Henry Clay????

[wskybnt]

In a store yesterday looking for something different I found two bottles of Henry Clay. I have never heard of it. They were both in boxes. One a Red box and one a Blue box. I think one was 15 yr and the other was 16 yr. One was $120 and the other $140.

Cant find much about it. All the search's pair it with "Finch bourbon" which I have never heard of either.

Question is should I go back and get them? I dont really collect bourbon, I drink it. So should I go back and get it or would my money be better spent on something else?

Did I mention they were dusty..

[ratcheer]

I have never tasted (or seen) it, but in my opinion, if you are not a collector, that is way too much to spend. YMMV

Tim

[brian12069]

I just did a google search and I can't even find a pic of it.

[wadewood]

Henry Clay and Joseph Finch were limited release products. I know more details have been posted here in the past.

From my notes, the Henry Clay was a 16YO at 90.6 proof. Joseph Finch was a 15 YO at 86.8 proof. 2400 bottles of each were produced.

I have not tasted these, but from others these are more collector items than for drinking, especially at those prices. If you wanted to buy to trade or to sell to another bourbon collector, I'm sure you will have plenty of offers.

[wadewood]

There is a post from Chuck in this thread with more details:

http://www.straightbourbon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3806&highlight=henry+clay

[Vange]

For whatever reason it seems the Henry Clay is more valuable or rare. I sold my Clay for $300. The Finch I recently saw on ebay and it barely cracked $100. Definitely a collectors item.

[wskybnt]

Evangelos I cant find any past listings on ebay for it, or even Google. Was yours in a red box or blue?

[Vange]

Mine was red. The ebay auction is probably not searchable anymore.

The Red is Henry Clay (16 yo) and the blue is Joseph Finch (15 yo)

[TNbourbon]

For whatever it's worth, I will arrive in Bardstown for the Sampler with an open bottle of the Finch -- decanted into an old Finch bottle (thanks, Doug!) because its original one had a crack (I kept it to prove provenance) -- in tow and available for tasting. It's good bourbon -- not $100+ good. But, because of the shape of the bottle, I didn't have to pay that:grin:.

As for Henry Clay, I've never seen anything but pictures.

[dougdog]

wskybnt...

I'll have to agree with Evangelos here...your description indicates you found one of each....Ironically the same thing happened to me when I made my first find of each...it is easy to look at both bottles for the first time and not notice the difference in the labels...that is, until they are side by side...

In my experience here in California, the Clay seems to be much harder to find than the Finch. I would agree with Chuck and Tim, the bourbon is good to taste for the experience, but I too would agree that there are better bourbons for the price if taste was all that was considered...

When you throw in the "value" to collectors, then the 120-140 price tag isn't too bad. The original shelf price here in Cali was in the 85-89 dollar range, so your store owner has jacked the price a bit, but it is not more that the current value to collectors.

On a side note...I saw the bottle of Finch that was on eBay at around a hundred bucks and who ever bought that one got a good deal IMHO.

Good find....it wouldn't surprise me that you have already been contacted to go ahead and purchase those bottles, should you not want them...They are collectible!