For the price of a used luxury car, you can have your own luxury cognac: The most expensive item offered through the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board is Remy Martin's rare Louis XIII "Black Pearl" cognac, which comes in a hand-blown crystal decanter. Fewer than 800 bottles were issued, and you'll have to pay the state $32,999 to get your hands on one. At that price, you're paying $1,142 per 2-ounce shot.

Surely there are cheaper ways to imbibe, but if cash is no object, here's the priciest liquor that money can buy (in the state of Pennsylvania, that is):

GIN

Gin is the best bargain in the store -- even if your aim is to break the bank, you can't spend more than $70 for a bottle. Anchor Brewing Co.'s (it makes gin in addition to beer) Genevieve gin, a Schiedam-style gin, retails at $51 and is the priciest domestic gin (Anchor is in San Francisco). Hendrick's Gin, distilled in Scotland, costs $64.99 for 1.75 liters, while the award-winning William Cadenhead Old Raj Gin, also bottled in Scotland, costs $59.99 for 750 ml.

VODKA

Vodka is likewise a bargain compared to the world's priciest whiskies, rums and cognacs. Jewel of Russia ultra-premium vodka ("the Drink of the Czars") will set you back $83.19 a bottle, and the smallest order you can place is a six-bottle case. If you want just a single bottle, Stolichnaya's Elit Vodka retails at $59.99.

For vodka distilled in the U.S., Cold River Premium Maine Potato Vodka costs $47.59 for a bottle. Bocaj Grape-Distilled Vodka costs $63.69 a bottle, with a minimum order of six bottles. (The glass bottles were designed by celebrity jeweler Jacob Arabo, and Bocaj is, of course, Jacob spelled backward.)

Various organic vodkas cost between $30 and $40.

BRANDY

Brandy is distilled wine or fruit, and there are lots of varieties, but the two best known are Cognac and Armagnac, from two different regions of France. Besides Remy Martin's Black Pearl, the PLCB also offers the Antoine Hardy Perfection series "Earth" Cognac, 750 ml for $7,999. From the Armagnac region, Delord brandywine, a 1947 vintage, will cost a mere $321.

RUM

In the past decade, boutique distillers have been releasing premium aged rums, hoping to tap into the same, deep-pocketed niche market that already exists for whiskeys, Cognac and wine. Pyrat Rum (get it, Pirate?) advertises itself as an ultra-premium dark rum, and a bottle of its "Cask 23" release costs $260. It's produced by Patron, the same company behind the premium tequila line, and comes in a small cedar chest. Rhum Clement XO will set you back $136 with a minimum order of six bottles; JM Rhum Vieux West Indies Rum costs $99; Murray McDavid's 13-year-old Jamaica Rum, pot-distilled in 1992, costs $84.99.

TEQUILA

Distillers want to clean up tequila's grungy party image, and it seems to be working -- boutique and "super premium" tequilas are the fastest-growing tequila segments, with sales growing by 25 percent annually since 2002. These tequilas are meant to be sipped neat or on ice, paired with certain foods like a fine wine or Cognac, not guzzled straight from the bottle. Some have been distilled so many times that they nearly resemble vodka, stripped of much of the unique flavor that makes tequila what it is. That's the price of progress, I guess.

Limited-edition Gran Patron Burdeos Tequila is aged in French and American oak and then racked in Bordeaux barrels, which are alleged to impart upon the tequila "the distinctive flavors of vanilla, raisins and dried fruit found in the finest Bordeaux wine." It costs $451 a bottle in Pennsylvania. Herradura Seleccion Suprema, considered by some to be the gold standard among anejo (aged) tequilas, is $346 for a 750-ml bottle. Don Julio Real, another aged tequila, is $289 (it makes a 1942 vintage that's only $110). Asombroso Blue Agave Ultra Premium ($203) was named best tequila at the 2008 San Francisco Wine and Spirits Competition.

WHISKEY

From Scotch to Irish to fine American bourbons and ryes, there are plenty of pricey whiskeys to choose from. The most expensive is a Scotch whisky -- Johnnie Walker Blue's 200th anniversary release, which in Pennsylvania retails for $3,499. Another eminent Scotch distillery, Glenfiddich, offers a 40-year, 90-proof Scotch for $1,951; The Macallan 30-year single-barrel Scotch runs $838 a bottle.

Apart from scotch, a bottle of Jameson's Rarest Vintage Reserve Irish whiskey (one reviewer tasted "notes of black pepper and toasted oak, with sweetness that seems to vacillate, somehow, between citrus and faint chocolate") costs $293.

Domestically, Heaven Hill Distillery's Parker's Heritage Collection Bourbon is $219 per bottle, with a minimum order of three bottles. Pappy Van Winkle Family Reserve, a Kentucky bourbon line from the Old Rip Van Winkle distillery, is listed at $199. Rittenhouse Rye 21-year, also from Heaven Hill, is $159 a bottle, also with three-bottle minimum orders. Black Maple Hill Rye, which rebottles aged ryes from other distilleries, costs $142.

SPECIALTY SPIRITS

Authentic absinthe has recently returned to American liquor store shelves, and a bottle of St. George's Absinthe Verte costs $81.29 in Pennsylvania. Clear Creek Framboise liqueur, a raspberry brandy, costs $41 for 375 ml. Villa de Varda grappas will cost $175; Green Chartreuse VEP, a French herbal liqueur, costs $160; and the centennial edition ("Cuvee Du Centenaire") Grand Marnier, the Cognac-and-orange aperitif, costs $129.

Almost all of the priciest spirits offered through the PLCB are available through special-order only, meaning they aren't stocked on state store shelves; some limited-batch productions may be sold out forever. Other spirits are "limited inventory," meaning the state probably has only a case or two. For more expensive orders, you'll need to put down 50 percent, said Alma Kocher, who supervises the PLCB's special liquor orders. Delivery could take several days and up to four weeks.

And, as with wine, great cost isn't necessarily indicative of great taste. So if you rush out and buy an $80 bottle of vodka and think that it tastes no different than the $15 stuff, don't blame the messenger.