The Pappy Van Winkle Story

Good morning. Welcome to the Fifth Edition of the Bourbon Central Bulletin!

We’re gonna do a little something different today. We always love hobnobbing about spirits with customers, distributors, and brands alike, yet there’s nothing that hits like a beautiful vignette of booze history. After all, decades of nature, culture, and good will is all that one can directly attribute to a fantastic brand of whiskey.

Alright, I’m gonna drop the term (please don’t ask if we have any in the back 😂 - but, if you insist, look here): Pappy Van Winkle. The most famed. The most coveted. Dare I say, the best bourbon on the market. Definitely will be getting some hate mail once this goes out lol.

In all seriousness, as you’d expect, we always have customers asking for some Pappy. Often times, they’ll mention that it’s for a special retirement gift or birthday bottle for a loved one—totally valid. But, likely, if we dig deeper there’s limited understanding of why they want Pappy. Ya know, it’s groupthink through and through—they want it because others want it. The chorus that sings praises for Pappy has reached such a fever pitch, it’s almost impossible to ignore.

I’m here to resolve that qualm for you today. I had the treat of reading the New York Times Bestseller, Pappyland, a wonderful account of Julius Van Winkle’s pursuit of excellence, this past week. And, boy is it special.

Let’s dive into the true story behind Pappy!

— Adi

Thought I’d also mention a little more about BC: We’re a family-owned, small business in NJ + NY. Pops runs our retail ops and I juggle running the digital piece + being a student at the University of Pennsylvania (Go Quakers!). Your business and partnership is always appreciated :)

WHISKEY CONVO OF THE WEEK
Pappy: Believe The Hype.

To preface, I highly recommend reading bits and pieces of Pappyland if you have a few hours to spare this week—it’s really a unique, seamlessly woven chronicle of fatherhood, always fine bourbon, and sacrifice born of passion. It’s structured with an artful intuition that I simply can’t give justice to…

The legend begins in the late 19th century with the first of the lineage of Van Winkles: Julian ‘Pappy’ Van Winkle, a ‘drop out’ (as we’d say today) from a local KY university who joined the alcohol wholesaler, W.L. Weller & Sons, as a traveling sales rep. Perched atop his horse & buggy, Pappy would travel the country trying to sell some high-proof swill with added food color. At the time, Pappy and one of his fellow salesmen began an operation to produce their own whiskey with a distillery in the area: A. Ph. Sitzel.

As you’ll notice throughout, there’s significant historical connotation to the names that adorn the bottles we desire today; in other words, they weren’t simply picked out of a hat.

Opportunity struck in 1915, upon the death of W.L. Weller & Sons’ head honcho, William Larue Weller, leading Pappy to buy out the wholesaler. In 1933, Pappy led a merger of W.L. Weller & Sons and A. Ph. Sitzel, creating what would become known as the Sitzel-Weller Company.

A couple of notes here: (1) Sitzel had lucked out with its whiskey stock—it was one of just 6 distilleries that was allowed to produce ‘medicinal whiskey’ during Prohibition leaving a ballast of supply when the ban was repealed; (2) Sitzel was a stickler for quality (no flavoring, no coloring) which would form the ethos for distiller’s emergent brands.

Ok, back to deep dive: It’s 1935, precisely the day of the Kentucky Derby, Prohibition has been repealed, and Pappy’s agglomerated distillery opens for business. What made his whiskey different? Principally, the mashbill. At the time, and particularly pre-prohibition, most whiskey was produced East of the Ohio—namely in Pennsylvania and New York. There, Rye, albeit harsh, was the thriving form of grain.

Recall, for a spirit to be legally termed a ‘bourbon’ in the U.S., its mashbill must contain 51% corn. The remainder of the pie is up to the will of the distiller; while producers in the Northeast crammed it with Rye & Barley, Pappy diverged by using Kentucky’s most persistent home-grown grain: Wheat. This is functionally why several Buffalo Trace bottles today are referred to as ‘Wheated’ bourbons—they contain a mashbill where the remainder is mostly filled in with Wheat, resulting in a smoother, softer, and sweeter whiskey.

