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Next Auction starts Friday 29 March. Bottle Deadline: 18 March.

I.W. Harper Gold Medal Kentucky Straight Bourbon Miniature x 2 1970s

Lot: 5062955

I.W. Harper Gold Medal Kentucky Straight Bourbon Miniature x 2 1970s

Winning Bid: £44

Currency Estimate

Important: Currency exchange rates are constantly changing; this feature is to be used as a guide price only. All final transactions occur in British Pounds (£).
Lot:
Distillery: 
Bernheim
Age: 
N/A
Vintage: 
N/A
Region: 
Kentucky, USA
Bottler: 
Official
Cask Type: 
N/A
Bottled Strength: 
86 us Proof
Bottle Size: 
2 x miniature
Distillery Status: 
Operational
product Details

I.W. Harper Gold Medal Kentucky Straight Bourbon Miniature x 2 1970s

The I.W. prefix in this brand name derives from Isaac Wolfe Bernheim, who founded the brand. With his brother he helped establish Louisville in Kentucky as a centre for Bourbon production. Sadly, he felt Harper was a more marketable name than his own to apply to the bottles. 

This was distilled and bottled at the Bernheim distillery in Louisville by the Schenley company.

Schenley was organised in 1920 by Louis Rosenstiel as the Cincinnati Distributing Corp. It was one of just six companies granted a license by the US government to bottle medicinal whiskey, alongside Brown-Forman, Frankfort Distilleries, the A. Ph. Stitzel distillery, the American Medicinal Spirits Company, and James Thompson & Brother. In the same year, Rosenstiel acquired the Joseph S. Finch distillery in Pennsylvania, its stock and its Golden Wedding brand, which would go onto become one of the flagship labels of Schenley in the 20th century. In 1922, Rosenstiel met Winston Churchill while holidaying in France, and the future British Prime Minister advised him to begin preparing for the eventuality that the unpopular Prohibition act would be repealed. Rosenstiel then spent the next decade accruing assets in the whiskey industry and by the time his foresight finally paid off in 1933, Schenley were the owners of numerous distilleries including George T. Stagg, James E. Pepper, and the Squibb distillery in Indiana. They added the famous Bernheim distillery to the portfolio in 1937, and the year prior made their first play in the Scotch market by becoming the US distributor for John Dewar & Sons. Rosenstiel's spirits empire dominated much of the market share of American whiskey for the next forty years through brands like I.W. Harper and Cream of Kentucky, before he sold his controlling stake to the Glen Alden company in 1968. He passed away eight years later, and in 1987, Schenley was bought over by United Distillers, newly formed through a merger of the Distillers Company Ltd (DCL) and Arthur Bell & Sons after both were acquired by Guinness that year.

United Distillers discontinued the I.W. Harper brand in the US shortly after, selling it only abroad. Their modern iteration, Diageo, revived the US version of the brand in 2015, although it is no longer bottled at Bernheim, which was sold to Heaven Hill in 1999.

Important Notice

We would recommend viewing/close inspection prior to placing any bids. If this is not an option and you have questions beyond the offered description and images, please contact us for a more in-depth condition report. Otherwise lots will be sold as seen in the images.

Please note: Due to the various ages of bottles and their seals, condition of liquid is at the buyer's discretion and no claim can be lodged against failure/leakage in transit.