weller and everyone picked our barrel,” Moix shares. And that TKO rye was an experiment that didn’t move into greater production. Other barrels come through brokers, and others still are by happenstance, such as when private equity groups need to offload parcels or contract distillers over-projected and want to sell those overages.

The Secrets of Rare Character Success: Pablo’s Palate, Colored Wax, and Bottle Art

“I really don’t know why it’s successful,” Moix chuckles, saying industry folks constantly ask him what the magic is. “Rare Character isn’t even a brand; it’s a bottle with a unique whiskey in it.” Humility aside, the cornerstone of Rare Character’s explosion is Moix’s preternatural palate, refined over more than two decades as a vintage spirits buyer and on-premise owner.

“The juice Pablo picks is phenomenal,” says Gil Schwarz, a private collector of more than 25,000 rare whiskey and wine bottles who also runs an independent bottling company, The Distinctive Spirits Company. Schwarz, who describes himself as a Rare Character “superfan,” has done eight RC barrel picks, with another three in the pipeline. And with 1,638 bottles from 380 different barrels, Schwarz is also the largest Rare Character collector. “Pablo hits a lot of bullseyes. He won’t put out rubbish simply because he has a parcel of something.”

“I bought a barrel of Rare Character RIO and one of KBT, and was shocked that both sold out in hours,” says Rob Bralow, owner of Blue Streak Wine and Spirits in Long Island City, New York. “The brand is hot, but the whiskey sells instantly because of how good the liquid is.”

While researching this story, we tried Bralow’s KBT barrel pick, as well as two single barrel options from Ryan Maloney’s Julio’s Liquors in Westborough, Massachusetts—another KBT pick, and HRY (high-rye). We also tried a straight rye finished in an amburana cask, a Julio’s Liquors Exceptional Series 13 year old, and some Old Cassidy 10 year old. Each expression is distinctive, interesting, and becomingly unusual; none miss.

Sublime distillate is but one part of the recipe. There’s a collectible nature to Rare Character Single Barrel Series bottles, owed to colorful wax tops and visually arresting label artwork. As with Pokémon cards or Ty Beanie Babies, RC fans ardently hunt for favorite barrels, and to complete various sets.

The colored waxes represent similar flavor profiles, despite occasionally being different mashbills, coded alphanumerically and broken down on Rare Character’s website. It means that whenever you find a Rare Character Single Barrel Series mashbill you like, you can just hunt for that color. “For example, if you like our TKO rye,” says Moix, “those bottles all have pink waxes, so that’s what you’d look for.” With more than 30 types of bourbons and ryes, of different ages and mashbills, decoding a bottle at a glance by the wax color is a key to helping the average consumer understand the brand.

Click here to read our full breakdown and guide to Rare Character Single Barrel bottle codes and wax colors, explained by Moix. Many also include his personal tasting notes.

Because Moix bought 43 barrels of the TKO line, you can find 43 different labels, because each selection by a restaurant, liquor store, or whiskey club gets to choose its own artwork. Instead of slapping a tater sticker on the back of the bottle, as was previously customary for single barrels, Moix figured out how to integrate bespoke visuals. “Each label has to be Tax Trade Bureau approved,” he says. “I came up with an adaptive label, where the bottom is constant, and the top can be customized to whatever you want.”

“Changing images on the label is a game changer,” says Bralow. “You’re no longer paying a ton of money for custom labels, or some chicken scratch from someone who used to draw in high school. Crisp, crystal clear images [on the RC Single Barrel Series] are helping push sales.”

Why Rare Character Is a Rising Auction Star

Rare Character Single Barrel Series bottles are priced between $89 and $120, depending on the barrel’s cost to Moix. The Exceptional Cask Series SRP is between $150 to $250, varying with the age of the liquid, and the Brook Hill costs between $200 and $250 for that 10 or 11 year old whiskey. It’s a touch on the high side for some younger Single Barrel Series age statements, but reasonable enough given the scarcity of the liquid. “I can’t put out stuff where the markup is so high no one can afford it,” says Moix. “I want this to be as accessible as possible.”

However, the secondary and auction markets are where RC bottle prices leap exponentially. “The forebear for Rare Character is Willett,” says Schwarz, referring to the five and six-figure hammer prices Willett single barrels can reach. “Willett is the godfather here and Rare Character is the consigliere, coming up fast in a short span of time. At auction, Rare Character may be able to achieve in 5 or 10 years what took Willett 20 years.”

Early indicators of Schwarz’s prediction are strong. In June 2024, Brook Hill bottles sold at Sotheby’s for north of $1,600; and Pride of Anderson County bottles sold on Unicorn Auctions for more than $1,400 in April 2024. “Pablo’s Obliteration bottle will be the LeNell’s [Red Hook Rye]; that will be the legend,” says Schwarz.

What’s Obliteration? A special 14 year old bourbon that was a scant 36 bottles, which retailed for $599 at places like Seelbachs. It’s MGP distillate that was sent to a California winery for additional aging, and survived a wildfire, though barely any whiskey remained. Moix acquired the barrel and what was left was bottled at hazmat proof: 143.7. “This will hammer for $100,000 in 10 years,” says Schwarz.

Moix, who says he’s seen Obliteration bottles moving on secondary markets for more than $7,000, hopes his offerings do reach those astronomical prices. “I don’t know if we will, but if [a $100,000 auction] happens, it would be amazing; it’d be such a compliment. It’d mean that the demand is so great that it’s willing to sustain those prices,” he says.

The Future of Rare Character Whiskey

Expect Rare Character offerings to only get older: Moix’s has depleted his 6 and 7 year old liquid and says forthcoming offerings will be 8-plus years. A recently filed Tax Trade Bureau label reveals an 18 year old Brook Hill straight bourbon, clocking in at 130 proof, will be coming soon. Look for expansions to the Old Cassidy and Pride of Anderson County lines, too. While single barrel offerings are the core of the business—Moix is mindfully modulating the cadence of releases so as not to oversaturate the market—he’s keen to expand the Fortuna line and explore micro blends, between three and five barrels.

“I am going to put out a single blended product soon,” he shares, “Similar to what Old Carter is doing. Hopefully, we’ll get that out in summer or fall.” Don’t expect many more new labels though. “We’ve created more brands in two and a half years than anyone,” he says of that sizable feat. “Now we need to supply and keep those all growing.”

What is growing is Rare Character’s distribution. The company’s rapidly adding more states, with 25 currently available, and exploring pushes into Japan, China, and Korea. With the huge momentum, unsurprisingly, Moix fields the occasional phone call to take his temperature on selling the business. “I’m really enjoying this voyage and trajectory,” he says. “As a bourbon fan, I’m enjoying watching people enjoy my things. I have zero interest in selling the company. Then I’d have to stop doing it,” he laughs.