Old Rip Van Winkle Full Set
Every expression the family makes, acquired together: Old Rip Van Winkle at ten years, the Special Reserve at twelve, the Family Reserve Rye at thirteen, and the three Pappy Van Winkle bourbons at fifteen, twenty and twenty-three. Six bottles from one of the most sought-after names in wheated bourbon, offered here o...
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The range moves through the family’s whole register. Old Rip Van Winkle at ten years arrives near barrel proof, sweet with vanilla, pecan and cherry. The Special Reserve at twelve is the balanced one — honey, oak and soft tobacco at a medium proof. The Family Reserve Rye, thirteen years old, is among the oldest ryes bottled anywhere, dry with cocoa and white pepper.
Then the three that carry Pappy’s own name: fifteen years in deep-charred oak, all caramel corn and leather; twenty years worn with unusual style, sherried and dried-fruited; and twenty-three, the rarest of the family, deep amber and best taken neat. Julian Van Winkle was selling bourbon on a promise of quality from 1893 — these six bottles together are the whole of what that promise became.
Old Rip Van Winkle 10 Year
The bourbon that carries the family's founding name — ten years in American oak, bottled as close to barrel proof as possible, with only a splash of limestone well-water added at the moment of bottling. Deeply rich yet remarkably smooth, it is the Van Winkle wheated recipe in its most direct form.
Ten years of ageing take Pappy's wheated mash bill to a place few bourbons of this strength reach: big and bold at 107 proof, yet balanced enough to carry it. The barrels are emptied and the whiskey is touched only by that splash of Kentucky limestone water — nothing else stands between the cask and the glass.
Old Rip Van Winkle is the label with which Julian Van Winkle III kept the family trade alive through bourbon's leanest years, bottling to his grandfather's recipe when almost no one was asking for it. Today it is made at the Buffalo Trace Distillery under the family's own guidelines, exactly as it has been since 2002.
A sweet nose of vanilla, caramel and pecan over oak. The palate is mellow and robust — wheat, cherries and toasted nut — before a long, softly smoky finish of dried fruit, brown spice and oak tannin that carries its high proof with unusual grace.
- Marque
- Van Winkle
- Distillery
- Buffalo Trace Distillery
- Category
- Kentucky Straight Bourbon
- Country
- United States
- Region
- Kentucky
- Age
- 10 Years
- Cask Type
- New charred American oak
- ABV
- 53.5%
- Format
- 70cl
Van Winkle Special Reserve 12 Year
The family considers this the perfect combination of age and proof — twelve years in oak, bottled at 90.4 proof, a whiskey so sweet and full-bodied that some have simply called it nectar. It is the Van Winkle to pour where an excellent cognac might otherwise stand.
Twelve years of ageing and a deliberately medium strength meet in the middle: a rich, deep, supple bourbon of luscious toffee, honey and soft tobacco, with the dry, expansive structure that only patient oak can give. The overall impression is one of completeness — nothing loud, nothing missing.
Made to Pappy's exclusive wheated recipe at the Buffalo Trace Distillery, the Special Reserve has gathered its share of honours — among them Overall Winner at the World Whiskies Awards and a 98-point rating from Wine Enthusiast — worn, as ever with this family, lightly.
Light aromas of dried mango, cocoa and spiced peach open onto a palate of honey, oak and tobacco. The entry is round and supple, the body dry and expansive — caramel, nuts and brown spice — closing in a balanced, lingering finish.
- Marque
- Van Winkle
- Distillery
- Buffalo Trace Distillery
- Category
- Kentucky Straight Bourbon
- Country
- United States
- Region
- Kentucky
- Age
- 12 Years
- Cask Type
- New charred American oak
- ABV
- 45.2%
- Format
- 70cl
Van Winkle Family Reserve Rye
The one rye in the Van Winkle family, and one of the oldest rye whiskeys available anywhere — thirteen years in oak, where most rye is bottled at four or younger. Its maturity is unmistakable from the first sip; those who try it rarely look back at younger versions.
Thirteen years of ageing give this Kentucky straight rye what youth cannot: a deep tawny copper colour, a smooth, broad entry, and a palate where rye's natural spice has settled into cocoa, vanilla and white pepper over sweet toffee and leather. It is a celebration of patience and precision — spice and smoothness that only time can create.
Bottled at 95.6 proof under the family's guidelines at the Buffalo Trace Distillery, the Family Reserve Rye has been named Overall Winner at the World Whiskies Awards and holds a 95-point rating from Wine Enthusiast.
A soft nose of chestnut, spice, vanilla and fruit. The palate turns to cocoa, white pepper and sweet tobacco over roasted nut and leather, before a long, warm and complex finish of caramel, spice and dry oak.
