The Cuban Whiskey Crisis

This bottle was bourbon's greatest mystery and worth a fortune-then they drank it.

- AARON GOLDFARB

KEVIN MINNICK immediately noticed the weird packaging: an old-fashioned wine bottle with deep punting (that indentation on the bottom of bottles); a cork covered in wax that had dripped flush against the neck; and—strangely—a Cuban tax strip pulled over the lip.

If you know anything about bourbon, one of its most prevailing regulations, aside from being made predominantly from corn and aged in new charred oak barrels, is that it must be distilled in the U.S. Yet, this bottle claimed it came from Berman Liquor Co. Inc. in “Habana-Cuba.”

Even without opening it, Minnick could see the liquid was ridiculously dark, much darker than the amber color a bourbon should be.

The label claimed the whiskey was “bottled-in-bond,” an alcohol-by-volume (ABV) classification created by the U.S. Congress in 1897, which meant the liquid must have been aged in a federally bonded warehouse under U.S. government supervision for at least four years, then bottled at 100 proof. Meanwhile, this bottle was only 90 proof.

In the vintage spirits game, you encounter plenty of strange anomalies, but it was hard to rectify all this conflicting, seemingly impossible information. Something so unique might fetch a hefty price in the rare spirits market. But unlike more cautious, economically minded bourbon collectors, Minnick knew instantly that he wanted to taste it.

“I was like, fuck it, man,” Minnick says. “Here’s an odd bottle nobody’s really seen.”