The Van Winkle name is the E.F. Hutton of today’s bourbon market – say it in a room of bourbon drinkers, and everyone listens. Or, put another way, say it in a blog post or message board, and everyone has an opinion. Even Justin Timberlake name dropped the Van Winkle brand’s “Pappy” line in a recent interview (while simultaneously showing that he knows as much about whiskey as I know about bringing sexy back).
What invariably gets lots in the hype over the label is what’s actually inside the bottle. How does this stuff taste, anyway? And is there any variation from year-to-year?
We decided to review the Old Rip Van Winkle 10 Year and the Van Winkle Family Reserve “Lot B” 12 Year releases from 2016 and 2017. The main purpose of which was to see whether these coveted bourbons have any variation between their annual releases.
