Last Night's Tipple

There are a number of super-aged rye whiskeys either on the market today or on the market in recent years, including the various releases of Sazerac 18 as part of the Buffalo Trace Antique Collection, Rittenhouse 21 and 23 year old rye from Heaven Hill, Black Maple Hill 16 year old (I think), Hirsch 10 year old, and Van Winkle Family Reserve 13 year old. Where are all of these old ryes coming from? The plethora of bottlings suggests that there was a lot of rye distillation going on in Kentucky in the 1980s, but this isn't really the case. More rye is being produced today than twenty years ago, and today's rye production is a mere thimbleful in an ocean of Bourbon. There are lots of bottlings of old rye, but those bottlings don't contain much total volume. And what volume they do contain often has the same ultimate source: according to American whiskey expert extrordinaire Chuck Cowdery, several of the super-aged ryes listed above were distilled for the Cream of Kentucky brand (now defunct, but still owned by Buffalo Trace and possibly up for revival sometime soon) in the 1980s at the Bernheim Distillery in Louisville (currently owned by Heaven Hill). I know that the Van Winkle Family Reserve rye has had other sources as well (or maybe just another source), but it wouldn't surprise me at all if it were the same juice as is in the 18 year old Sazerac rye that I've had. They taste very similar to me.

My currently-open bottle of Van Winkle Family Reserve rye is almost empty, but not to worry: I was recently able to pick up another bottle of it to replace this one. This one continues to impress -- lots of spicy cinnamon bread pudding on the nose, with a definite rye kick on the palate. It's an excellent whiskey, and one worth its relatively high price.

Last Night's Tipple

Just as more Van Winkle Family Reserve Rye and Pappy Van Winkle 20 year old has recently come on the market in Houston, so too has more Van Winkle Family Reserve Bourbon shown up in the various liquor stores that I frequent. It's about $42 a fifth; and although it's not nearly as rare as the rye or the Pappy 20, it will likely be gone for several months when it sells out. So the obvious question presented itself: should I buy more so that I will have some in the bunker when my current bottle runs out? There is no denying the fact that this is an outstanding Bourbon and one of the finest exemplars of the wheated style of Bourbon available. It's also $42 a fifth. It's just not a good value to me, despite its quality. Had it been the Pappy 15, I would have snapped it up in a heartbeat. That's one of the most sublime spirits that I have ever had, and it's only $3 more a fifth than this. But while this is good, it is certainly not sublime; and I have too much Bourbon to spend that kind of money and use up more space on something that I don't feel strongly about. Anyway, my current bottle is now almost gone, and I really have nothing new to write about the way it tastes.

Last Night's Tipple

I cracked open the Pappy Van Winkle's Family Reserve 20 year old that I wrote about on Saturday. As you will recall, Pappy Van Winkle owned the Stitzel-Weller distillery after Prohibition, producing several different brands including Old Fitzgerald and WL Weller, both of which were known for being wheated. Pappy's son sold the distillery in the early 1970s but continued to bottle S-W whiskey under the Van Winkle label. Julian Van Winkle III, Pappy's grandson, continues to do this today. The only problem is that the Stitzel-Weller distillery closed in 1992. So you can do the math: any Van Winkle bottling with an age less than 15 years either contains whiskey older than that or is composed of wheated Bourbon distilled at Buffalo Trace or Heaven Hill's Bernheim. In other words, the 15 year old bottling being released this year is the last 15 year old that will be exclusively S-W juice. That's not a problem with the 20 year old, though -- it can be S-W exclusively for the next 5 years.

The conventional wisdom is that wheated Bourbon benefits more from extreme age than Bourbon made from a standard rye recipe. I don't know if this is universally true -- Sazerac 18 year old rye, which of course has more rye in it than ryed Bourbon, is excellent. Regardless, though, 20 years is a long time for Bourbon. To be honest, I think that it was too long for this Bourbon. The nose is the same delicious caramel creme brulee that the 15 year old version has, but the palate is dry and woody. It's not unpleasant, but I prefer the 15 year old. I'm not disappointed that I spent the money for this bottle since I was intensely curious about it and it's both good and enjoyable; but in the future, if I'm confronted with the choice of a bottle of 15 year old and a bottle of 20 year old, I will take the 15 year old and spend the extra $45 on something nice.

