These prices are obscene. Today's Pappy is a cleverly marketed Buffalo Trace "Stitzel-Weller clone". The old whisky that made Pappy something unique is long gone. I mean how many barrels of old Stitzel-Weller were there and after all these years how much can possibly be left? I have had a lot of the Van Winkle line and they are good. The original release of these bourbons were outstanding and continued to be so for a few years. The unique thing with Pappy was that it was a wheater and there were some old barrels of whisky left when the Stitzel-Weller distillery was sold by the Van Winkle family. Pappy's grandson, Julian, bottled this old whisky and it was an overnight sensation. Release and distribution was very carefully controlled and it reached a cult following very quickly. The fact of the matter is there is not much aged bourbon out there anymore. More and more you see bourbons with NO AGE statement. All of the BTAC proudly had age statements on them. I have a bottle of BTAC William Larue Weller that proudly states it is 19 years old. I have bottles from 2011 that have no age statement. The fact is these old bourbons for the most part have been bottled, sold and consumed. The present bourbon boom took care of all of that old whisky and distillers had to improvise. There was something special about that old pot still in the old Stitzel-Weller distillery but it is no more. Pappy is made at Heaven Hills now. Larceny and Weller reserve, Old Weller Antique(best bourbon for the money one can buy IMHO) and Heaven Hills will give you a sense of what these old wheaters from Stitzel-Weller tasted like. They do not have the bouquet or the woodiness of the old Stitzel-Weller but they are good none the less and one can afford to drink them. Just my opinion. I intend to drink every drop of the Van Winkles that I have and except for a 20 year old that I paid $105 dollars for in 2007 all were considerably south of $100. Hell over at OLH someone is selling Old Rip Van Winkle 10 year old 107 for $300 a bottle. My gosh when I moved to Tennessee 10 years ago these was readily available at $32.99 a bottle. All of this being said the Van Winkle line is excellent and any bourbon lover would enjoy it BUT common sense would not let me fully enjoy a $32.99 bottle of bourbon that cost me $300. I'll drink Old Weller Antique and save the Van Winkle for guests that have never had it. Sorry for the rant.
