Rare Old Fitzgerald Bourbon Auction: 3 Historic Bottles From Heaven Hill’s Private Collection

Sotheby’s is auctioning a century of bourbon history—including a 1934 Stitzel-distilled pint—to benefit Kentucky’s Bernheim Forest.

Three of the most consequential bottles of Old Fitzgerald Bourbon ever produced are heading to the auction block next month, where they could be yours. Heaven Hill’s top brass have donated three archival Old Fitzgerald whiskeys from the ‘30s, the ‘60s, and 2015 to raise money for local nature preservation in Kentucky.

The bottles in this collection are sourced from three separate decades spanning nearly a century (and changes in ownership), but they share a comforting provenance — they’re all from the personal collection of Heaven Hill Executive Chairman Max Shapira. 

“Each of these bottles is a snapshot of Old Fitzgerald through the ages,” Shapira said in a statement. “They tell the story of a brand that has survived and thrived through every chapter of American whiskey history, of which Heaven Hill is a proud part. I’m honored to now share them in a way that will support a meaningful charitable cause. 

The Old Fitzgerald brand traces its lineage back to John E. Fitzgerald, who was not a distiller but a treasury agent with a reputation for taste testing the barrels under his oversight. The brand was first trademarked in the 1880s, but Heaven Hill acquired it in 1999, along with the Bernheim Distillery. 

Bernheim and its predecessors have been the producers of many iconic whiskeys over the decades, and was once the main producer of famous names like Stitzel-Weller and Van Winkle. That includes the 1934 Old Fitzgerald 18-Year-Old Bottled-in-Bond Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey, which is part of this auction lot. Barreled in 1917 and bottled in 1934, this pint-sized bottle was distilled under A. PH. Stitzel himself. It would be among some of the last barrels filled as the U.S. industrial system was pivoting to manufacture of supplies for World War I. 

It also includes the 1965 Very Xtra Old Fitzgerald 10-Year-Old Bottled-in-Bond Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey, which was distilled in 1955 and bottled exclusively for the “Colorado Electric Co.” This whiskey aged alongside barrels containing the liquid that eventually became the legendary Van Winkle bourbon, before it ended up in a 4/5 quart bottle that has waited patiently to be consumed for more than 60 years.

The youngest bottle in the collection holds the longest-aged liquid in this collection. The 2015 John E. Fitzgerald Very Special Reserve 20-Year-Old Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey was distilled in 1992, and would have been distilled under previous leadership before Heaven Hill acquired the distillery in 1999. This whiskey was bottled at 90 proof, and just 3,000 bottled of it were made (in 375 mL size). 

The auction proceeds are intended to benefit the Bernheim Forest and Arboretum, founded in 1929 by Isaac Wolfe Bernheim. The 16,000-acre protected forest (half an hour south of Louisville, Kentucky) offers educational programs, 40 miles of trails, and hosts art and plant collections.

“The Old Fitzgerald Archival Collection” will open for bidding June 11 at 12pm EST, and will close at the same time on June 26. You can find it and other listings for Sotheby’s Whisky & Whiskey sale on their website.

G. Clay Whittaker is a Maxim contributor covering lifestyle, whiskey, cannabis and travel. His work has also appeared in Bon Appetit, Men’s Journal, Cigar Aficionado, Playboy and Esquire. Subscribe to his newsletter Drinks & Stuff for bourbon reviews and trends, perspectives on drinks, and stuff.