🪵 The Fencepost Find That Turned Into a $600 Pour

💥 Opening Pour

He stashed a $20 bottle in a fencepost. 40 years later, someone got lucky.
It wasn’t bootlegging. It was bourbon memory—sealed, forgotten, and finally poured.

📖 The Story

My great-uncle Jeb was a bootlegger long after Prohibition ended. While most folks in the 1940s and '50s were buying whiskey legally, Jeb didn’t trust the government—or store-bought spirits.

He kept cooking his own, trading jugs for tools, tractor parts, and the occasional secret handshake.
And just like during the dry days, he had a clever way of keeping his stash safe:

Hollow fence posts.

He'd unscrew the tops, slide bottles down inside, and reseal 'em with sawdust and spit. Some were for hiding. Others, for gifting. And a few… he just plain forgot about.

Fast forward to the 1970s—Jeb was older, slower, but still sharp. He’d started buying bourbon instead of making it, but never lost his hiding habit.

One day, he picked up a bottle of J.W. Dant Bottled-in-Bond—cheap, honest, and bold. A good pour, even back then.

For reasons no one knows, he tucked that bottle inside the same old fence line out back. Maybe for safekeeping. Maybe for nostalgia. Maybe he just wanted to keep something good hidden one last time.

Then life got in the way. The fence stood. Jeb passed on. The bottle waited.

Decades later, a new owner bought the property. While replacing the old posts, he found it—dusty, unmarked, sealed tight.

He popped the cork.

What poured out wasn’t just drinkable—it was extraordinary.

Dark. Smooth. Complex. Vanilla, leather, charred oak.
A forgotten treasure from a long-lost DSP, aged beautifully in its wooden tomb.

A week later, a whiskey buddy spotted the old cork ring and glass code.
Confirmed it: a 1970s-era vintage J.W. Dant BiB. Rare. Collectible. Worth upwards of $600.

He could’ve sold it.

But he didn’t.

He drank it over three nights. Slowly. Gratefully. And said it was the best bourbon he ever tasted.

Because some bottles aren’t meant to be flipped.
They’re meant to be found. Poured. And remembered.

🥇 The Weekly Pour

Bottle: J.W. Dant Bottled-in-Bond (vintage 1980s release)
Price: ~$20 retail, up to $600+ in rare cases
Proof: 100 (Bottled in Bond)
Age: 4 years (minimum, but aged longer in some releases)
Nose: Honeycomb, dried oak, old saddle leather
Palate: Vanilla fudge, peanut brittle, charred corn
Finish: Long, peppery, with a lingering kiss of caramel ash

✅ Bottled in Bond pedigree
✅ Rare, overlooked vintage value
✅ Classic Heaven Hill bourbon profile

🛒 Keep your eyes on local auctions or dusty shelf shops — the modern retail version is ~$20, but the real prize lies in forgotten batches.

🍹The Art of Mixing

Fencepost Boulevardier

Ingredients:

• 1.5 oz J.W. Dant Bottled-in-Bond

• 1 oz Campari

• 1 oz sweet vermouth

• Orange twist

Instructions:

• Stir over ice

• Strain into rocks glass with a big cube

• Garnish with orange peel

Tip: Try it with a vintage Dant if you can find one — the extra oak depth sings in this bitter classic.

🍖 Flavor Pairing Picks

Pair it with:

🍗 Buttermilk fried chicken with hot honey glaze — the sweet/spicy mix matches the whiskey’s warmth
🍑 Grilled peaches with cinnamon butter — adds contrast to the bourbon’s peanut and spice notes
💨 Oliva Serie V Maduro cigar — dark, rich, and slow-burning, perfect to match a fencepost-aged pour

🧠 Big Lesson of the Week

Sometimes the cheapest-looking bottle hides the best whiskey.
The only thing rarer than good bourbon? The good sense to recognize it when you find it.

🥂 Final Toast

To the bottles we almost missed, the pours that outlived their labels, and the fences that held more than nails.

🥃 Repeatable Proverb

“Even a fencepost can hide a fortune.”

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Now Its Your Turn

Have you ever found a dusty bottle that turned out to be a hidden gem?
💬 Tell me the story.
⭐ Save this article for your next bourbon hunt.
📤 Share it with a friend who skips the bottom shelf (they need to read this).

Cheers to hidden gems, hot fences, and cool finds,

Ethan “Neat” Whitmore

P.S. Next week: How to Train Your Bourbon Eye – The Collector’s Guide to Spotting Dusty Gold in the Wild.
(You won’t believe what might be hiding behind that gas station counter...)