Get It While You Can

I don't know what Van Winkle's release schedule is, but evidently late October is a big time for them. I wrote last week that I had found some Van Winkle Family Reserve Rye at Spec's (only the third time in about eight years that I have ever seen it for sale) and that Spec's also had a small supply of Van Winkle Family Reserve Bourbon. Well, the Richard's on Richmond just west of Chimney Rock got a few bottles of the Van Winkle Family Reserve Bourbon and around 6 bottles of Pappy Van Winkle's Family Reserve 20 year old. In addition to Richard's, I saw the Pappy 20 year at the U P Liquor Store on 43rd at Oak Forest. The Pappy 20 is extremely expensive, and I had not intended to buy any. However, I could not resist. I rationalize my purchase by thinking that it's unlikely that I'll be able to find it again any time soon (the guy at the Richard's told me that he had sold all but one of his bottles in two or three days) and that I deserved a reward for my efforts on the Fall Festival at E&B's school. Yes, those excuses are weak, I know. But that's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

In other rare American whisk(e)y news, Buffalo Trace apparently released the 2007 edition of the Buffalo Trace Antique Collection (George Stagg, Sazerac 18, WL Weller 19, and some others) this week. I have not seen any in Houston, but they are almost surely guaranteed to sell quickly when they do show up.

Last Night's Tipple

I had another pour of WL Weller 12 year old last night, and I got something new and interesting out of it: almond extract. I don't know if my mind was playing tricks on me or what, but smack dab in the middle of the finish was the flavor of almond extract. I am of the opinion that almond extract makes just about everything taste better, so I was pleased.

It's very common to read comparisons between WL Weller 12 and Van Winkle Family Reserve because both are wheated Bourbons, both are 12 years old, both are bottled at similar proof (the Weller at 90 proof, the Van Winkle at 90.4 proof), and both have the same sources (Buffalo Trace- and Bernheim-distilled Bourbon). The Weller can be had for less than $20 a fifth, while the current price on the Van Winkle is around $43 a fifth. The argument is usually that the Weller is a far better value than the Van Winkle. This is almost self-evidently true: the Weller is a good whiskey, and there's no way that the Van Winkle delivers more than twice the enjoyment that the Weller does, at least for me. But I think that most people would agree that the Van Winkle is a superior Bourbon to the Weller, and not by a narrow margin. As with clothing and shoes, you have to pay a lot of money to get relatively small incremental improvements in Bourbon (and whisk(e)y in general).

Last Night's Tipple

Since I managed to find another bottle of Van Winkle Family Reserve Rye on Saturday, it's safe to drink more of the bottle that I had open. And so I did. Van Winkle claims that this is the first older rye that was on the market ("Until now, most rye whiskeys were only 5 years old or younger. This 13-year rye breaks the mold. It's the original aged rye whiskey."), and I can't think of anything that would contradict that claim. It's not the oldest rye on the market today -- Sazerac 18 year old and Rittenhouse 21 year old are both older, and I think that Black Maple Hill has put out an older rye, too -- but it does predate those older ryes by at least a couple of years. I don't know if you can argue that Van Winkle provided the example for these other brands since the trend in the marketplace over the past few years has been towards older and older American whiskey. But it has been a trailblazer. And it is an excellent whiskey.

Speaking of Rye

Van Winkle Family Reserve Rye is both excellent and hard to come by. Before today, I had seen it in liquor stores exactly twice in about seven years, and I had bought it both times. Well, the Spec's warehouse in downtown Houston has gotten a shipment of perhaps a case of the stuff, and there are about six bottles left. Or, rather, five bottles left, since I bought one. They also have a few bottles of the Van Winkle Family Reserve Bourbon, which is also hard to come by, although less so than the rye.

Last Night's Tipple

My four-day tour of wheated Bourbons ends with Pappy Van Winkle Family Reserve 15 year old. I am always very hesitant to drink this, not because it isn't good (it's fantastic) but rather because I don't know how I'll be able to replace it when it's gone. I've seen this exactly once in my life, and I bought it then. It's possible to get the 20 and 23 year old versions without too much difficulty because of the high prices -- the bottle or two allocated to Spec's just sit on the shelf for months because not many people are in the market for a $100 bottle of Bourbon. Not so the 15 year old. It's expensive compared to most other Bourbons, but not relative to similarly-aged Scotches. That, and its reputation, quality, and rarity, must mean that it flies off the shelves when it comes in.

