A Missouri man recently stumbled upon a hidden treasure in his attic when he went to work on home repairs and instead found 13 bottles of untouched century-old whiskey, according to Yahoo.
40 year-old Brian Fite was in the market to replace the central air conditioning in his 1850’s “fixer upper” when the lucrative discovery occurred. After learning that the cost of having the work done by someone else would be too high, Brian took it upon himself to get most of the work done by replacing wires in the attic and cutting down on the cost of a replacement.
While prying boards in the attic, Fite came across what looked like oddly insulated pipes. However, after further investigation he found that it was actually 13 bottles of untouched whiskey that was distilled between 1912 and 1913, but bottled in 1917 with a label that read “Hellman’s Celebrated Old Crow.”
Curious as to where the bottles originated from, Brian and his wife made the assumption that they were hidden there by a previous owner that was said to have been placed in a sanitarium for “alcohol reasons.” It seems it was the owners intent to stash them for a later date, but that the opportunity never came.
Fite tells reporters that he plans to let the whiskey continue to age until it officially turns 100 years old in 2017.
“Part of the allure for me is having them in their original state,” said Fite.
“I have high expectations of what they’ll taste like, and I’m afraid if I open them I’ll be disappointed.”
Lew Bryson of WhiskeyAdvocate.com says that Fite could possibly sell the bottles for several hundreds of dollars a piece, but there is no way to predict what the selling price will be until he actually finds a buyer.
Do you think Brian Fite should sell his 100 year-old whiskey, or drink it himself?