ORVW 12 year old bourbon

[kitzg]

JVW has a wonderful nack for picking barrels. All of his (the Van Winkle label) products are premium and superb.

-- Greg

[Gillman]

Fully agreed, in that there seems almost a "house" taste to ORVW whiskey, no doubt the result of selecting barrels to a defined spectrum of flavours/characteristics and even though the whiskeys are obtained from different sources.

I would ask the Van Winkles or other knowledgeable posters, to summarise the situation regarding the sourcing of the ORVW whiskeys past and present. I know there were posts on this subject lately but some were compressed and I am trying to understand the full picture.

Do I have it right to say:

(i) some ORVW whiskey came from the distillery (Stitzel-Weller) sold by the VW family to a large concern (Diageo?) in the early 1970's or the new plant (Bernheim?) subsequently built by that purchaser, i.e., under a manufacturing agreement in either case?;

(ii) some whiskey came from the now defunct Old Commonwealth distillery; and

(iii) future bottlings (whether bourbon or rye) will come only from Buffalo Trace, with which ORVW concluded a joint venture last year.

Does this state the position correctly? If so, what is the ownership tree of Old Commonwealth, and why did it close? If not, what are the true facts?

Thanks.

Gary

[kitzg]

I will let JVW or KW of BT tell as much as they want. But what I can set you straight on is that the Old Commonwealth "distillery" was a bottling operation. So no whiskey was produced or aged at OCW. I also believe there is a good supply of the whiskey (the same stuff for now) to assure us of plenty of ORVW products. When those barrels are finally exhausted, BT can supply product from the same mashbill. There simply is no room for the Old Commonwealth label any more.

The Stitzel-Weller distillery was sold to United which became Diageo. The distillery sits idle now. It is a part of bourbon history.


The bad news for me is that the ORVW 107 proof 10-year costs a lot more locally than Old Commonwealth did (far more than the $19.99 price in Chicago at my last check).

-- Greg