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Greetings and salutations!

My wife received a bottle of rye whiskey from her parents home that appears to be dated. The label is badly aged and some of it is missing. Our questions are twofold. First, is it worth keeping? Second, if it is not worth keeping, do you think it is drinkable? I've attached photos of the bottle and labels and am hopeful some of the officionados here can offer guidance!

With thanks in advance for any information offered.

Mjpdailey

It's definitely worth keeping. It should be okay to drink--whiskey keeps very well--although this might be one to leave intact since it does look very old. Do you have any idea where it might be from, geographically, or how it came to be in your in-law's possession?

We love a good story.

It's pre-prohibition almost certainly, probably late 19th century, as that was when bottling began and producers were very concerned about protecting their trademarks.

I suggest the brand name probably is Guckenheimer, which was a well-known brand out of Pittsburgh. Go here for more.

Thanks for the information! This is one of those "we just found it in the corner of the basement" stories. My in-laws were very close to their neighbor and helped clean out the house after her death. She would have been about 100 this year and, as near as we can figure, she probably obtained the bottle from her uncle. It was tucked into box and left there, apparently, until my In-laws offered to take stuff away for a garage sale. I wish I could provide a rousing tale of intrique coupled with a bit of rum-running and licentious ribaldry with the tale, but alas, it is what it is!

Very interesting bottle. I agree with Chuck that it looks to be pre-prohibition. How does the cork look? If it is still in good shape and there is not too much evaporation from the bottle, then it would be a bottle to keep. If it looks to be loose and there has been evaporation from the bottle, then you may want to drink it before it does go bad. I have drank rye for this era before and it was quite good with a flavor you don't normally find in rye whiskey today. Much more grain flavor and fruitiness to the whiskey than today's rye. If you do open the bottle, I do hope you will let us know what it tastes like.