You may recall that Stitzel-Weller distillery, whose whiskey Julian Van Winkle has culled from for years to assemble his various bottlings, closed in 1992. That means that the youngest S-W whiskey left is 15 years old. The Bourbon in my bottle of 15 year old Bourbon (purchased in 2006) is probably still all from S-W, but that won't be the case in the future. Supposedly, Van Winkle's stocks of S-W whiskey are getting low, and it just doesn't make sense to keep the 15 year old exclusively S-W when all of the remaining S-W whiskey is older than 15 years.

This brings me to a comment that VaAu made recently on the post I wrote the last time I had Pappy 15:

I stumbled upon some 12 year old PVW—noticeably better than most bourbons in my opinion. Sought some 15 year family reserve—even better. Now I am real curious about Pappy in general. Assuming one can find the following (I have!), what would you guess the price to be:

PVW, 15 year
PVW, 20 year
PVW, 23 year

Also, I am told there is to be a September 2007 bottling of PVW 23 year. What will this do to price of PVW 23 year remaining on shelves?

Finally, will there ever again be a bottling of PVW 20?

How much 20 and 23 remains to be bottled?

Pappy 15, when you can find it, goes for around $45 a fifth. Pappy 20 can be had for around $90 a fifth. The Pappy 23 would be around $120 a fifth. Julian Van Winkle periodically bottles more of all three, depending on demand. I would assume that as long as the 20 year old is still selling, he will continue to bottle it. Stocks of twenty-year-old Stitzel-Weller whiskey will give out after 2012, but there will be sufficiently-aged Buffalo Trace and Heaven Hill wheated Bourbon available by that time for this not to present a problem for the continuation of the older Van Winkle bottlings.

Last Night's Tipple

I have heard a story of a tour guide at Buffalo Trace Distillery who made much of the fact that Van Winkle Family Reserve Bourbon and WL Weller 12 year old are the same age and come from the same sources. The Weller is $15 a bottle or more cheaper, said the tour guides, and it's the same stuff as the Van Winkle, so why wouldn't you buy the Weller? (I have no way of knowing whether this story is true and, if so, whether it indicates a common practice at Buffalo Trace or not. It is apocryphal, and I am retelling it not to say anything at all about Buffalo Trace but rather to make a point about aging Bourbon.) It's not strictly true that Van Winkle Family Reserve is exactly the same stuff as Weller 12 year old -- the current blend of the Van Winkle may include a small amount of Stitzel-Weller whiskey that's significantly older than 12 years old, and it also likely includes some Heaven Hill wheated Bourbon distilled at Bernheim. I doubt that the Weller has Bourbon in it from either of these sources, although I don't know for sure. But the core of the tour guide's statement is likely true: that the source for most of the Van Winkle blend is the same as the source for most of the Weller 12 year old. Same source, same age, same Bourbon, right?

Wrong. Two identical barrels containing distillate from the same still run aged for the same length of time in exactly the same spot in the rickhouse can be dramatically different in character. Why? I don't know, and neither do any of the whiskey professionals. But this basic fact is the reason why distilleries are able to produce multiple brands that are consistently different in character from Bourbon all made and aged in the same way. It's also why they need to blend many barrels of whiskey to make a batch to bottle if they want to maintain consistency of the finished product. In the case of the Van Winkle Family Reserve, Julian Van Winkle's agreement with Buffalo Trace allows him his choice of the barrels to use for his whiskies, and the Weller is selected from the rest. The Van Winkle is darker and more viscous, and it has more vanilla and caramel character that I like and less of the Wheat Thin graininess common to wheaters that I don't. There's also some unpleasant woodiness when it's first poured, but that's the only negative thing that I can say about it. It is undoubtedly superior to the Weller 12. Is it worth $15 or $20 more a bottle than the Weller? Well, to me it is.

