20 tickets available for vintage whiskey tasting that offers 6 shots for $1,500 at West Overton

What makes a bottle of whiskey cost nearly as much as a compact car?

Twenty people will get the chance to find out when West Overton Village hosts a $1,500-per-ticket vintage rye whiskey tasting on July 26.

“This is an experience that is unlikely to be duplicated anywhere on Earth,” said Sam Komlenic, a Ruffs Dale native, West Overton board member, Pennsylvania whiskey historian and copy editor for Whisky Advocate. “I’ve been involved with whiskey for decades, and some of the prices boggle my mind.”

In particular is a bottle of 1941 King’s Wedding 25-year-old whiskey distilled in Komlenic’s hometown. It was originally distilled in 1916, quietly aged during the Prohibition era in the U.S. and finally bottled in 1941. The only bottle ever sold at auction went for nearly $13,000 in 2021.

Komlenic said rarity is one of the two main factors when it comes to pricey whiskey.

“In this case, the last one sold for more than $12,000 and there are only a handful known to exist,” Komlenic said. “If a retail location bought that bottle, those drinks would probably be $1,500 for a 1-ounce pour. So paying $1,500 to sample six rare vintage whiskeys is a bargain.”

In addition, the 1941 King’s Wedding is bottled-in-bond, meaning it was distilled under one of the country’s first consumer protection laws aimed at curbing the heavily-adulterated whiskey that was flooding the market.

“In addition, if distillers agreed to bottle-in-bond, they didn’t have to pay taxes on their liquor upfront,” Komlenic said. “If you followed the government’s regulation, it would save you a tremendous amount of money.”

In addition to the 1941 King’s Wedding, the tasting also will include:

• 1908 Vintage Overholt Rye, privately released by the Mellon family and re-bottled in the 1930s, this whiskey remained in the family’s cellars for more than 70 years. Similar vintage bottlings have been auctioned for as much as $15,000.

• 1940 Old Overholt Cask Strength, a 6 1/2-year-old, 123 proof whiskey made by the Large Distilling Company and bottled at A. Overholt & Co. in Broad Ford.

• 1942 Old Farm Straight Rye, a 4-year-old, 86 proof whiskey distilled in Indiana and bottled by National Distillers Products Corporation.

• 1946 Old Overholt Bottled-in-Bond, a 5-year-old, bottled-in-bond whiskey distilled in 1941 and bottled in 1946 at A. Overholt & Co.

• 1970s Sam Thompson Straight Rye, a 4-year-old, 86 proof whiskey distilled at Pennsylvania Michter’s. It is one of the last batches from the Thompson brand.

The Sam Thompson is of particular interest to Komlenic.

“It’s the least valuable of the bunch, probably worth a couple hundred dollars,” he said. “But I also find it the most compelling. I drank it as a young man and found it to be fantastic stuff.”

All of the spirits in the tasting, with the exception of the Sam Thompson, are made with exclusively rye grain.

“Modern ryes have some corn in them,” Komlenic said. “The Sam Thompson has a small portion of corn in it as well, but almost all Monongahela rye whiskey did not have corn in it.”

The liquor also changes during its time in the bottle, he said.

“What I’m expecting is a term called ‘rancio,’ used in the wine world, which are those little changes over time in the bottle that give it an ‘old’ whiskey taste,” Komlenic said. “I expect the older ones to have flavor notes like dark fruit, dried fruit, prunes, raising. There’s sort of an elegance to to these that doesn’t exist in modern rye whiskey because of how distillation methods have changed over the years.”

Proceeds from the tasting will benefit the nonprofit mission of West Overton Village.

“We’re offering a literal once-in-a-lifetime experience to taste these historic spirits,” Komlenic said. “We’ve probably sold about half the tickets already, and there are only 20 available.”

For more, including tickets, see WestOvertonVillage.org and click on the “Events” link.