After the catastrophic tornadoes that tore through Western Kentucky earlier this month, Buffalo Trace Distillery has announced a first-of-its-kind rare bottle auction taking place Monday, Dec. 20 through Thursday, Dec. 23 online, the Lexington Herald-Leader reports.
The online auction offers full flights of Buffalo Trace’s Pappy Van Winkle, including six bottles (five bourbon and one rye); and the Buffalo Trace Antique Collection, including a 2020 George T. Stagg, a unicorn bottle which was not released this year due to the variability of maturation. Proceeds of this very rare auction will provide aid for tornado victims in the region.
This is the first time Buffalo Trace has offered full flights in the distillery’s history, although auctioneers have been known to collect the bottlings and offer them as packages themselves.
According to the New York Times, the Dec. 10 storms were the deadliest in Kentucky’s history, with at least 80 residents killed. The tornadoes ripped through Arkansas, Illinois, Mississippi, Missouri and Tennessee, but the Bluegrass state saw the most severe damage.
“The toll these tornadoes and severe weather took on our fellow Kentuckians and others in the Midwest and South is shocking,” Mark Brown, chief executive officer of Buffalo Trace Distillery, said in a statement. “We hope our bourbon community, who we know can be very generous, really shows its support and we’re able to raise an unheralded amount of funds for Western Kentucky disaster relief.”
The Buffalo Trace Distillery and Sazerac operations, located in Frankfort, Ky. outside of Louisville, did not face any damage in the storms. The company did state that some employees have been affected through their extended families living in surrounding areas. The money collected from the auction will be donated to the Red Cross Western Kentucky Disaster Relief fund.
The auction is live Dec. 20 at 9 a.m. and will run until Dec. 23 at 7 p.m.