1917 Green River Whiskey - unopened - with shipping case

[tharriso]

I have an unopened bottle of Green River Whiskey (Kentucky), made in 1910, bottled in 1917, in its original shipping container. My great-grandfather Hugh Harrison mail ordered it (to Virginia, from Kentucky) in 1917 and I still have the box and the advertising wrapper that came inside it. He passed on without drinking it, and it got handed down to a non-drinker, then with the passing of my grandmother, it made its way to me. It has resided in the shipping container its entire life (away from light).

I am not currently interested in selling it, but I am curious as to what it might be worth and if it may still be drinkable (or if there is a way to tell). I am attaching some photographs that you are welcome to use on your site if you wish. There appears to be some cork shrinkage on the bottom half of the cork, but the tax seal is intact enough to show that the bottle has never been opened and the cork seems to be holding up.

Any information or contacts that you could provide would be warmly appreciated. - Terry Harrison

Flickr slide show: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tguy/tags/whiskey/show/

The bottle, wrapping, and shipping container (in back)


For those who might like to know more about this whiskey company, I found this great site (apparently the casks were made with wood from virgin Arkansas forests): http://www.greenriverwhiskey.com/

[LagaDrinker]

Open it when its 100 years old

[Klas]

Interesting story! You should write it down and keep the history with the bottle. The content wouldn’t have changed much over the years (except for the evaporation of alcohol)
If it was drinkable in 1917, it should also be so now.

[corbuso]

The filling level is quite high, so it should still be drinkable. The whisky is rather dark and the whisky might be quite thick and heavy. How much does it worth? several hundred $