Where was I!? Right, Sitzel-Weller’s premium, wheated juice begins to hit the market, but by no means does it attract the cult following it garners today. Unfortunately, Julian ‘Pappy’ Van Winkle passes in 1965, at the age of 91. Historically, at this point, whiskey was in cyclical decline—clear spirits like Vodka had commanded the palate of the American consumer.

Sitzel-Weller was no exception. Under financial duress, it sold out its brands and barrels to the conglomerate Norton Simon (which eventually sold to an affiliate of Diageo, the global behemoth).

One bright spot amidst the ruins: Pappy’s son, Julian Van Winkle Jr., secured the right to purchase Sitzel-Weller barrels to bottle his own product under his newfound Old Rip Van Winkle Distillery. Effectively a one-man show, his son, Julian III excelled at reviving the family name. By 1994, he secured old enough stock to begin putting out higher age-stated whiskies, including the world’s first 20-year-old bourbon.

Slowly, but surely, Julian III’s hard work came to fruition: the bottle featuring a photo of his stogie-smoking grandfather scored a then-unheard rating of 99 at the 1998 World Spirits Competition. The seed for demand was sowed, and distributors/retailers quickly came calling to procure the Van Winkle juice.

Enter the supply bottleneck: Sitzel-Weller, the original source of Pappy Van Winkle’s distillate had shut down production in 1992, meaning Julian III would be out of stock soon. Luckily, Buffalo Trace came to the rescue. Inking a partnership in 2002, it took over the distillation and aging of Pappy Van Winkle; bottles from this arrangement formally started to hit the shelves in 2011.

The aforementioned is what largely drives the ax in questions of whether a bottle of Pappy is ‘Sitzel-Weller’ or not. If it was released prior to 2011 (for the older age statements), odds are that it is—but, there’s no real way to be sure. Skeptics will say that Sitzel-Weller juice was better (different fermenters, stills, yeasts etc); I’d still contend that Buffalo Trace produced Pappy is pretty damn good without the counterfactual.

Note, there is no such thing as the ‘Old Rip Van Winkle Distillery’ today; it’s a mere synonym for Buffalo Trace. Ever since the contract distilling like arrangement with BT, Julian III has worked with his partners tooth and nail to produce a whiskey as close to the OG Sitzel-Weller juice as possible.

Starting in the early 2000s, Buffalo Trace began to expand the lineup of the Pappy-progeny lineup including the Weller and Buffalo Trace Antique Collection series. Pro tip: The Weller 12 Year is the closest you can get to the Pappy mashbill, at a materially lower price ticker. In Pappyland, Julian is described as routinely carrying around a flask of Van Winkle or Weller 12; he elaborates that Weller 12 is identical to a Van Winkle 12, with the exception that the distillery will only go through the tedious process of tasting through each barrel of Pappy. 

Where does that leave us today?

Simply put, Pappy should not merely be pursued for its attribute of scarcity—but also for the ethereal history that belies the spirit. To be honest, I don’t know when Pappy Van Winkle became ‘Pappy’, the household name. Perhaps, it was in 2012, when Anthony Bourdain first drank it in an episode of The Layover and proclaimed, “If God made bourbon, this is what he’d make.” Or, maybe when Chef David Chang began touting it at his acclaimed Momofuku spots in NYC.

Whatever the reason, Pappy has captured the attention of the mainstream, and we don’t see that changing anytime soon. New distilleries can always try, but you simply can’t fabricate 100+ years of tradition and pride with a more advanced still.

The takeaway: Next time you buy a bottle of Van Winkle (or anything BT for that matter), remind yourself of as little as a 1/10th of the history that makes it exceedingly special.

Like what you’re hearing?

We just launched our Whiskey Connoisseur Collective, or what we call the Internet’s Favorite Whiskey Club. The contours are simple: receive 1 curated bottle per month & get at least 1 allocated pick throughout the year (from the time you join).

The impetus goes back to what we were chewing on earlier: there are simply too many choices in that whiskey aisle. Too much difficultly in delineating the greats from the average. Too much uncertainty in lotteries and other store-run initiatives, where you buy for a chance at allocation. Abstract all of those concerns away and drink better with our collective.

EARN FREE GOODIES
Share With Your Fellow Spirits Snobs & Get Rewarded!

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