Hackstons Acquires One of the Rarest American Whiskey Collections Ever Assembled
There are rare whiskies, and then there are unicorns. The kind of bottles that serious collectors spend years chasing, that show up at auction with price tags that make your eyes water, and that most enthusiasts will never actually hold in their hands. Every once in a while, though, someone pulls several of those bottles together in one place — and that's exactly what just happened.
Hackstons, the London-based whisky investment firm that has built a reputation for sourcing premium and collectible whisky, has announced the acquisition of what may be one of the most significant collections of American whiskey ever assembled under one roof. The lineup reads like a wish list that most bourbon lovers keep tucked away in the back of their minds — the kind of thing you talk about over a pour of something decent, wondering what it would actually be like to crack one open.
The collection is headlined by names from Buffalo Trace Distillery, the legendary Kentucky operation that sits behind some of the most coveted bottles in the entire spirits world. From the wheated bourbons of the Weller and Van Winkle families to the barrel-proof intensity of the Buffalo Trace Antique Collection, what Hackstons has put together here covers the full spectrum of what American whiskey obsession looks like at its highest level.
Breaking Down What's in the Collection
The Weller Bottles
For anyone who has spent time trying to track down a bottle of Weller at a reasonable price, the idea of finding two expressions sitting side by side is already enough to raise an eyebrow.
The W.L. Weller C.Y.P.B. — short for Craft Your Perfect Bourbon — is priced at £210 in the collection. It's a wheated bourbon, eight years old, aged on the top floors of the warehouse where temperatures run hotter and the spirit interacts more aggressively with the wood. The proof sits at 95, and the backstory behind the bottle adds to its appeal: it was shaped in part by consumer input, which made it an unusual release at the time and has since turned it into something collectors actively hunt for. That kind of origin story tends to age well, so to speak.
The Weller Full Proof comes in at the same £210 price point and represents something a little different. Bottled at the same proof it entered the barrel, it's the kind of release that appeals to drinkers who want the spirit as close to its natural state as possible — no dilution, no fuss, just the wheated mashbill that made Weller famous doing exactly what it's supposed to do.
Then there's the William Larue Weller, which is a different animal entirely. Priced at £850, this is one of the annual Buffalo Trace Antique Collection releases, bottled at barrel proof without chill filtration. It has repeatedly been named Whiskey of the Year by major publications and critics, and there are plenty of people in the bourbon world who argue it actually surpasses Pappy Van Winkle in terms of raw drinking experience. That's a bold claim in any conversation, but the awards history makes it hard to argue against.
The Van Winkle Family
The Van Winkle expressions are where the collection gets into true trophy territory. The name Pappy Van Winkle has become synonymous with bourbon scarcity, and for good reason — these bottles are allocated in tiny numbers, distributed through a lottery system in most states, and regularly appear on secondary markets at multiples of their retail price.
The entry point into the Van Winkle side of the collection is the Old Rip Van Winkle 10-Year-Old, priced at £350. Bottled at 107 proof, it's known informally as "The 107" and offers what many consider the most approachable expression in the lineup without sacrificing the quality that defines the family. It's vibrant, it's bold, and for newcomers to the Van Winkle range, it's the natural starting point.
The Pappy Van Winkle 12-Year-Old, known as Lot B and priced at £450, is widely considered the sweet spot of the entire portfolio. The age has had time to develop real complexity, but the wood hasn't started to dominate the spirit the way it can in older expressions. For collectors who want something that drinks as well as it looks on a shelf, this is the one that comes up most often in that conversation.
At £800, the Van Winkle Family Reserve 13-Year-Old Rye is arguably the most underappreciated bottle in the bunch. Rye is often overlooked in a world that fixates on wheated bourbons, but this expression is considered one of the most difficult in the entire Van Winkle catalog to get your hands on. It's a genuine outlier, and seasoned collectors know that.
The Pinnacle Expressions
The top end of the collection is where things get serious. The Pappy Van Winkle 20-Year-Old, priced at £1,100, is consistently rated as the number one bourbon in the world by multiple major publications and rating organizations. Two decades in the barrel has produced what tasters describe as leather, tobacco, and dried fruit — a profile that takes years of patient wood interaction to develop and that can't be rushed or manufactured. The 20-year expression occupies a specific place in bourbon culture that no marketing campaign could create. It earned its reputation one annual release at a time.
And then there is the Pappy Van Winkle 23-Year-Old, the oldest and most elusive expression in the Van Winkle portfolio, priced at £2,400. The barrels selected for this release are chosen specifically from the heart of the warehouse, where conditions allow for extended ageing without the spirit crossing over into what the industry calls "too woody." Getting that right after 23 years requires experience and judgment that goes well beyond standard production practice. Most bourbon drinkers will never encounter this bottle in person. Finding it on a retail shelf at any price is genuinely rare, and seeing it as part of a curated collection like this is something else entirely.
The Antique Collection Rye
Rounding out the lineup is the Thomas H. Handy Sazerac Straight Rye, priced at £420. Part of the annual Buffalo Trace Antique Collection alongside the William Larue Weller, the Handy is bottled uncut and unfiltered directly from the barrel. It's a high-proof rye built for people who want intensity — the kind of spirit that doesn't apologize for what it is. Critics have given it some of the highest scores ever recorded for an American rye whiskey, and it consistently draws attention every year when the Antique Collection is released.
What Hackstons Is Doing Here
Hackstons has carved out a distinct position in the whisky investment space by focusing on quality and provenance over volume. The firm operates out of London and specializes in premium whisky with an eye toward both the collector and the investor — two audiences that increasingly overlap as the secondary market for rare spirits continues to expand.
A collection like this one represents something beyond a simple acquisition. Every bottle in the lineup comes from a distillery or family whose output is effectively impossible to obtain through normal retail channels. Buffalo Trace has been managing demand for its allocated products for years, and the Van Winkle expressions in particular are subject to waiting lists, lottery systems, and secondary market prices that bear little resemblance to what they cost at release.
Pulling nine of these bottles together — with prices ranging from £210 at the entry level to £2,400 at the top — means Hackstons is offering access to a slice of American whiskey history that most enthusiasts will never get another chance to see in one place.
Why This Matters to the American Whiskey World
Bourbon has spent the last decade and a half transforming from a regional American spirit into a global collectible with serious financial weight behind it. The same forces that turned single malt Scotch into investment-grade liquid have been working on American whiskey for years, and collections like this one are a reflection of how far that transformation has come.
The bottles in this Hackstons acquisition aren't curiosities or marketing gimmicks. They represent the actual ceiling of what American whiskey can be — expressions that have earned their reputations through consistent quality, limited production, and the kind of institutional knowledge that only comes from decades of operating at the top of the craft.
For the enthusiast who has built a solid home bar and knows his way around a well-aged bourbon, this collection is the equivalent of walking into a room and seeing every bottle on your list sitting there at once. For the investor paying attention to where whisky as an asset class is heading, it represents the kind of provenance and scarcity that holds value regardless of what the broader market is doing.
Either way, it's the sort of acquisition that doesn't come around often. And for those with the means and the interest to explore further, Hackstons is the place to start that conversation.
