- Mr. Bay van der Brunt and his collection
A story that was out at a bunch of sites (Reuters, Born Rich, etc.) concerns Bay van der Brunt, an avid bottle collector and infrequent imbiber. It seems that his great grandfather began amassing bottles in the 1880’s, and then the collection and interest in collecting was passed from father to son until Mr. van der Brunt found himself with 5,000 bottles and no heirs.
Sadly, at age 63, he finds himself fulfilling the promise that he made to his wife that he would sell the collection prior to her retirement. The world can now bid on
his collection. However, before you begin to prepare a bid, he is inclined to keep the collection intact and is looking for a well-heeled bidder to cough up a mere $8 million.
His collection contains Cognac, Whisky, Armagnac, Port, Madeira and other rare liquors and liqueurs. The highlight of his collection is a bottle that Mr. van der Brunt obtained at a 1990 auction in Chicago. The 1795 Brugerolle Cognac is in a bottle that is between 5 and 6 liters. This Cognac was a favorite of French revolutionary officers, and may have been a part of Napoleon Bonaparte’s collection. This bottle alone is valued at $180,000.
As far as the whisky in his collection, he has a Bladnoch from 1842 ($7,000), a Linkwood-Glenlivet from 1898 ($8,000) and a 1949 Macallan ($4,800).
You can view Mr. van der Brunt’s whole collection at his website.
Categories: Booze Banter, Brew and Booze News
AMKrouse
The Alemonger
G-LO
limpd
The Wookie
The ROK
Sarah -BeautifulTangibleThings
The Astounding Prism
It's just the booze dancing... 
Damn, my credit maxes out at $7 million. So close…
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I tried to pass this investment strategy off with my better half but sadly, I too find myself without adequate financing.
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Don’t you mean inadequate?
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Actually, without adequate would mean inadequate. Either way, I don’t have the funds. Want to go halfsies? Actually, I could kick in a couple a hundred bucks and then you could throw in the rest.
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Whoops! Missed the “out” part of without.
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Limpd — After you are dead they’ll be plenty of funds from your life insurance. G-lo and I will see that your better half invests the money into a memorial rare whiskey collection. We will think of you every time we raise our glasses. (Sorry, I haven’t slipped your demise in to a post comment in a few days).
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Again, couldn’t I just hit the lottery and share my good fortune. Must I be dead?
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Lottery … Death … Discovery of buried treasure our backyards … A visit from Magic Whiskey Gnomes … whatever has to happen to get me large quantities of high quality booze.
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I…I …I…weep tears for drinks undrunk. They must be saved from their glass coffins and imbibed post haste!
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I wonder if they need some tasters to guarantee that the bottles contain what they say they do. Maybe there is some sort of sign-up sheet. To the interwebs.
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I assume the whiskys are blends?
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From the somewhat vague description at the website, it seems like the bottles are not blends. Does that change your thoughts on submitting a bid?
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No, I was mostly just curious. I thought single malt was a more recent phenomenon and so I assumed anything bottled more than 30 years ago was more likely to be a blend.
Unfortunately, the $350MM powerball jackpot was won by single ticket in Rhode Island so even if Mrs. The ROK were to agree, quicken tells me that I’m significantly under-capitalized to make a run at this. I’m wondering if there’s a way to fashion a leveraged buy-out….
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I like where you’re head is at ROK!
This is what I think should happen with this neglected stash of booze…
Either a group of investors or one of the big Booze Companies, i.e. Diageo, Pernod Ricard, Beam Global, etc. should buy up the collection and open a Spirits Museum in some major booze center like NYC, London. Paris, Hong Kong etc.. Rather than just let the stuff sit on display, once a year they should have a big money dinner where they open a few rare bottles and donate the proceeds to some charity somewhere (think the endangered species dinners from The Freshman). Of course the museum will charge for admission, and should they have a license to SELL liquor, they could have a tasting room where you can buy flights of liquor and liqueur from around the world. Given the growth of the fine spirits market around the world, I think this could be successful. And with the release of the “next big ” release on what seems like a weekly basis, they should be able to maintain a constant inventory of super rare spirits.
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What sort of ass “amasses” booze? If you don’t drink it, why buy it?
I hear Mr. van der Brunt also has an impressively sad collection of 10,000 unread comic books. And since he as no heirs can we assume that his wife is also in “mint” condition?
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New in box?
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