Era:  Distilled 1902 / Bottled 1910
ABV:  50%
Volume:  75.7cl

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Max Sellinger was born in 1852, at Louisville, Kentucky. His father owned a millinery store, at which Max worked until the age of 20, when he took employment as a clerk for Barkhouse Bros. & Co., wholesale liquor dealers in town. In 1876 the Barkhouse brothers determined that they would only have a steady supply of whiskey to sell if they owned their own distillery, so they built one near Ohio street, and advanced Max to the role of company salesman.

After 3 years of schlepping for the Barkhouse brothers, Max went his own way, making relationships and contacts. In 1884 he partnered with George Moore, and they would build two distilleries - Belmont and Astor - back-to-back at South 17th Street and West Breckenridge. The two distilleries shared warehouses and other facilities. After George Moore passed away in 1896, ownership was transferred to the newly formed Max Sellinger Company, and Selliger became a true Whiskey Baron.

Selliger operated both distilleries and innovated many marketing tactics still used by liquor marketers today, producing mirrors and display pieces for bars and liquor shops, logoed glasses and tin serving trays that were used in the finest drinking and eating establishments. The distilleries flourished, and the whiskey warehouse was expanded to a capacity of 42,000 barrels.

Then, with the enforcement of Prohibition in January of 1920, it all came to an end. Sellinger retained ownership of the idled distilleries, but his vast stores of barreled whiskey were confiscated by the Federal government without compensation.

Max Selliger Belmont sold these distilleries (post-Prohibition) to two businessmen who later sold the facility and brand to Schenley. The distillery was upgraded and later officially turned into the current Bernheim facility in Louisville. It later was part of United Distillers who rebuilt the distilleries into a single distillery and later sold the property to Heaven Hill.

The nice thing about this whiskey is that it was distilled and bottled according to the distiller’s original plans. No Prohibition in the way, no liquor confiscation, no forced aging for 15+ years. Just making the mash “in little tubs”, distilling it, aging it in the barrel for 8 years and then bottling it.

The color of this whiskey is a beautiful mahogany color. The nose has some ground coffee, citrus, vanilla and caramel and some cinnamon and nutmeg on the nose. The palate is very bourbon like, with both rye and wheated notes. It's smooth, flavourful, and has just the right amount of grain and spice notes, nice level of heat. The finish is like the rest, everything in the right place, everything ship shape.

It is a testament to the distillery’s skills that this bottle has survived intact and that the whiskey inside this bottle is so well composed and preserved. And for a bottle distilled 123 years ago, GREAT bottle!