Our Story
Back in 1944 an American patrol took cover in farmer Gio Rinaldi’s barn high in the Italian hills. As they moved out, they stuffed eleven beat-up U.S. dollars into Gio’s hand and joked, “Buy something strong to toast peace.”
Gio took the cash, bought a dented copper still, and made tiny batches of whiskey all winter. He logged every tweak in an old prayer book and slipped the eleven bucks inside for luck. People loved the drink, but grain ran short, the still went silent, and the barn slid into legend.
In 2015, deal-maker and rare-spirit hunter David Martinelli was combing through estate sales across Europe. He opened Gio’s old prayer book and found the eleven dollars still taped inside. A jolt of inspiration hit him as he realized a powerful brand was hidden in those worn pages.
David tracked down the forgotten barn, bought it on the spot, and pointed at the faded Roman numeral XI carved over the door. “That,” he said, “is the magic you can’t fake.” He rebuilt the place with a shiny Vendome still, oak aged three years in the open air, and a tasting crew who must give every barrel eleven yes votes before it meets a bottle.
In 2021 the first run dropped. Hand-numbered, wax-dipped, labeled 11Bucks in copper foil. Folks laughed at the name until they saw bottles pulling four-figure bids at auction.
Here’s the creed:
- Eleven dollars lit the fuse
- Eleven core promises guard the craft. Clean grain, honest age, green power
- An eleven-point stag on every label shouts that real value is earned, not discounted
Today 11Bucks releases only a few thousand bottles a year: Gold Reserve, Apex Strength, and the once-in-a-decade XI Imperium.
Every cork carries a tiny engraving of those battered bills, proof that a farmer’s grit, a band of soldiers, and one bold entrepreneur can turn eleven bucks into the world’s most wanted pour.
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