There is an impulse to sneer at a $4,000 bottle of whiskey, because, well, it's a $4,000 bottle of whiskey. It can't possibly be worth it, can it?

So has gone the inner dialogue in recent weeks for those sitting before a glass of Michter's Celebration Sour Mash. A blend of 30-year-old, 20-year-old and newer bourbons and ryes, Celebration Sour Mash is believed to be the most expensive American whiskey to date. A mere 273 bottles exist. Fourteen have reached Chicago.

Even Micah Melton, who works at a bar so fancy — The Aviary — that his title is chef de cuisine of the beverage program, was skeptical.

"You're always going to be looking for a flaw because you think there's no way it should be worth the money," Melton said. "Honestly, I didn't want to like it, because I didn't want to buy a $4,000 bottle of whiskey."

Instead, The Aviary bought two.

The first reason was simple.

"It's delicious," Melton said. "It has amazing balance. There's sweetness from the bourbon and spice from rye, but not too much spiciness. And the alcohol is right where it should be."

The second, and more important reason, is that people will probably buy it. Even at The Aviary's $325 per ounce price tag, which maps out to about $65 per sip, provided your sips are humble, the American whiskey industry is ripe for a product that can be called "the $4,000 whiskey" in casual conversation, Melton said.

"There's supply and demand and demand and demand in the bourbon industry right now that is unrivaled by any other spirit," Melton said.

Wallet-busting spirits are nothing new, but they have typically been reserved for the hoitier and toitier corners of the market, like Scotch and cognac. Until relatively recently, American whiskey largely amounted to Jack Daniels and Jim Beam; in that regard, Celebration Sour Mash is filling a niche for the graduation of Kentucky whiskey into the upper crust.

The question, though, is just what Michter's is providing: game-changing marketing ("Wow, I just drank a $4,000 Kentucky whiskey!") or game-changing quality ("Wow, this is the best Kentucky whiskey I've ever tasted!").

Marketing is clearly an engine of Celebration Sour Mash, and look no further than the packaging: an unfolding maroon box leads to a second maroon box — clearly, the more maroon boxes, the better the whiskey — with two doors that swing open and slide back to reveal a clear bottle embossed with the Michter's logo in 18-karat gold. The bottle is latched at the neck against a bed of a white, suedelike material.

Celebration Sour Mash certainly seems like a premium product, and that alone arguably makes it one. But the big draw is the long, mysterious history of what's in the bottle.

Joe Magliocco started his version of Michter's in the mid-1990s, after the original company went bankrupt and its trademark lapsed. Vodka, gin and — gasp — Zima ruled the booze roost at the time, but Magliocco, co-owner of Chatham Imports, a New York wine and spirits importer, believed whiskey would eventually find its way back prominence. What better way to establish himself than with a brand that had already been established?

Magliocco's reborn Michter's started by buying 10-year-and-older stocks of Kentucky whiskey from other distillers that it bottled as its own. The practice is still common today, though the competition for unused whiskey has become much sharper.

"It was a very different environment than now where, thank God, things are good for all the companies," Magliocco said. "At that point people were happy to get rid of their older stocks that they didn't have use for."

Citing confidentiality agreements, Magliocco declined to name the distillery where he bought those early whiskey stocks. But they figure prominently in Celebration Sour Mash, which is a blend of those barrels and whiskey Michter's has contract distilled more recently, using its own recipes, at a third-party distiller that Magliocco also would not name.

Much of the chatter around Celebration Sour Mash is rooted in those old whiskeys that are blended into the mix, partly because there isn't much American whiskey available that's that old. But then there is speculation about its origins. Many people in the industry suspect those early stocks were bought from revered distiller Stitzel-Weller, which made one of the most sought-after whiskeys in the United States: Pappy Van Winkle. That, in essence, would make Celebration Sour Mash a cousin to Pappy Van Winkle.

However, again citing confidentiality agreements, Magliocco declined to say whether decades-old Stitzel-Weller whiskey is included in the Celebration Sour Mash.

"I'm not commenting on the presumption because I'm not encouraging the presumption," Magliocco said.

What he would say: "The 30-year-plus stuff is what we thought was sensational when we bought it in the '90s, and these are particular barrels that aged really, really well."

The mystery is likely to work in favor of "the $4,000 whiskey," which is part of the reason that three Chicago bars — The Aviary, Drumbar and Big Star — have agreed to take on bottles that will be meted out in tiny, costly pours. Though investing in such bottles is a risk (even though bars pay a wholesale price of about $3,000 per bottle; $4,000 is the suggested retail), bar managers said it seems a worthy risk.

"We're seeing a more educated consumer when it comes to bourbon, and the fact that we have (what is possibly) 20- to 30-year-old juice from the original Stitzel-Weller will mean a lot to a lot of people," said Ben Fasman, beverage director at Big Star, where Celebration Sour Mash will sell for a relative bargain, somewhere in the neighborhood of $175 per ounce.

"I hesitated when I heard price; Big Star is not known for its high price points, and this will be the most expensive thing we'll ever carry," Fasman said. "But it's a superimportant slice of history that's nearly impossible to attain anymore."

Which leaves only one question: Is it worth the money? The only, and unsatisfying, answer is this: It depends. Celebration Sour Mash is a beautiful whiskey, no doubt: soft and round, sweet and spicy, with elements of ripe fruit, maple, caramel, wood, char, corn and vanilla all at work in the nose and on the tongue. The best of anything we eat or drink finds balance, and Celebration Sour Mash has it.

But at $150 an ounce? $250? $325? Again: depends. It depends on your resources, how much you enjoy whiskey and whether your significant other will drop you for such expenditure. ("At least I didn't buy the whole bottle" seems a solid defense.)