More Ill-Gotten Goods

In this month's Robb Report, they've chosen their 21 ultimate gifts. Among a 459-foot gigayacht and a kilo of golden caviar, is a suggested gift of:

• 225 vintage American and preembargo Cuban cigars

• Five pints of Prohibition-era Kentucky bourbon (with excellent names like Broad Ripple and Golden Age) and one gallon of Bacardi rum bottled in 1936 in Cuba

• A collection of Prohibition-era memorabilia

The drink and cigars have been carefully paired, and this token of affection from Fumar Cigars (David Haddad is the owner) will set you back only $157,500 – one of the cheaper gifts in the guide. Here's the interesting part, from the Robb Report:

Seventy-four years after Congress repealed the Volstead Act, ending 14 years of Prohibition, David Haddad still is dealing with its legal ramifications. The three state liquor commissions he approached in the middle 1990s all told him his Prohibition-era whiskey was in legal limbo, according to the laws controlling the sale of alcohol in the United States. "They all said none of the distillers or wholesalers existed, and the retailers, which were pharmacies, weren't even licensed to sell liquor, so the product did not qualify as liquor," explains Haddad. "They told me I couldn't sell it, but it could be given away as an antiquity or a medicinal." Thus, Haddad technically does not sell his Prohibition-era spirits; he gives them away – to clients who purchase his preembargo Cuban cigars.