Van Winkle Family Reserve
Van Winkle Family Reserve also known as Pappy Van Winkle Family Reserve , often abbreviated to Pappy Van Winkle, is a whiskey brand for bourbon whiskey . Unlike most other bourbons, the Van Winkle Family Reserve's mash is made from corn and wheat instead of corn and rye. It is stored longer than almost all other bourbons. It is distributed by the Old Rip Van Winkle Distillery . Older versions were burned at Sitzel Weller and newer versions at Buffalo Trace , both in Kentucky.
The brand was founded by Julian van Winkle Jr. Starting in 1972, he and his son and current managing director Julian Van Winkle III bought the stocks that were still in stock, which had been made by the Stitzel-Weller distillery, long run by Julian "Pappy" Van Winkle , and sold them under the name Van Winkle . After Pappy Van Winkle had been a premium whiskey among several for years, a hype has developed since around 2010 that made Pappy Van Winkle the most expensive and sought-after bourbon.
history
Pappy Van Winkle was considered one of the most important men in the Kentucky whiskey industry during his lifetime. Among other things, he was head of the Sitzel-Weller Distillery in Kentucky for a long time until his death in 1965. During his lifetime, this produced brands such as Old Fitzgerald , WL Weller , Cabin Still and Rebel Yell . A small brand that was rather insignificant in Stitzel-Weller's time was Old Rip Van Winkle , named after the short story of the same name by Washington Irving . Van Winkle's trademark was the mash , which he supplemented with wheat instead of the usual rye, which gives the whiskey a significantly different taste profile.
Sitzel-Weller belonged to the Van Winkle family, part of the heirs forced the other part of the family with Julian Van Winkle Jr. to sell in 1972. With the exception of the brand name Old Rip Van Winkle and the address list of Sitztel-Weller customers, everything ended up in the hands of other manufacturers, whereby the brands Old Fitzgerald, Cbain Still and Rebel Yell now belong to Heaven Hill . In 1992 the distillery stopped production entirely. After Stitzel-Wellter was sold, Pappy's son Julian Van Winkle Jr. began to buy up whiskey stocks that were still there and sell them to former customers under the family name. After Julian Jr. died in 1981, Julian Van Winkle III took over the business.
For the first few years, the Van Winkles ran the business on the premises of Stitzel-Weller. After it was no longer possible to continue working there, Van Winkle III bought the former building of the Hoffmann Distillery factory buildings near Lawrenceburg , Kentucky, where he bottled the old whiskey. At that time the business had one employee besides Van Winkle III who did the bookkeeping. In the midst of the whiskey crisis of the 1980s, the business was hardly self-sustaining. Bourbon had a bad reputation and was considered an old man's drink in the southern states, the name Van Winkle was unknown. The main product of the family were bottles and carafes in unusual shapes (as football players, in the shape of horses, etc.), which were often bought as gifts for special birthdays or service anniversaries. The whiskey itself in the bottle was of secondary importance in the market.
Originally, Van Winkle III sold a 10 year old and a 15 year old bourbon and a 13 year old rye whiskey under the Old Rip Van Winkle name. After he also started blending 20- and 23-year-old whiskeys, he gave them his grandfather's name and launched them for the first time as Pappy Van Winkle's Family Reserve . For the first time, there was no illustration of the short story on the bottle, but a photo of Pappy Van Winkle.
The breakthrough for Van Winkle came in 1996 when a Van Winkle whiskey was presented to the renowned Beverage Testing Institute . It received an unprecedented 99 out of 100 points in their rating and the demand for Van Winkle whiskey rose dramatically. From the 1980s to 2002 Van Winkle worked as a typical whiskey blender who bought barrels from different distilleries, mixed them according to a desired taste profile and bottled them under his own name.
Until 1992 Van Winkle bought his whiskey mainly from Sitztel-Weller. After the distillery had closed and the Stitzel-Weller owner United Distillers had relocated production and employees to the New Bernheim Distillery (now owned by Heaven Hill ), he mainly bought there. The whiskey has been distilled in Sazerac's Buffalo Trace Distillery since 2002. Until about 2008/2009 it was still possible to buy the whiskey in shops with a larger selection of whiskey without any problems. It was only through a renaissance of bourbon since around 2010, which mainly benefited small brands and premium whiskeys, that the demand for Van Winkle began to far exceed production. This was partly due to the fact that in the USA famous chefs such as David Chang , Anthony Bourdain and Sean Brock Van Winkle often and prominently describe it as the best whiskey in the world. Several magazines began regularly adding Pappy Van Winkle to their Christmas gift suggestion lists.
The whiskey got into the press internationally when 200 bottles of the 20-year-old whiskey were stolen from a warehouse in 2013. Julian Van Winkle estimated the effect of reporting it as "$ 10 million worth in marketing that we didn't need at all at the time."
