BHAKTA 1868 Armagnac poured in the library

Discover BHAKTA · About Us

The House of Vintages

The spirit of time.

We exist to find, preserve, and share the world's most extraordinary aged spirits.

Our foundation is Armagnac, France's oldest spirit and the purest expression of vintage there is. Most aged spirits tell you how long they've aged. Armagnac tells you the year it was born: 1868, 1898, 1928, 1962, 1973.

That idea is bigger than Armagnac. It's why we've followed it to bourbon, American whiskey, rum, and the rest of the world's great aged spirits, wherever time has made something that can't be made again. Old barrels disappear. Great vintages grow scarcer. What survives becomes part spirit, part artifact.

Finding it before it's gone: that's why BHAKTA exists.

Raj Peter Bhakta

The Founder's Tale

Raj Peter Bhakta founded WhistlePig and built the modern rye whiskey category

After selling his stake in 2019, he went looking for the world's rarest spirits and found something bigger: what was, by most accounts, the oldest and finest collection of Armagnac in existence.

It took two years of negotiation, and a significant part of his fortune, to secure it. Casks laid down as far back as 1868, tended by the same hands for fifty years, had never left Gascony until he brought them home to a farm in Shoreham, Vermont, where BHAKTA Spirits began.

In his own words: “Drink from a guy who's alive.” Most of the world's great spirits carry the name of a founder long gone. His doesn't.

How I Found Armagnac

In His Own Words

How I Found Armagnac

I sold my stake in WhistlePig in 2019 and went looking for the rarest spirits left on Earth. I did not expect to find them in Gascony, at the end of a very long, very stubborn negotiation.

It took two years to close, and a good part of what I'd made doing it. The cellar I wanted — by most accounts the oldest and finest collection of Armagnac in existence — had survived two world wars and several generations of family ownership without ever leaving France. Convincing its owners to let it leave wasn't a matter of money. It took two years of visits, dinners, and a level of stubbornness I'm told runs in the family — theirs and mine.

I did not always help my own case. I once arrived at the château in an imported hot rod Cadillac, blasting a song from Beauty and the Beast. It turns out that is not how the French like to be persuaded. But the collection found its match eventually: someone who had spent a career chasing the finest spirits in the world, and had no intention of stopping in Gascony.

We won. Casks laid down as far back as 1868, some tended by the same hands for fifty years, finally left the region that made them — bound for a farm in Shoreham, Vermont, where they rest today.

Drink from a guy who's alive. Most of the world's great spirits carry the name of a founder long gone. Mine doesn't — not yet, anyway.

Armagnac was where it started. It won't be where it ends. Bourbon, American whiskey, rum: if it's old, rare, and true, we're already looking for it.

So what are you waiting for? Pour yourself a glass.

Raj Peter Bhakta

Two homes, one mission

A working farm in Shoreham, Vermont. An eighteenth-century château in Gascony, France. Different soil, same intent: craft, patience, and a relentless eye for what's rare.

The BHAKTA estate

What guides us

Rare

Only the elusive is alluring; only the uncommon is distinctive. We look for what mass production cannot make.

Exquisite

Scarcity alone isn't enough. We pursue the exquisite. Life is too short for simple swill.

Value

An ancient spirit is an appreciating asset. Buy a bottle to drink and one to save.

Purpose

We do everything with purpose: the revival of overlooked spirits, decrepit farms, and forgotten crafts.

Armagnac, briefly

Armagnac resting in Gascon oak

France's oldest distilled spirit, first recorded in 1310. Distilled once, not twice, so more of the grape, the barrel, and the year survive in the glass.

Then it ages in oak for decades, and is bottled as a single vintage rather than blended away, the way wine is vintage-dated but whiskey almost never is. That's the idea every BHAKTA bottle carries: not an age statement, but a year, still readable in the glass.

Why Armagnac

The Ritual

How to Drink It

A spirit this old asks for patience

No ice, no mixers — the four steps we recommend between the cork and the first sip.

  1. 1 The Glass A tulip or Glencairn glass — the narrow rim gathers 150 years of aroma instead of letting it escape.
  2. 2 The Pour One ounce. Let it rest ten minutes; a spirit bottled after a century needs a moment to breathe.
  3. 3 The Nose Approach with lips parted, glass at the chin, then rise slowly. Never plunge in — the proof will bite.
  4. 4 The Sip Small, held. Let it coat the palate for a full breath before swallowing. A drop of spring water opens the oldest casks.

The treasures are bottled. Find yours.

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