4
Jan
Four generations of a secret Kentucky recipe
While the Old Rip Van Winkle 23-Year Old Decantur was the bourbon that got our heart pumping last year, one shouldn’t sleep (pardon the pun) on the expression that put the famed distillery on the map. Started in the late 19th Century by Julian P. “Pappy” Van Winkle, the Old Rip Van Winkle Distillery now boasts a deep history, based on a secret recipe passed down from father to son for four generations. Crafting a bourbon from corn, wheat and barley (instead of the more common usage of rye instead of wheat), the 90 proof Van Winkle Bourbons are aged for 10 years in charred mountain oak barrels, resulting in a warm, smooth, complex spirit with hints of caramel and spice. Pick up a bottle of Kentucky-born goodness for around $35.
Old Rip Van Winkle makes a good bourbon but the “facts” here are not correct. It wasn’t the 23-year old Pappy Van Winkle bourbon that caught the people attention first in the mid-90s but rather the 20-year old expression. Neither did Pappy Van Winkle start the Old Rip Van Winkle Distillery in the late 19th century. He did however, start working for W. L. Weller & Sons at that time. It was later in 1933 that he and his partners acquired that distillery and merged it with Stitzel to create the Stitzel-Weller Distillery. Stitzel-Weller was primarily know for Old Fitzgerald in mid-twentieth century. The Old Rip Van Winkle Distillery was much later and I believe started by Julian Van Winkle III.