Last Night's Tipple

William LaRue Weller's grandfather Daniel began distilling in Kentucky around 1800. His father Samuel became a distiller in his own right, and WL got into the business, too, founding the William LaRue Weller & Brother company to market whiskey in 1849. He remained in control of the company, rechristened WL Weller & Son, until 1896, shortly before his death. It was with this company that Julian "Pappy' Van Winkle got his start in the whiskey business, getting hired as a salesman in 1893. Weller was a whiskey trading company, not a distilling company, so they had to buy the Bourbon that they sold under their own label somewhere; and starting in 1903, that somewhere was the Stitzel distillery in Louisville. The Stitzel brothers leased the distillery to Weller in 1912, and that distillery had a license to sell medicinal whiskey during Prohibition. After Prohibition ended, Pappy Van Winkle and his business partner Alex Farnsley bought both Stitzel and Weller and merged them to establish Stitzel-Weller (oh, the originality!), and the new company opened a new distillery in Shively. Van Winkle in turn sold out to United Distillers in the 1970s, which eventually became Diageo after a series of mergers. Diageo shut down the Stitzel-Weller distillery in 1995 and eventually sold off the former Stitzel-Weller brands, including Old Fitzgerald and WL Weller. The former brand is now owned by Heaven Hill, the latter by Buffalo Trace.

The claim to fame for Stitzel-Weller Bourbons is that they were wheated. That is, their mashbills replaced rye with wheat as the secondary grain (after corn, of course). All wheated Bourbons currently on the market (WL Weller, Old Fitzgerald, Rebel Yell, Maker's Mark) derive from Stitzel-Weller's wheated mashbill. The first three were S-W Bourbons that continued with the same mashbill even after Diageo sold the brands off. Maker's Mark, despite the company mythology about Bill Samuels Sr. creating the mashbill from bread-making experiments, uses the S-W wheat mashbill, too: Pappy Van Winkle gave it to him when Samuels was just starting out and needed all the help he could get. Where did the S-W wheat mashbill come from? Nobody really knows. There are extent company documents from the turn of the century indicating that the old Stitzel distillery made standard Bourbon with rye as the small grain. Sometime between then and when the new Stitzel-Weller distillery opened in 1935, someone had made the decision that wheat worked better to create the kind of Bourbon that the company wanted to create. It's undoubtedly the case that wheat had been used as a small grain in other Bourbons prior to S-W making a habit out of it in the early 20th Century. Early distillers probably used whatever grain they could get, and it stands to reason that they could often get wheat instead of rye. By Pappy Van Winkle's time, though, rye was the standard small grain.

In any event, the WL Weller brand today is anomalous just like the Old Charter brand is. All WL Weller Bourbons (except the 19 year old, which is part of the Buffalo Trace Antique Collection) are middle-shelf offerings, and yet they have a good deal of age on them. The 12 year old costs less than $18 a fifth, which is just crazy for a Bourbon that old. I doubt that Buffalo Trace will phase out the brand or stop offering the 12 year old, but the price has to rise. The hallmark of all wheated Bourbons is that they're sweet and not bitter, and so it is with this one. It has a graininess on the finish that I don't particularly care for, and it's remarkably hot for a whiskey that's only 90 proof. Believe it or not, but I think it could probably stand a bit more age. It's not bad Bourbon, but I don't think that it will be one of my favorites.

Last Night's Tipple

Continuing my recent rye kick, I had a pout of Van Winkle Family Reserve Rye last night. Yup, it tastes like rye, although the rye elements are muted compared to the others that I've had this week -- pretty much, the rye comes through just on the finish. The rest of the experience is very much like an aged Bourbon, and a dessert Bourbon at that. There's a lot of vanilla and caramel and a massive body in there.

So let's play the "Where'd he get it?" game. Van Winkle whiskeys are bottled and distributed by Buffalo Trace, but that doesn't mean that everything that goes into them was distilled at Buffalo Trace. The older Bourbons, for example, are largely composed of old Stitzel-Weller barrels that Julian Van Winkle owns. The 12 year old Family Reserve Bourbon no longer has much Stitzel-Weller whiskey in it (S-W closed for good in 1992; remember that the age statement on a bottle is the minimum age of the whiskey that goes into it, so it is possible that a small amount of 15 year old S-W Bourbon goes into the 12 year old bottling), and what I've read indicates that it's mostly Heaven Hill-distilled wheated Bourbon now. In any event, consider the possibilities for the 13 year old Van Winkle rye. Beam, Wild Turkey, and Barton all distill rye whiskey (Beam for the Jim Beam and Old Overholt brands, Wild Turkey for itself, and Barton for the Fleischman brand), but I know of no relationship that Julian Van Winkle has ever had with any of them. More than that, I have never heard of any of the three doing contract distilling for any rye label. Brown-Forman contract distills rye for Heaven Hill (for the Pikesville and Rittenhouse labels), but I don't think that they did any rye distilling before the Heaven Hill distillery fire in 1996, which means that they don't have any rye old enough for Van Winkle. That leaves Buffalo Trace and Heaven Hill, both of which have rye stocks old enough (Buffalo Trace has stocks for the 18 year old Sazerac rye, Heaven Hill for the 21 year old version of Rittenhouse) and both of which have a preexisting relationship with Julian Van Winkle. So which is it? Beats me. I'd bet on Buffalo Trace, but I wouldn't bet much.

