The 63-year old private owner of Old Liquors decided to sell his collection of over 5000 bottles of historic and rare spirits. The collector, who remarkably does not drink the precious elixirs himself, holds the world record for the largest private assortment of old liquors. 

The selection contains unique cognacs dating back as far as 1789, the year the French revolution started with the storming of the Bastille and when George Washington was inaugurated as the First President of the United States. “A collection of this size is not simply attained within a few years”, he explains. “Nobody will be able to collect what I have in one lifetime; it would take another 2 to 3 generations."

How does one come to a collection of this magnitude?

As the owner explains, it requires a special passion. “As Jean-Paul Camus from the House of Camus once said: ‘Making great cognac is easy. All you need is a great-grandfather and a father who have dedicated their lives to it.’ This is similar to what happened to me.

“My father and grandfather drank cognac”, he muses. “If you smoked cigars, you drank cognac. My grandfather had hundreds of bottles in his cellar which he had inherited from his father. He gave them to my father who in turn passed them to me, so this is something I have grown up with. Collecting eventually became a real passion 30 or 40 years ago.

Old Liquors holds the world’s largest private collection of old liquors, among which the world’s oldest cognac from 1780. The most famous one are the ones from 1789 – the year the French Revolution started.  But why is cognac so special that French novelist Victor Hugo (1802 – 1885) once even called it ‘Elixir of the gods’?

Cognac is a medieval town which bears the name of the famous wine-growing region where this ‘elixir of the gods’ of the same name has been created since the 17th century. All cognac may be brandy, but not all brandy is cognac.  

Many rare port and armagnac and more exciting old spirits are also to be found in the collection. Each liquor has its own magnificent story and history, earning its own unique flavour and dedication from connoisseurs worldwide.

Russian Port

Many fine ports grace the collection of Old Liquors. “My grandfather gave me 12 bottles of port from 1840, still in their original boxes, which makes them extra special”, the owner explains. “I also have 2 boxes of white Russian port from 1936. They belonged to an old Russian family that had been making the best quality port for decades. In ‘36 they were arrested by Stalin’s troops and their belongings were confiscated.

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