Dusty Booze

In Search of Vintage Spirits

By: Aaron Goldfarb

Narrated by: Dean Gallagher

In Dusty Booze: In Search of Vintage Spirits, journalist Aaron Goldfarb goes on an adventure in vintage spirits. This is an intoxicating story of obsessives on the hunt for old bottles of whiskey, tequila, rum, chartreuse—you name it—from estate sales, grandpa's liquor cabinet, and out-of-the-way and inner-city liquor stores that may just have a case or a few bottles lying around in the basement.

What Goldfarb and these "dusty hunters" discover are more than just bottles from bygone brands or old formulations no longer available—they find portals into history. Spirits, once bottled, don't age like wine. A bourbon from the 1935 lets you savor the end of Prohibition. A 1940s rum cocktail with actual 1940s rum tastes the way it would to a GI returning from WWII. An old Italian amaro captures la dolce vita in a glass, and vintage gin is a drinkable time capsule from Mad Men-era lunchtime martinis.

Dusty Booze mixes the history of our drinking culture and the Indiana Jones-meets-Simpsons Comic Book Guy adventures of the collectors, including the hunt for rumored stash from a reclusive Hollywood legend. This is a buoyant, thirst-triggering voyage into a unique subculture that has exploded in popularity in recent years.

©2024 Aaron Goldfarb (P)2024 Tantor

Truly great storytelling

The writing, research and storytelling are excellent. Finally, a fresh look at America’s passion for old spirits.

Calling all whiskey nerds

This may not be everyone's cup of tea, but I found it to be an entertaining listen about hunting for old bottles of whiskey (and other spirits). In this current age of whiskey hunting and secondary market valuation, it's gotten crazy trying to find allocated spirits; so it's not surprising that there is a trend to rediscover old dusty bottles in grandpa's whiskey cabinet. There were a couple dry spells in the book, but overall I thought it was an entertaining and informative book. I especially appreciated the coverage of a bars devoted to making cocktails how they were originally made with vintage spirits. At first I was a little disappointed that this wasn't just about whiskey, but I ended up appreciating the diverse antique dusty spirits that Aaron Goldfarb detailed. If you like to nerd out on bourbon, this is the book for you.

Nothing New Here

As an aficionado of fine Whiskey I thought this book would interest me. After 4 hours of listening to old stories about quests of collectors, I had enough and terminated further reading. The book offers nothing new and most of the subject material is outdated. It a waste of time and money.