- Marque
- Van Winkle
- Distillery
- Buffalo Trace Distillery
- Category
- Kentucky Straight Rye
- Country
- United States
- Region
- Kentucky
- Age
- 13 Years
- ABV
- 47.8%
- Format
- 70cl
Pappy Van Winkle's Family Reserve 15 Year
Crafted to the exclusive Van Winkle family wheated recipe and drawn from barrels in the heart of the ageing warehouse, this bourbon lay undisturbed for fifteen years in deep-charred heavy oak — untouched by human hands, guided only by time. It was the first label to carry Pappy's own name.
Fifteen years is where the family recipe reaches full voice. The deep char of the heavy oak has given the whiskey intense caramel, toffee and peppery brown spice, carried at 107 proof with a richness experts have called seductive, exotic and virtually flawless. The fade is extreme — long, complex, evolving through spice and wood.
When the older Old Rip stocks were renamed for Pappy in the mid-1990s, this style of whiskey did much to shape what collectors have come to expect of aged bourbon. Its honours run from Overall Winner at the World Whiskies Awards to five stars — highest recommendation — in F. Paul Pacult's Spirit Journal; its allocation, as ever, runs out first.
An elegant, sweet aroma of caramel corn and vanilla opens onto big flavours of leather, oak and complex fruit. The entry is rich and supple, the body decadent and full, closing smooth with spice and fine oak tannin in a long, evolving fade.
- Marque
- Van Winkle
- Distillery
- Buffalo Trace Distillery
- Category
- Kentucky Straight Bourbon
- Country
- United States
- Region
- Kentucky
- Age
- 15 Years
- Cask Type
- New charred American oak
- ABV
- 53.5%
- Format
- 70cl
Pappy Van Winkle's Family Reserve 20 Year
Twenty years in new charred oak is a long time for a bourbon to spend, and few are given it. This one carries the age with unusual style. Bottled at 90.4 proof, it is rich, exceptionally smooth and, like its namesake, full of character; the family long ago placed it in the class of a fine after-dinner cognac.
Two decades in oak turn a whiskey dark amber shading to orange, and reminiscent of oiled leather, smoke, minerals, coffee and cigar boxes — an endless range of aromatics gathered slowly, sip by patient year. The proof is deliberately moderate, so nothing stands between the drinker and the age.
This was the first whiskey to bear Pappy's name, and the bottling whose record-setting 1996 rating from the Chicago Beverage Testing Institute announced the family to the world. Wine Enthusiast rates it 99; the family would simply say it is one of their best.
Smooth and intense, with a note of citrus zest over sherry, dried fruits and vanilla. The body is full and reminiscent of oiled leather, smoke and cigar boxes, resolving into a finish the family describes simply as infinite — long and elegant to the last.
- Marque
- Van Winkle
- Distillery
- Buffalo Trace Distillery
- Category
- Kentucky Straight Bourbon
- Country
- United States
- Region
- Kentucky
- Age
- 20 Years
- Cask Type
- New charred American oak
- ABV
- 45.2%
- Format
- 70cl
Pappy Van Winkle's Family Reserve 23 Year
The oldest and rarest expression the family releases — twenty-three years in oak, from barrels selected in the heart of the warehouse and granted a further three years beyond the twenty. It is the product of generations of distilling expertise, and it is best enjoyed neat; ice or water would only dilute its uniqueness.
A whiskey held this long asks for careful distilling and costly patience — barrels kept back, losses accepted, nothing hurried. Twenty-three years have given it a deep amber-red colour and a palate of caramel, ripe apples, cherries, oak and tobacco with a hint of chocolate — pronounced wood resolving into a sweet caramel finish that is long-lasting and eminently pleasurable.
Each barrel is chosen from the heart of the warehouse to ensure unparalleled depth and character, and the yield is vanishingly small. Within a range defined by scarcity, the 23 Year is the bottle acquired least often, and considered longest.
A deep amber-red pour with delectable notes of caramel, ripe apple, cherry, oak and tobacco, and a hint of chocolate beneath. Pronounced wood flavours lead to a sweet caramel finish that is long-lasting and eminently pleasurable — the family insists it be poured neat.
- Marque
- Van Winkle
- Distillery
- Buffalo Trace Distillery
- Category
- Kentucky Straight Bourbon
- Country
- United States
- Region
- Kentucky
- Age
- 23 Years
- Cask Type
- New charred American oak
- ABV
- 47.8%
- Format
- 70cl
Van Winkle
The Van Winkle story begins in 1893, with a young travelling salesman crossing Kentucky by horse and buggy for the wholesaler W.L. Weller & Sons. Julian "Pappy" Van Winkle sold bourbon and a promise — of quality, of integrity, of a whiskey worth every penny. On Derby Day 1935 he opened the Stitzel-Weller Distillery with a quietly radical recipe: wheat in place of rye, for a bourbon smoother and softer than any then known.
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