the manhattan club

[barryc26]

i have 2 bottles of JAS E PEPPER bourbon or whiskey-(not sure) bottled in 1892 for the manhattan club-the labels are a little torn but have all the info-does anyone know if they have any value?

thank you in advance for any comments/observations

[GOCOUGS2002]

Send them to me, I'll pay you for shipping and try it and let you know if they contents are of any value.

Mike Veach or Chuck Cowdery may have the history behind the bottles; I would be interested in that.

[p_elliott]

If it were me I would save these for a special occasion or two and drink them. Daughter /son wedding / anniversary/ 50th birthday/ retirement. Your never going to get a chance to drink history again, what so special about selling something on ebay?

[Josh]

Put them on ebay and let us know how much you get for them.

[Ruby K]

I say they belong to the good people of the City of New York, and as a representative of said people, I will happily claim them from you.

[gblick]

I sure would like to see some pictures of the bottles.

[cowdery]

James Pepper was the son of Oscar Pepper. The Pepper family started the distillery that is now Woodford Reserve. James got out of the business and then re-entered it, building a distillery in Lexington. That's the site currently being redeveloped as the Distillery District. The family sold the distillery and brand after James died, well before prohibition. The brand was revived after Prohibition and continued to be sold until about 1962. In the 1990s, it was briefly reintroduced in Eastern Europe. The brand is owned by Diageo.

As for the Manhattan Club bottling, special bottlings like that have long been common. This particular one might have some significance to members of that club, but has no particular value generally. For more, be sure to read this.

[GOCOUGS2002]

James Pepper was the son of Oscar Pepper. The Pepper family started the distillery that is now Woodford Reserve. James got out of the business and then re-entered it, building a distillery in Lexington. That's the site currently being redeveloped as the Distillery District. The family sold the distillery and brand after James died, well before prohibition. The brand was revived after Prohibition and continued to be sold until about 1962. In the 1990s, it was briefly reintroduced in Eastern Europe. The brand is owned by Diageo.

Thanks for the background Chuck.

[southcap]

Brand was sold by Diageo and is currently held by fellow in DC. Negotiations are now under way regarding a new operation at the James E. Pepper distillery site. For more information, check out our website:
www.lexingtondistillerydistrict.com

Colonel Pepper was born at the current Woodford Reserve site, and actually managed the original operation after his father's death. (The Colonel's grandfather, Elijah, started that distillery).

We have an interesting history on the Ashland/Old Tarr Distillery and Henry Clay/James E. Pepper Distillery. The remaining 300,000 SF of structures are located on the Town Branch Creek, founding waterway of Lexington, and are the anchors of our 25-acre project in west downtown.

Barry McNees

[RamblinWreck007]

If it's THE Manhattan Club I'm thinking of, then you may have one of the original whiskeys intended for the Manhattan Cocktail.

A mixologist might go crazy for that sort of history.