Pappy Van Winkle 15 Year Old Family Reserve pre-2007 / Sitzel-Weller

The Old Rip Van Winkle brand was a pre-prohibition bourbon label, revived by the Van Winkle family after they were forced to sell their Stitzel-Weller distillery by its board of directors. New owners, Somerset Imports, granted Julian Van Winkle II (son of the famous 'Pappy') the continued use of an office at the distillery, and first option on purchasing casks to bottle his new brand with. When he died and the business passed to his son, Julian III, this courtesy was no longer extended, and he moved bottling to the old Hoffman distillery in Lawrenceburg in 1983, renaming it Old Commonwealth. He was still able to buy Stitzel-Weller stock though, and introduced the famous Pappy Van Winkle range in homage to his grandfather, using well-aged barrels from the distillery the now-legendary figure once so lovingly ran. When Stitzel-Weller was closed down by United Distillers in 1992, it was only a matter of time before stock would run out. This necessitated a partnership between Julian Van Winkle III and Buffalo Trace distillery in 2002, seeing all bottling move there, initially using the remaining Stitzel-Weller barrels, with these eventually replaced by Buffalo Trace distilled stock. The product from all eras is revered, and the brand is considered to be the first premium bourbon line to have been produced in the US.

The teenager of this family of world-renowned American whiskies, now in incredibly high demand! Pappy Van Winkle Family Reserve 15 year old replaced the Old Rip Van Winkle of the same age in 2004.

This is a pre-2007 bottling, meaning it will still contain the old Stitzel-Weller bourbon that Julian Van Winkle III had been purchasing from his family's old distillery before in closed in 1992. He had his remaining stock warehoused at Buffalo Trace before it eventually ran out.