BHAKTA SPIRITS

Vintage Bhakta: The tale of Booze’s brash Tycoon

Raj Peter Bhakta is a spirits mogul on a mission. The objective? Revive an ancient collection of spirits, reverse the fortunes of a forgotten corner of rural Vermont, and reignite the spark of American optimism— helping a nation find its spirit anew through the appreciation of the oldest drinks on earth. It sounds ambitious because it is. Impossible? No. With his signature bravado, the larger-than-life entrepreneur has staked his own fortune on a vision as vast, complex, and exquisite as the vintage spirits which bear his name: BHAKTA Armagnac.

The son of immigrants, Raj was born in Philadelphia, where his father had landed with just fifty bucks in his pocket—before rising quickly from pumping gas to owning a successful set of ventures in the car business. Born in a quickly deindustrializing but once-great city surrounded by cars (and now possessing collection of vintage vehicles which includes the iconic 1933 Lincoln that Franklin Delano Roosevelt rode to his first presidential inauguration), Raj’s first memories were a contradiction of wonders: the greatness of our past, the pessimism of our present. Like many idealists, Raj’s first inclination was to seek fame; unlike most, he found it. After a role on Season Two of The Apprentice that saw him get “fired” by Donald J. Trump, Raj became a frequent cable news commentator on CNN and Fox. From there, he ran for Congress in Pennsylvania’s 13th district—and lost. Badly.

Bhakta absconded to Vermont, where he bought a decrepit dairy farm, vowing to bring it back to life. His father wasn’t impressed. “The Bhaktas came to America to get away from the farm,” his father told him at the time. “Not to see you go back to it.” But the younger Bhakta had a mission: from that farm, he declared, he’d create the biggest spirits brand in America, stick it to the Big Alcohol Monopoly, and build the fortune he needed to do some good in the world. The only problem? He had no experience in the booze business. (Not that that would stop him.) From that downon-its-luck farm, Bhakta launched WhistlePig Whiskey. . . which, with the help of legendary Master Distiller Dave Pickerell—”The Founding Father of American Craft Spirits”—went on to single handedly turn “luxury rye whiskey” from a contradictionin-terms to a household name. WhistlePig became a titan of the whiskey world, a defining example of spirits entrepreneurship, and a “unicorn brand” valued at well over a billion dollars.

Raj exited his stake in 2017. Buoyed by the win, he dreamed bigger than ever before, setting out on a global sabbatical in search of the next big thing in drinks. His travels brought him to Japan, Scotland, Columbia, India, and the Caribbean. . . but it was in France, through a series of improbable coincidences, that he discovered his excalibur: the oldest, rarest, and most valuable collection of spirits on earth. This ancient cellar contained single vintage Armagnac brandy spanning three centuries and dating all the way back to 1868. It had survived world wars, been hidden from invading armies, and had witnessed the rise and fall of empires. Its existence in the present day was nothing short of miraculous. Months of tense negotiation later, Bhakta bought the whole thing—and took the 1700’s château in the deal. He would revive that historic property too, he declared. And then, as if he hadn’t just made the biggest bet of his career, he doubled down: back in Vermont, he bought an entire college campus—the recently bankrupted Green Mountain College. He moved his young family to the President’s House. He moved his car collection to the gymnasium. And then he began moving his collection of ancient Armagnac into the college’s library, Griswold.

Curious to try the rarest, oldest spirits on earth? Go to bhaktaspirits.com to shop the collection and acquire an exquisite bottle to appreciate now (or to save for its financial appreciation later, as there is no rarer asset in the world of spirits.