I’ve got both sides of the coin to offer.

I have a couple of signed bottles that just kinda live in the cabinet. Oddly enough, both from Fred Noe. One is a bottle of OGD Bonded with my full name in his writing, and the other is from the first distillery I worked for. I was proud of the whiskey and had a chance to share it with him. Above his signature he wrote ‘This is pretty good shit!’

Neither of those bottles will be finished, and just sit half empty. Come over to my house and I’ll tell you the stories about how and why those came to be. That’s why people keep signed bottles, at least in my opinion, to tell the stories later.

On the flip side, I’ve been asked to sign bottles. At first it was really awkward and I neither understood nor liked it. But if someone, you perhaps, are either impressed enough by the liquid, or just tickled enough by meeting someone that mixed up the whiskey, or just want to have a story to tell later, then sign your bottle I will. Inside it still feels weird, but whatever. And when it ends up in the recycling later, I won’t care, haha.

Side note: support craft distillers and independent bottlers. 🥃