BEST SERVED NEAT

Late culinary legend Anthony Bourdain once said if God made bourbon, it would be the one featured in this lot. So it goes that the extraordinarily rare, limited edition of Pappy Van Winkle’s Family Reserve 23 Year Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey is one tough find. That is, unless you have the connections of trustees Kelley and Jim Bailey, who donated the lot. Imagine sipping a pull of this woody, honeyed bourbon, which has been aged in new oak barrels for more than two decades at Kentucky’s award-winning Buffalo Trace Distillery. The celebrated elixir is a deep amber color with hints of caramel, ripe apples, tobacco and chocolate. A sweet snag, no?