Last Night's Tipple

The problem with all Van Winkle bottlings is that they are difficult to find. In the past five years, I have bought the Family Reserve Rye every time that I have seen it, and I've only bought two bottles. It's hard to enjoy it (at least, enjoy it consistently) in those circumstances: because I know that it will be difficult or impossible to replace it once it is gone, I hesitate to draw down my supply. But good whiskey is meant to be enjoyed, not stared at; so I had a pour last night. Unsurprisingly, of all the ryes that I've tried, Van Winkle and the 18 year-old Sazerac have seemed the most Bourbon-like. I would imagine that this is because they have spent the most time in barrel and consequently have the barrel give them a greater preponderance of their flavor and aroma characteristics than younger whiskeys. It's possible to tell that Van Winkle is rye rather than Bourbon, of course: the rye character comes through, particularly on the palate and on the finish. But nosing the whiskey is like nosing an older Bourbon, all vanilla and caramel and maple syrup. I will be disappointed when this is gone.

Last Night's Tipple

Another pour of Van Winkle Family Reserve 12 year old Bourbon. My impressions largely match those in June, but I did notice an off-putting pine resin note on some sips. Perhaps it's due to the extensive time in wood.

Scotch is different from Bourbon in many ways, ranging from production methods to marketing and distribution to business practices. The Bourbon business and the Scotch business are both dominated by very large companies now, but the way those large companies operate is significantly different. Scotland has over a hundred operating malt distilleries. Industry consolidation there has largely consisted of multinational spirits companies buying up as many of these distilleries as they possibly can. In contrast, industry consolidation in American whiskey has involved spirits companies buying distilleries and brands and aging whiskey stocks and closing the distilleries. The number of large-scale distilleries producing American whiskey is very small: Jack Daniel's, Jim Beam, Buffalo Trace, and Heaven Hill probably produce well over 50% of the American whiskey on the market; and if you add in Maker's Mark, Wild Turkey, Four Roses, and George Dickel, you likely have over 90%.

The American whiskey and Scotch whisky businesses are both incestuous, but in different ways. American distillers form something of a social club, and they're all more than willing to scratch each other's backs. The master distiller of Heaven Hill is a Beam; and when the Heaven Hill distillery burned in 1996, the Jim Beam Distillery allowed Heaven Hill to distill what they needed on Jim Beam stills. In Scotland, this incestuousness takes the form of each distillery being willing to sell whisky to anybody else, even their competitors. That's why there are many non-distillery bottlings of Scotch and why the various good Scotch blends are so good. There are very few non-distillery bottlings of American whiskey, and what ones there are are likely to become rarer. The modus operandi of American whiskey distillers if they have surplus aging stocks is to come up with a new brand and sell it. There isn't a whole lot of bulk whiskey on the spot market, and it's likely to get rarer in the future. Companies like Kentucky Bourbon Distillers that buy and bottle aging whiskey will find it increasingly difficult to operate successfully.

What does all of this have to do with Van Winkle? Well, it goes to explain the deal that Julian Van Winkle cut with Buffalo Trace in the late '90s whereby Buffalo Trace received the rights to bottle and market Van Winkle whiskeys and Julian Van Winkle received the right to get his pick of Buffalo Trace aging whiskeys for his bottlings. Before this agreement, Van Winkle was an independent bottler (although they did own their own stocks of Stitzel-Weller whiskey). Julian knew that his Stitzel-Weller whiskey was running out and that he would be hard-pressed to ensure that he would able to buy quality whiskey in the future if he remained independent. So he threw in with Buffalo Trace. Given Buffalo Trace's attitude toward distilling and their demonstrated ability to make good whiskey, I have to think that this was a good decision.

