Appreciating Van Winkle

[DrinkyBanjo]

Well the problem is two fold. Yes, conservation efforts have allowed the deer population to flourish therefore their numbers are very, very high.

The second issue is that New Jersey is developing every inch of available land and the deer have nowhere else to go.

[luv2hunt]

(1) would this be the Bernheim or the SW product ? (2) a search did not reveal any comparative 'tasting notes' for both variations of this product, do any of you 'taster's have such notes and/or can you share opinions even if not side-by-side ?

Let's see if I can get this right for you. The Bernheim Lot B was bottled for the first time in July of 2005. I doubt that you got a Bernheim bottling if you took delivery in August of 2005. Yours is most likely SW....but NO guarantee. (Keep in mind that it had to go through a distributor, who would most likely have been moving stock in the warehouse first...to replace with the new)

To my knowledge, no one has posted a tasting comparison. Julian claims it's "damn fine whiskey".

Dawn

[Tricky]

Dawn - many thanks for your response .... and yes, it is a "damn fine whiskey".l

Let's see if I can get this right for you. The Bernheim Lot B was bottled for the first time in July of 2005. I doubt that you got a Bernheim bottling if you took delivery in August of 2005. Yours is most likely SW....but NO guarantee. (Keep in mind that it had to go through a distributor, who would most likely have been moving stock in the warehouse first...to replace with the new)

To my knowledge, no one has posted a tasting comparison. Julian claims it's "damn fine whiskey".

Dawn

[Virus_Of_Life]

Just a little note here, I think I bought my bottle in February of this year which could make it Bern. or leftover SW, but that would have been sitting quite a while for a place like BevMo that does move a decent amount of Lot B from what I have seen. Honestly this doesn't hit me as being a SW whiskey, I am NO expert by any means but I swear I notice a similarity between all the known SW that I have tasted which honestly isn't a lot but a few. Anyway the point here is that my Lot B is quite different than say ORVW15 or Pappy15, but every bit as good, just different...

[gr8erdane]

In all the bottlings of Lot B I've had, with Randy's single barrel Van Blankle being at the apex of them, I've seldom found much similarity with the other Van Winkle offerings. I've always enjoyed it immensely because it is SO different on my palette than any other bourbons I've tasted, including its siblings.

[Sijan]

The Bernheim Lot B was bottled for the first time in July of 2005.

So July 2005 was just the bottling date? Hmmm, somehow I had the impression that it had entered distribution in July 2005.

I bought a bottle last summer in Virginia, don't recall exactly when, though it was probably the first half of the summer. I was considering going through my receipts to see if I could figure out exactly when I bought it to see if I could verify that it was S-W Lot B. But it sounds like that may be unnecessary if the new stuff didn't really enter distribution until the fall.

When I picked up that bottle, incidentally, there were at least a dozen more with it and I briefly considered buying a case, but figured there seemed to be so much available that there was no need to hoard. Am kicking myself now over that.

Of course, I haven't had the new stuff yet, so I don't know if it's any better, worse, or different. And, unfortunately, I'm not sure how I can buy a bottle off a store shelf now and know whether it's new or old for taste-testing purposes.

I do have an open pre-July 2005 bottle that I bought a couple years ago, so I could try to taste test to determine new/old, but that's not really an efficient way to do things (not learning what you bought until afterwards, when you've opened it).

[BourbonJoe]

I do have an open pre-July 2005 bottle that I bought a couple years ago, so I could try to taste test to determine new/old, but that's not really an efficient way to do things (not learning what you bought until afterwards, when you've opened it).

Dan,
Then how are you going to tell? Julian Van Winkle told me that there is a difference in profile between the two but the new stuff was still "damn fine whiskey". I know that I personally have a case of the old SW whiskey, based on when I bought it.
Joe

[jburlowski]

Dan,
Julian Van Winkle told me ... the new stuff was still "damn fine whiskey". Joe

good enough for me.

[Sijan]

Dan,
Then how are you going to tell?
Joe

Joe, I imagine it would be efficient if I just bought one bottle, but what if I want to get several, or what if I want to be sure I have one version or the other before I buy it? How do I ensure that I am getting a new bottle before I open it?

If a customer determines that they prefer one version to the other, it's difficult for them to bear the burden of buying random bottles, tasting them, and regretting the purchase of some of them.