Van Winkles: Is There a Logical Reason We Love Them?

To a lot of consumers, the Van Winkle family name and bourbon products named after them are the “Michael Jordan’s” of the bourbon world. When you ask a novice what the best bourbon available to purchase is, they all will tell you it is Pappy Van Winkle. People stand in line by the thousands (pre-COVID) to get a chance, for a CHANCE, to purchase one of these gems of the bourbon world. People spend hundreds to thousands of dollars online to purchase these via marked-up, online liquor stores or the secondary market. Why do we love these offerings so much? Do we really love these offerings that much? Do the Van Winkles love us back? I have an opinion on these questions and more.

As bourbon consumers, we all started off thinking that the holy grail of bourbon-finds was a bottle of Van Winkle.  Once we acquire that bottle and get up the nerve to open it, most of us have immediate buyer’s remorse.  Why in the hell did we spend this type of money on a good, but not spectacular whiskey?  Why does this bottle of 23-year old, heavily oaked bourbon garner $2,500 on the secondary market?   Is this worth the bourbon status accolades you get by posting your valued find on social media?

The truth is that since the early 2000’s, the bourbon that is bottled and labeled as the Pappy Van Winkle lineup is nothing more than Buffalo Trace bourbon, selected by  a small panel of the Van Winkle family.  I am in no way saying that the current offerings are bad.  I am simply stating that if you pay the high liquor store marked-up or secondary market prices for one of these, you need to understand you are buying an iconic label and show piece; not a special bourbon.  The last of the bourbon that gave the Van Winkle line it’s street cred was bottled in the early to mid-2000’s, depending on which version you are talking about.  Those offerings were the last of the Stitzel Weller stocks and those are legendary.  Sadly, they are long gone but are obtainable if you do not mind spending two to three times more per bottle than the marked up and secondary prices of today’s non-Stitzel Weller versions. 

The only people these days that love the Van Winkle line up are people who have store connections who sell these bottles to them at retail or slightly above.  In turn, those lucky people sell them for a huge profit to rich private collectors or to buyers on the secondary market.  There are few and far between any people who purchase the current Van Winkle line up to drink them out of enjoyment.  Do people open them on special occasions or with special guests to impress?  Sure, they do.  The reality is that most of today’s bourbon world does not like the Van Winkle line up and they do not actually like the Van Winkles.  Julian and Preston have been at the forefront of pushing to have the secondary market shut down.  This act alone has drawn the ire of a large portion of the bourbon population while also being applauded by those of us who cannot afford Pappy at marked up prices.  We have this illusion that the Van Winkles have the power to shut down the entire secondary market under the guise of worrying about fakes.  The reality is, they only have the power to piss off a huge portion of the bourbon world with these actions.  The secondary market is the epitome of the phrase “where there is a will, there is a way”.

Do the Van Winkles love us?  I have no idea but if you listen to or read any interviews with the Van Winkles, they give off this aura of not really liking the bourbon community.  Each interview seems to be a balancing act of them talking about their family history as well as going on rants about their crusades to eliminate bourbon social media groups.   I am sure deep down they are jaded as they see their bourbon sold at retail from $69.00 - $199.00, then resold on the secondary markets from $600-$2,800.   Ultimately, the bourbon community needs the Van Winkles and they need the bourbon community.  Outside of their product line, they own an entire company dedicated to Pappy Van Winkle based products and those are only popular because the bourbon community stokes the fires of interest in that name and those products. 

Enemies make strange bedfellows but let us hold out hope that one day we can all just get along.Until that day, lets continue the hunt and maybe someone reading this article will get lucky at a raffle this year and walk away with your own bottle of that beloved Pappy. Cheers!