Van Winkle 12 Year Special Reserve

[Joeluka]

I know everybody said that there was never a "Lot A" but if you go to the website www.cocktaildb.com and go to the gallery of different bourbons. They have a picture of a Van Winkle Lot A. Here is a link to the picture.....

http://www.cocktaildb.com/ingr_galleryDetail?id=415&assetID=933

I dont know much about the bottle but there it is. This is the post for all the pictures in there bourbon gallery.....

http://www.cocktaildb.com/ingr_gallery?id=415

If you go to their ingredients tab and then pick different types of spirits they have all kinds of pictures in each gallery.

Sorry to rock the boat on this one.

[barturtle]

Hmm, interesting find there.

I'm wondering if that 1979 date will also correspond with the "green glass" Pappy 20 and 23 that were both rye-based bourbon. I'm not sure of the release dates on these but it seems close to what i recall.

[SBOmarc]

Lot B has been plentiful in these parts since early spring. Managed to find 8 on the shelf at a local spot known for a good, but not great inventory. I could only buy 4 of them but last visit there were 2 left.

[photogjunkie]

Now you have me thirsty. I just finished off my bottle of ORVW 107 this weekend, and right up the street is a bottle (reduced even to $28) of Lot B 12yr...man...I need to seperate want from need.

[gothbat]

They have a picture of a Van Winkle Lot A. Here is a link to the picture.....

http://www.cocktaildb.com/ingr_galleryDetail?id=415&assetID=933

Wow, good find! I remember hearing several times that there was no Lot A but I guess there is. All I can say is I want one! Guess I'm a few years too late. :/

[bluesbassdad]

I remember hearing several times that there was no Lot A . . .

I am at least complicit in spreading that belief. I would have sworn that Julian himself said it here. I must be mistaken.

On the other side of the question I know he has said here that he has done so many special bottlings over the years that he may not recall the details of each and every one at a second's notice. That is not to say that Lot A was necessarily a special bottling; Lot B certainly is not.

Addendum: I had hoped to find an exchange of PM's between Julian and me on the subject of the names he has applied to his bottlings. Unfortunately, I must have deleted them when the SB forum was moved to new software. As I recall, I asked a series of ever-more-penetrating questions, perhaps to the point of taking excessive advantage of his good nature. Eventually he responded something to the effect that I was giving the matter more thought than he ever had. :blush: :grin: What an elegant way to end an exchange that was becoming tedious!

Yours truly,

Dave Morefield

[gothbat]

I remember a post, I think it was by Julian, that said there was no lot a. In an effort to find it I found a contradictory post. See here.

[jvanwinkle]

Yes, I did a "Lot A" bottling. It was in the 80's. It was the first 12-year label we bottled. Once that lot of whiskey, distilled 1979, was gone, we went to "Lot B". All "Lot A" was S/W whiskey.

As you all know, it has stayed that way.

Julian