This article contains spoilers for Secret Invasion episode 4
A key scene in this week’s Secret Invasion saw Nick Fury breaking into James Rhodes’ hotel room. At this point, Fury has discovered Rhodes is a Skrull, but is playing his cards close to his chest. As such, he plays his unexpected visit as a way to smooth things over between old friends, producing a bottle of Pappy Van Winkle 23 Years as a peacemaking gesture.
Fury describes this whiskey as “his favorite liquid lunch” and as “23 years of distilled perfection.” The Skrull Rhodes is clearly impressed by the offering, asking whether this is the “real thing.” Fury replies that it’s “$5,000 worth of 24-carat liquid gold.”
Whiskey aficionados will know that Pappy Van Winkle is indeed a real brand, based out of Frankfort, Kentucky, and commonly regarded as some of the finest bourbon in the world, but Fury was very much underselling how much a bottle of Pappy Van Winkle 23 years is worth.
In December 2022, a bottle of Fury’s favorite tipple went under the hammer at Sotheby’s in New York with a pre-sale estimate of $3,000 – $4,000. It far, far exceeded that, eventually being sold for an eye-watering $52,500. All of which means Fury probably poured out around $5,000 worth of whiskey just in this brief conversation.
Still, we guess if you really, really want a shapeshifting alien to drink your liquid-tracking solution, then a whiskey this rare and expensive is the only way to do it.
