Pappy Van Winkle 23 Year

From way back in Dec ‘15. Only time I’ve had it, & so damn good I had to include it on here

I like bourbon, and writing, and the Oxford comma. I’ve also learned to like rum, mezcal, gin, things that end in “gnac,” Chartreuse, and so on. Long story short - sometimes standing out is better than fitting in. Friends who are, at times, offensively true to themselves are not unlike fine spirits. If these things haven’t turned you off already then let me tell you a tale. A friend of mine is leaving soon. He is unconventional and tends to shake the confidence of people who aren’t used to being questioned. An experienced educator, a physician and gay man from Kentucky - who was kind enough to help a friend move and was paid in the common currency of his state. While cleaning out a cabinet he stumbled across a half empty bottle with a gold wax top but missing it’s cork. A wine stopper retained 2/3 or so is the bottles contents. He was told the bottle was an expensive mistake. It had been opened and shared among friends, only to be largely disapproved of. The remainder would become his and eventually he and this bottle would make their way through medical school. To celebrate, he brought it to share with me. Meanwhile I’ve been scouring the earth spending far too much time and money on whiskey. To that end, I broke down and bought a bottle off the secondary several years back - paying around $125 for a bottle of screw cap Weller 12 year. An $18 bottle of screw cap, green label Weller had been relegated to the back of the cabinet, but with a bit of effort was excavated. Them a bottle of Pappy Van Winkle 15 year (purchased above MSRP via a lottery) found it’s way out. We poured these four all sides by side and the difference in color was striking. The youngest two were a light golden color, the 15 a nice amber and the 23 a cherrywood red. We sat and talked about life, about being screwed over by an impersonal system and still managing to find not only peace but prosperity. We talked about making up for lost time the moment it is lost and not seven years later. There was more but I will spare you. As we sipped, we noted the following: Weller - thin with corn syrup, bananas, green cigar wrapper, nutmeg and pepper Weller 12 - more caramel, a bit of soft oak, a more developed and interesting array of spices, but nothing your grandmother couldn’t drink near Pappy 15 - something that might make grandma cry - a much darker, thicker level of sweetness with toffee, dark cigar wrapper, cherry, a bit of pepper, allspice and cinnamon with lofty notes of varnish and a hint of bitter walnut Pappy 23 - the nose is rich and so heavy, weighted with burnt, resinous sugar, bits of seasoned cast-iron skillet, ripe red raspberry (weird but true), Wurthers original butterscotch candies and old furniture - BUT WAIT - the palate is viscous, almost syrupy (not unexpected) and immediately floral to the point of perfume or shaving cream, the sweetness is almost neigh with bits of burned cornbread and toffee, delayed varnish notes and a lasting oily sensation like a film throughout the mouth with a finish that goes on forever - lingering perfume, grape seed oil, wood and a subtle tarry sweetness We both agreed the 23 was unlike anything we’d ever had. No where as oak laden as the 15 but a different animal entirely. The interesting part was that going back to every pour there were now noticeable floral notes in them all. The green label was like a pair of kakis, a blazer and Old Spice - simple enough but timeless. The 12 was more of a loosely dotted suit and some department store cologne. The 15 - full on tuxedo with the undiluted perfume of a Gatsby party. The 23 - incense, robes and majesty. We then agreed the 15 was our favorite. Drinking Queen Elizabeth was a bit too far out for us at this point in life. Tuxedos and booze thanks. The next day I did some reading. Bottle 1709, “Bottled by Old Rip Van Winkle Distillery” - Lawrenceburg, KY, clear glass complete with gold top wax. Likely a 1999 or 2000 bottling - ie. the last of what was bulk distilled at Setzel-Weller, purchased by the Van Winkles and bottled at the Hoffman distillery in Lawrenceburg (prior to merger with Buffalo Trace). Sounds like ‘98 and prior would have been green glass (and also distilled with a partly rye mash bill) and anything after 2001 would be labeled as bottled in Frankfort. Hence 99/00, which would have been distilled around 1976-77. How did this taste initially, some 20 years ago when it was opened? No idea. Allegedly bad enough that it was sealed and hidden. Which leads us to the moral of the story. Pappy Van Winkle’s bourbons tend to fall into the hands of 1) the lucky lottery winners, 2) the fortunate fools who are kind to others, 3) people who sleep in tents outside liquor stores and urinate into Gatorade bottles, and 4) people with more money than sense. Would I pay $300-400 for a bottle of Pappy 23? Yes. It’s just so bizarre and tastes like something that undoubtedly sat in a dresser drawer for over 20 years. Would I reach for it often? Absolutely not. But it does make for a decent story. The contents will soon be gone, and like my friend will be missed. If it is meant to be then we will do it all over again some day. Otherwise we will forge our way through this world and hopefully empty ourselves to others who need us and will tell our stories for years to come, and continue the cycle. Cheers.

Smooth and oaky, very good but not even close to worth the price. Lots of others just as good that people don’t know about! 👍

Wonderful cherry on the nose and upfront on the palate. Strong oak and old must coats the mouth on first sip. Oxygen opens up the aroma and sips to bring a nice balance of cherry Vanilla Coke and cigar smoke. Every sip gets better and better.

Full smoky flavor

Just soooooo long and lingering. Sweet. Honey, vanilla wow.

Pours a nice shade in the copper amber spectrum, not much in the way of legs, but pretty enough. Smells intensely of oak, vanilla, oak, caramel, oak, dusty spice, and I don’t think I’ve mentioned it yet, but also lots of oak. In case the nose didn’t tip you off, the taste features that oak quite prominently, but the traditional caramel and vanilla notes come through in good enough proportions as well as a dusting of spice (I know this is a wheater, but I associate this sort of spice with rye – maybe that’s just because I’m a fraud and am bad at describing bourbon) and an almost bitter oak note (I’m sure whiskey nerds see bitterness as a terrible thing, but as a beer dork who came up in the West Coast IPA days of breweries reaching theoretical limits of bitterness, the connotation is not meant negatively here) . Mouthfeel is medium bodied and for lack of a better term, it’s kinda dry. Overall, it’s delicious, but I can see why someone would call it over-oaked. I’ve had some bourbons that I’d consider over-oaked, but this one fares better than those. Plus, I rather enjoy oak. However, it’s far from the best bourbon I’ve had and I’m not sure it’s worth all the hype… Beer Nerd Musings: Anything in Pappy’s orbit gets pulled into the supermassive black hole of hype, and that includes beers aged in Pappy barrels. Notable examples include Voodoo’s Pappy Black Magick (one of my favorite beers that I’ll probably never get to try again) and the infamous original vintage of Bourbon County Rare (which I’ve never had; I did really enjoy the follow up release, which was aged in 35 year old Heaven Hill barrels). Lots of other notable examples, and usually just the implication that Van Winkle barrels are involved is enough to make the beer scarce. However, it’s worth noting that not every beer aged can be aged in a Pappy barrel and come out perfect. Stillwater aged one of their Belgian Strong Dark Ales in Pappy 20 barrels and the result wasn’t especially accomplished (though it was still rare and expensive)… This was more an issue with the base beer not being able to stand up to the barrel treatment than the fault of barrel (i.e. it probably wouldn’t matter which barrel was used, it would still overwhelm the base). So the hype is real, but like the bourbon itself, there’s a nugget of truth at the center of the hype – a lot of these beers are genuinely great. Is it worth the hoop-jumping and cost? That’s the ultimate question…