Last Night's Tipple

Makers of Scotch would probably confirm that it is very difficult to sell their product at a premium price if it's less than twelve years old. There are exceptions, of course: Scotches like Talisker and Macallan can sell ten year old versions, but only because their reputations are so high. In the United States, at least, consumers tend to view age as a proxy for quality. To them, a twelve year old Scotch is necessarily better than a ten year old Scotch, and an eighteen year old Scotch is necessarily better than either of them.

This age-ism seems to have come to the world of Bourbon and other American whiskey. Van Winkle has 15, 20, and 23 year old versions. Heaven Hill has an 18 year old Bourbon sold under the Elijah Craig label. There's an AH Hirsch 16 and 20 year old Bourbon, a WL Weller 19 year old Bourbon, and a Sazerac 18 year old straight rye. And the number of brands that sell ten or twelve year old Bourbons is almost too large to list (Old Charter, WL Weller, Van Winkle, Elijah Craig, etc., etc., etc.). What's going on here? Kentucky isn't Scotland. It's much hotter, and the heat causes Bourbon and rye to age more quickly than Scotch. A twelve year old Bourbon is typically older than a twelve year old Scotch. Part of it is undoubtedly the overproduction of Bourbon in the '70s and '80s. Producers had more Bourbon than they could sell, so there were lots of barrels that just sat in their rickhouses aging. Eventually, the producers decided to bottle what they had and see how the market liked it. Well, the market loved it. And so longer-aged Bourbons are now a feature of the landscape. In the process, producers have discovered what Scotch producers discovered long ago: the older the stated age, the more they can sell the product for. American consumers associate older with better.

As a matter of fact, this isn't always the case. A Bourbon that has been aged too long will dry out and be overpowered by the wood. I recently had a taste of the Elijah Craig 18 year old, and it was like sucking on charcoal. It was not pleasant at all. And because of Kentucky's heat, it's a lot harder to get a drinkable 18 year old whiskey there than in Scotland. So what are Bourbon distillers to do? They want to sell old whiskey because they can do so at high prices, but they want to make it drinkable so that buyers will come back. Well, the answer is that age is not age. Whiskey ages differently depending on the kind of rickhouse it's in (masonry vs. steel-clad, heated vs. unheated, etc.) and where that rickhouse is (on the top of a hill, near a body of water, etc.). Older whiskeys like the Van Winkle 12 year old Family Reserve Bourbon typically come from barrels that are subject to less extreme temperature fluctuations, like, for example, those in the center of a rickhouse.

Originally, Bourbon bottled under this label was distilled at Stitzel-Weller. Alas, since the distillery closed in 1992, the stocks of 12 year old Bourbon distilled there expired a few years ago. What's in the bottle is now mostly distilled at Bernheim distillery in Lousiville, just like the Old Fitzgerald that I had on Tuesday. I might be imagining things, but nose of the Van Winkle shares a lot of the Crown Royal overtones that Old Fitz has. The difference is that the Van Winkle's nose develops into something else, with lots of vanilla and creme brulee and leather. Like the 15 year old Van Winkle, it's unctuous and extremely sweet. It's not as refined or as much of a dessert in a glass, though. That's okay: it's still excellent. As with any other Van Winkle product, buy it when you see it. There's not much to be had.

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.

Last Night's Tipple

Since I've been in a rye mood recently, I decided to break out the Van Winkle Family Reserve Rye. This one shares a number of characteristics with the Wild Turkey Rye that I had a couple of nights ago: the nose is very similar to good Bourbon with lots of vanilla and caramel, but the taste is significantly different: sharper, spicier, racier. This is significantly more polished (read: less rough) than the WT rye, and that's probably mostly due to the greater time in the barrel (13 years rather than 5 or 6). All the Van Winkle bottlings are sufficiently rare that I buy them when I see them, whether I need them or not (well, the bottlings whose prices I can stomach; the 20 and 23 year old Bourbons are too rich for my blood); the first bottle of this that I bought was back in the late '90s or early 2000s. The next time I saw a bottle for sale after that was last year. It's good stuff if you like rye, which I do.

(Incidentally, you can see from the label that this was bottled by the Old Rip Van Winkle Distillery. You might conclude from this that there actually is a distillery called Old Rip Van Winkle that makes whiskey. You would be wrong. The whiskey is distilled by Buffalo Trace in Frankfort. I think that Julian Van Winkle still owns the brand and selects the whiskey, but he doesn't distill it or age it.)