Hirsch 13yo Rye

[MikeK]

I've got a bottle of Hirsch 13yo Rye in the bunker. I believe it is essentially Van Winkle 13yo Rye that Julian bottled for the Hirsch label a few years back.

What I've been wondering is at what age was it actually bottled at? For instance, the original VW 13yo rye was actually 13 years old when it first came out, but subsequent bottlings are actually older than that.

Where in the timeline did the Hirsch variant come out?

Thanks,

[cowdery]

I can't confirm any of that but I can tell you that the Hirsch Rye was not made at Pennco/Michters.

[bluesbassdad]

Apparently I bought my lone bottle of Hirsch 13 y/o rye in December 2002 -- if that helps you establish a correlation with one of the VWFRR releases.

Yours truly,

Dave Morefield

[dgonano]

If the label was made for a 13yr rye, then the first bottling must have been at that age. I don't believe Julian bottled the rye for too many years, perhaps 2 or 3. Dave mentioned 2002 as his purchase date and that seems to fit the timeline.

IIRC the whiskey was Julian's and bottled at the same proof as VWFR 13yr.

I read somewhere that the Hirsch bottlings were single barrel, but the label doesn't indicate such.

[dgonano]

I did find the article which stated that the rye was from single casks.....but it may not be accurate.

Julian posted on this site back in 2003 that he would start some runs with the Preiss bottlings( Hirsch Selection Rye) then finish the run with VWFR Rye.

Other batches were done for either HS Rye or VWFR Rye. He had discontinued the HS due to the popularity of VWFR and his depleting stock.

So the rye must have been 13 or 14 yr whiskey if he only did a few bottlings.

[MikeK]

OK, I did some more searching, and I typed in a bunch of info, but submit timed out and I lost my typing. To re-summarize, I think the Hirsch variant is about 15/16 years old, while the current VWFRR is 19 years old.

Cheers,

[cowdery]

Many things Julian has bottled are single barrel even though they don't say so, simply because the whole bottling run was the contents of one barrel.

[jvanwinkle]

I first bottled the Hirsch rye in Jan. of 1998. It was bottled from the same bottling tank as my 13-year rye-so it was the same whiskey. Not a single barrel, although sometimes I only bottled 1 barrel at a time. All the whiskey was distilled in either 1984 or '85. So when my rye & the Hirsch were first bottled, they were 13 yesars old. Each subsequent bottling was of older whiskey. I did the final bottling of Hirsch in Jan. of 2001. So it could have been as old as 16 or 17 years.

[MikeK]

Thanks Julian.

Is there any indication on the label or bottle of which year it was? Or do they all say batch 00-01? (or something to that effect)

Thanks!

[luv2hunt]

Mine says Lot 00-1

Dawn

[jvanwinkle]

Sorry. I can't help as far as when each bottle was filled according to the label numbers. It was hard enough coming up with when the first bottle of Hirsch Rye was filled. Had no computers in L'burg. All record were, and are still, kept on paper which I thankfully kept.

Any info I gave Chuck for his A.H. Hirsch article were from these same old records.

[MikeK]

Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions Julian. I'm sure the rye will be delicious.

Cheers,