Van Winkle describes his business model as "the opposite of Walmart: high profits and almost no volume." Since around 2000, the Buffalo Trace Distillery in Frankfort , Kentucky, which is part of the Sazerac Group , has resumed production, which produces the whiskey on behalf of Van Winkle.
demand
Van Winkle sells around 6,000 to 7,000 cases a year, compared to around 11 million cases Jack Daniel’s sold in 2012. The whiskey is shipped twice a year, with the stores that get it receiving around half a dozen bottles - these are then mostly sold to regular customers who have signed up on a waiting list long in advance. Other stores are running a lottery, with the Washington Post reporting a Missouri wholesaler that had 1,400 customers entered the lottery, which distributed a low double-digit number of bottles.
The demand far exceeds the quantities of whiskey that is still available. The first sale is 15-year-old Pappy Van Winkle about $ 80 and the 23-year-old about $ 240. In resale, however, older Pappy Van Winkles often cost high three-digit or four-digit sums. In bars where it is occasionally available, individual glasses can cost $ 60. Even empty bottles were traded for over a hundred dollars on Ebay in 2014, with experts suspecting that these are not bought as souvenirs, but rather to come onto the market later than Pappy Van Winkles - filled with a different whiskey. In the meantime, the mismatch between supply and demand from customers who want something very special and rare ensures that the veblen effect sets in, with rising prices still boosting demand.
Manufacture and variants
Bourbon whiskey matures much faster than, for example, Scottish whiskey. The fresh oak barrels in which it is stored give off more aroma than those used for Scottish whiskey. In addition, the greater climatic differences in Kentucky ensure a faster and more intensive mixing of the wood aroma with the whiskey. Bourbon therefore also matures shorter than Scottish whiskey - normally between four and 12 years for premium brands. Bourbon that is stored longer often tastes so intensely of wood that it is hardly drinkable. Van Winkle Family Reserve, in contrast, matures up to 23 years.
In terms of taste, the Van Winkle Family Reserve is milder and easier to access than most other bourbons thanks to the wheat. Because Van Winkles is able to store it for 20 years without it becoming undrinkable, it still has an intense taste. Since the stocks of Stitzel-Weller whiskey were limited, the Van Winkles began to mix selected old whiskey from other distilleries and from Buffalo Trace with the Stitzel-Weller. At the latest since 2013 (20-year-old whiskey) and 2016 (23-year-old whiskey), Stitzel-Weller whiskey can no longer be taken out of the barrels, as Stitzel-Weller stopped production in 1992. However, the company announced that it had already transferred the majority of the barrels into steel containers a few years ago, in which the whiskey no longer matures and that Stitzel-Weller's whiskey stocks will still be in stock for various years.
Van Winkle Family Reserve is produced in the following variants:
- Van Winkle Special Reserve , aged for 12 years, produced in the Buffalo Trace Distillery
- Pappy Van Winkle's Family Reserve 15-year-old , aged for 15 years
- Pappy Van Winkle's Family Reserve 20-year-old , aged for 20 years
- Pappy Van Winkle's Family Reserve 23-year-old , aged for 23 years
- Van Winkle Family Reserve Rye , a rye whiskey , aged for 13 years
Similar whiskeys
Pappy Van Winkle's production and recipe have hardly changed over the past 100 years. That is why there are whiskeys that taste very similar, but can be found on the market without any problems. The whiskeys WL Weller 12 year old and William LaRue Weller are made using the same process in the same Buffalo Trace distillery. Most of the old supplies from Stitzel-Weller went to the Van-Winkle family. However, Jefferson's Presidential Select bezels also bought up the bezels . The bottles, whose whiskey were produced before 1992, contain almost exclusively whiskey from Stitzel-Weller.
Remarks
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i Wells Tower: Julian P. Van Winkle III: The Arbiter of Taste , Garden & Gun Magazine August / September 2012
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Karen Heller: Pappy Van Winkle's aged bourbon can't keep pace with consumer demand , The Washington Post October 12, 2014
- ↑ a b c Charles K. Cowdery : Pappy Van Winkle: The Man, The Myth, The Bourbon ( Memento of the original from September 15, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Drambox February 14, 2015
- ↑ a b Ben Bowers: The Complete Guide to Pappy Van Winkle , Gear Patrol, accessed September 19, 2015
- ↑ a b c d Eric Felten: The Cult of Pappy van Winkle , The Daily Beast March 12, 2014
- ↑ Steve Russel: Pappy Van Winkle Spirit Guide , Garden & Gun Magazine August / September 2012
- ↑ Josh Ozersky: The Idiot's Guide to Not Drinking Pappy Van Winkle , Esquire March 1, 2015
Web links
- Van Winkle website
- Interview with Julian Van Winkle III , Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries