Last Night's Tipple

There is a great divide in the Bourbon world between those Bourbons that use rye as a small grain in their mashbills (along with corn, which legally must be at least 51% of the mashbill but usually makes up a much higher percentage, and malted barley, which provides the enzymes necessary to convert the starches in the other grains to sugars that can then be fermented) and those Bourbons that use wheat as the small grain. Rye is a very assertive grain, and those Bourbons that use it typically have a "bite" that wheated Bourbons do not have. Instead, they're typically smooth and mellow. All wheated Bourbons -- and these include Old Fitzgerald, Maker's Mark, WL Weller, Rebel Yell, and others -- can trace their recipes back directly or indirectly to the old Stitzel-Weller distillery. This distillery came up with a wheated recipe for Old Fitzgerald and later applied it to various other brands. When Bill Samuels came looking for a good recipe for his proposed Maker's Mark brand, Julian "Pappy" Van Winkle II, who owned Stitzel-Weller, gave him his. Van Winkle sold Stitzel-Weller in 1972, but he retained the right to bottle and sell Stitzel-Weller Bourbon under the Old Rip Van Winkle label (and also labels with other permutations of the Van Winkle name). And that's exactly what Pappy and his son Julian Van Winkle III proceeded to do: they selected and bought barrels of Stitzel-Weller Bourbon, aged them at their own facility, and bottled and sold them under their own label. The Stitzel-Weller distillery had a number of owners after 1972, eventually passing to UDV (a predecessor company to today's Diageo), which shut it down in 1992 and sold the brands and the stocks of aging whiskey to Heaven Hill and Buffalo Trace. Julian Van Winkle, realizing that he had to have access to good whiskey in order for his brand to survive, entered into some sort of arrangement with Buffalo Trace under which they distribute his whiskey and he has access to their aging stocks to select the whiskey he bottles.

The Van Winkle whiskeys currently available are Old Rip Van Winkle 10 year old (a 90 proof version and a 107 proof version), Van Winkle Family Reserve 12 year old, Van Winkle Family Reserve Rye 13 year old, Pappy Van Winkle 15 year old, Pappy Van Winkle 20 year old, and Pappy Van Winkle 23 year old. All of the Pappy Van Winkle Bourbons are still made from Stitzel-Weller whiskey, although that's going to end soon for the 15 year old. The Old Rip Van Winkle and Van Winkle Family Reserve Bourbons are made from wheated Bourbons distilled at Buffalo Trace or Heaven Hill's Bernheim distillery (although both may have a stray barrel of Stitzel-Weller thrown in).

Since the Pappy Van Winkle 20 and 23 year old versions are extremely expensive and difficult to find, I contented myself with the 15 year old. It's amazing. There's vanilla, butterscotch, maple syrup, and bread pudding on the nose. It's unctuous and extremely sweet, which I don't get from very many Bourbons. There's also some orange peel and creme brulee. And it's still alive: it's not dried out or woody, as could happen with American whiskey this old. I wish I could find more. It's simply outstanding and probably the best Bourbon I've ever had.