BAWC

Issue No. 142 —

Pappy Van Winkle’s Family Reserve

Pappy_Bourbon

This review is based on the col­lec­tive notes from a Bal­ti­more Amer­i­can Whiskey Club (BAWC) tast­ing con­duct­ed on Dec. 6th, 2014. Attend­ing mem­bers were Josh Sul­li­van, PJ Sul­li­van, Owen Lang, Justin Custer, Devin Byrnes & Steven Sil­berg. Writ­ten by PJ Sullivan.

Dis­tillery: Buf­fa­lo Trace Distillery

Proof: 107

Age: 15 years

Col­or: Bur­nished (1.2)

Price: $150

Well, we were lucky enough to get our hands on a bot­tle of Pap­py Van Win­kle’s Fam­i­ly Reserve 15 year, which some say is the best of the prod­uct line. It was­n’t an easy task secur­ing a bot­tle; that’s for sure. This wheat­ed bour­bon line has a cult-like fol­low­ing. The craze got its start in 1996 when Van Win­kle 20 year was sub­mit­ted to the pres­ti­gious Bev­er­age Tast­ing Insti­tute. It received an unheard of rat­ing of 99 out of 100. It snow­balled from there, get­ting endorse­ments from Antho­ny Bour­dain, David Chang, Sean Brock, and even Bill Cos­by. It’s not uncom­mon to see bot­tles marked up to $500 or even $1,000. And to think, Pap­py’s busi­ness phi­los­o­phy was: “At a prof­it if we can, at a loss if we must, but always fine bour­bon.” I don’t think they’re hav­ing any issues in the way of prof­its these days; but, just because it’s pop­u­lar does­n’t mean it’s good. So we sat down and sipped some.

Nose: This has a real­ly pleas­ing nose. We were pick­ing up marsh­mal­low, tof­fee, vanil­la, coco, cher­ry, dried fruit, and brown but­ter. There’s a lot of charred oak as well; which, had us think­ing of cher­ry fla­vored pipe smoke.

Palate: It’s but­tery thick and coats the mouth with vanil­la, almond, and dried fruit. This might sound weird, but, the palate expe­ri­ence ends with a very dry oak and graphite fla­vor… pencil-like.

Fin­ish: The fin­ish is almost too smooth for a 107 proof bour­bon. The robust oak fla­vor lingers in the mouth for a very long time. It sticks with you through thick and thin.

Flavor-Wheel-Pappy-15-yr (1)

In a Word: Savory

Con­clu­sion: Pap­py Van Win­kle 15 year is top of its class. We have yet to taste a bet­ter wheat­ed bour­bon. It’s worth every pen­ny at $150 (not $500+). From the nose to the fin­ish it knocks it out of the park. What more can be said? It real­ly does live up to the hype.

For me per­son­al­ly, it’s a lit­tle too smooth. I pre­fer whiskies with a bit more fight to them. Wheat­ed bour­bons don’t get me excit­ed because they usu­al­ly lack char­ac­ter. Don’t get me wrong though, this bour­bon is absolute­ly fan­tas­tic. It’s just a per­son­al pref­er­ence thing for me. I’ll reach for George T. Stagg over Pap­py Van Win­kle. But that’s some great com­pa­ny to keep.

Rat­ing: 5 out of 5 Stars

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