If you’ve been interested in bourbon for some time, you likely received a decanter as a gift. These toe-crushing glass bottle behemoths make for great low-thought, low-effort presents for the whiskey person in your life, but decanters actually have a rich history. They became so integral to the bourbon business in the 1960s and 1970s, even into the 80s, that most major bourbon brands offered them in their brand portfolios. As competition rose, brands would get more and more intricate, lavish, and creative to lure would-be customers to their offerings. But then it all abruptly ended, and decanters fell out of style (and need). Yet their legacy remains as one of the most creative packaging periods American whiskey ever had.

The era of the bourbon decanter was a period when packaging overshadowed the whiskey itself. That was because the bourbon business was in a glut post World War II and sales slowed to a halt. Bourbon was sitting in barrels far past what was considered ideal, and distilleries were being taxed on their unsold inventory as it continued to evaporate from the barrels that were holding it. The idea arose that slapping a brand’s aging whiskey in a fancy ornate bottle would help them offload stock…and it worked.

Jim Beam and McCormick Distilleries helped start the trend in the 1950s and 1960s respectively, and became the most prolific in their decanter offerings to the point that if you can think of something, there’s a pretty good chance they made a decanter with that particular theming. Sports, wildlife, patriotism, pop-culture characters, trains, cars…the list is endless. Wild Turkey decanters are well loved thanks to their iconic wild turkey designs and people’s passion for the brand.

Many of these decanters have been lost to time, but given the time period’s obsession with knickknack and the rise of baby boomer rec rooms, a surprising number have survived. Nowadays it's not uncommon to come across a few in liquor stores that use them for decor. But there is one place that seems to draw them together in large numbers and that’s Revival Vintage Bottle Shop in Covington, Kentucky, owned by Shannon Smith and Brad Bonds. Revival blurs the lines between tasting bar and bottle shop. They specialize in rare vintage bottles, but the largest section of their in-store inventory is devoted to decanters.  

“We want people to come in and take a piece of history home with them,” says Bonds. “At the end of the day, it's a good starting place for folks. It takes them down the dusty path. And even if they’re not drinking it, they have something cool to display. It’s a great talking point at their house."

A surprising number of decanters, many that date back 50+ years, survived due to how people perceived them at the time. As Bonds described it, people were taught this would be an investment. A regular glass bottle of bourbon was $5 when bourbon was in a glut. Decanters sold for triple or quadruple that, so people naturally opened the cheaper bottles and saved the decanters. Some saved them for perceived investment purposes, others simply enjoyed collecting them, and some enjoyed them for their decor purposes. Typically though, it always came down to a decanter’s theme.

“Decanters were a lot of money to spend on, just to look at. So it had to be special in some kind of way,” says Bonds. “People were proud of their decanter collection. A lot of times it wasn’t about what was in the decanter, more about what the decanter theme was. If you were into Corvettes, you got one of those. If your mom was into birds, she got one of those.”

The same still holds true today. There are still those who collect for investment purposes, seeking out old Willett and Stitzel-Weller decanters, others enjoy collecting a particular theme, like Jim Beam’s train decanter sets, and others simply enjoy the novelty of it.

Nowadays if you have a home bar you often see people displaying their rare bottles as their central display pieces, but there is a growing trend of sprinkling in decanters among people’s unicorn bottles as a way to make their home bar decor more diverse, unconventional and much more whimsical.

“Decanters are at a good price point,” says Bonds. “They typically fall between $100-$200 and it gets people into the game. We can also be fair to the people we buy it from. With decanters, everybody wins.”

Though decanters also aren’t without their issues. The fears of leaded crystal decanters have swept the internet for years now, but the majority of decanters you come across are made of porcelain or glass - though the older the decanter, the more careful you should be. Most of these decanters are also opaque, making it hard to know if the whiskey is hazy or cloudy as a result of a bad seal. This unknown has kept prices in check for the majority of them on the market except for the most rare and highly sought-after ones.

Bonds says as much as 15%-20% that he comes across can be hazy or cloudy, and while they don’t sell any that have been opened, he doesn’t have any way to be sure with sealed ones. While Revival backs up the decanters they sell, private sellers often do not.

With bourbon decanters seeing renewed interest from modern bourbon drinkers, World Whiskey Society seems to be trying to tap into it with their lineup of whiskeys that all come in rather lavish and eccentric bottles compared to their competition. One noteworthy design was adored with a gargoyle topper with the accompanying bottle looking like something out of a gothic architecture. Another included a six shooter bottle topper with a steer attached to the side of the bottle. Their Peacekeeper Bourbon was an Army truck that featured a payload missile filled with bourbon. In 2023, WhistlePig made waves with their release of Piggyback Rye, which was a pig shaped decanter that retailed for $250.

There has been a lot of talk in 2024 if bourbon is seeing a slowdown in sales. With Kentucky alone having more aging bottles of bourbon than residents, if a glut happens again will decanters see a revival?  

“History repeats itself,” says Bonds. “If they can’t sell it in a regular bottle, you have to do something with it. You’ll truly know we’re in a glut if you start seeing decanters again.”

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