I stumbled upon a little old shop in a rural Minneapolis suburb. Already a beer hunter I stop a just about every place I've never been before. The moment I walked in I knew it was a time machine. The two sections of craft and import beer featured long discontinued brands and breweries. Noting nothing of particular interest I was about to head out the door when a curious sticker on a bottle of liquor caught my eye. It was a Calvados bottle with a AFT Distilled Spirits tax stamp. This piqued my interest! As I moved towards the whiskeys I saw another bottle with the stamp, an Eagle Rare 101 (see picture). While craft beer is my forte, I truly enjoy bourbon as well. I began to study the dusty bottles. I then notice a warped and cracked wooden cylinder. It was a bottle of Hancock's President's Reserve. I opened it to find date or batch info but there was none. The bottom of the bottle was only marked with the numeral 1 in the middle. Outside of an old price sticker, there was not much I could find to date it. The price was right $39.99, so I grabbed it thinking I'd be able to find out more info online.
I was able to rather accurately date the ER 101. Tax stamp, both metric and standard volumes, bottom of the bottle dated 78: it's either 1979 or 80.
The Hancock's on the other hand, I've been able to find out nearly nothing. So any help that any of you could provide would be greatly appreciated.