There was this day about 10 or 11 years ago that I got a phone call. It was from some friends who had gone to speed week in Daytona. Apparently as they went past my exit on the interstate, they got off and visited a local liquor store. And being on vacation, one of the group went inside and asked for the best bottle of bourbon they sold. And the guy in charge led him to the bourbon shelves and pointed out a bottle of some stuff called A H Hirsch. The foolish friends felt one bottle (at $54.95) would be enough for a full weeks trip. Well, they were calling me the day after they got to FL. It seems the bottle didn't last the first night. And they'd spent the following morning trying to find a bottle in Daytona.
So the call to me was to get me to buy a couple of bottles. I drove the half mile down to the interstate and went into the store. And I quickly found the stuff, but in less than a week it had gone up to $59.95. And the manager type came over to assist. So I asked him why the huge price increase. He said I could have last weeks price if I bought a case. So I agreed. Remember, I only had 2 of them sold, but I'm an easy going guy, not prone to practicality. So I paid up and took my case home.
When the guys got back, they agreed to take 3 bottles. And at the next gun show some friends took a few more. Then at a gun show I brought a bottle to Charlie Sherrill as a gift. You guys are too stingy, you need to open up a little. Anyway, Charlie took it home and put it on his top shelf. Then a relative came to visit (I think he said it was a death in the family) and they decided to drink the bottle. Later, Charlie saw a bottle in Naw Lins and they wanted in the hundreds of bucks each for them. He didn't buy another.
So in March, one of the friends who had bought a bottle at the gun show years before had heard the price had skyrocketed to $650 per bottle, if you could even locate it. I told him craigslist. And now the distiller who had the very last of the run has released a special final edition. And they've priced it at $1300 a bottle, but it comes with a humidor (for whiskey)? OK, a quick check reveals 3 1/3 bottles in my stash. We even served some friends a little a couple of years back. Everyone who tastes it remarks about how good it is.
So my wife just ordered me a book. The title is "The best Whiskey you'll never taste" by a guy named Chuck Cowley. And its the story of how A H Hirsch stumbled into the entire production run of the stuff. And how he later sold it to some speculators, one of which was Gordon Hue, the owner of the liquor store down the road from me.
Now the reviews describe the stuff as the best bourbon in the history of the world. But like gun collecting, the idea is to speculate and buy your guns before everyone on earth realizes how good they are. So let me give you folks a hint. K22 2nd models were hot a few years back. So are/were 44 1st and 3rd models. And RMs. Like good booze, buy the guns by the dozen, too. If you buy either cheap enough, you can at least get your money back. With the booze, you can get happy drinking it. Or giving it to one of your buddies!
