Van Winkle Family Reserve 13 rye

[Attila]

The first US release of VWFRR was in 1999. That was the "A" bottling at 14 y/o

I wonder how different the new A Label VWFRR is from the the unlettered series still available here in Japan.

ACDetroit, what say you?

[BourbonJoe]

I wonder how different the new A Label VWFRR is from the the unlettered series still available here in Japan.

[Attila]

Small world. Our club got No. 1057 to share a couple weeks ago. A free taste of it recruited a couple more members. It's really so excellent.

This is amazing drink. I have gone thru more of these than any other whisky.

[Edward_call_me_Ed]

Atilla, Edo, do you guys find this on the shelves where you are? I have never found VWFRR 13 up here in Sapporo, but have been able to order it on line.

Amazing whiskey, isn't it? All I have of it right now is 300 ml that I decanted into a well rinsed shochu bottle last winter, I think. I will have to order more and open the bottle I already have. It isn't doing me any good inside a bottle.

Ed

[Attila]

Its on rakuten.com (particularly Kawachiya) for 4,000 yen. Some guy keeps trying to sell some at auction for 7,000 yen, though.

Atilla, Edo, do you guys find this on the shelves where you are? I have never found VWFRR 13 up here in Sapporo, but have been able to order it on line.

Amazing whiskey, isn't it? All I have of it right now is 300 ml that I decanted into a well rinsed shochu bottle last winter, I think. I will have to order more and open the bottle I already have. It isn't doing me any good inside a bottle.

Ed

[Attila]

I got mine through Kawachiya, too. I was just about to order more, but ...

http://www.rakuten.co.jp/kawachi/428639/449867/449882/#404992

dammit. There is no more.

The numbers should have been a tip off. We bought #1057 to share. I bought #1055 for personal use. Attila mentioned he had #1053 and #1051 is in the Kawachiya photo.

Is it possible there were only 10 bottles ever shipped to Japan?

The horror!

A lot more than 10. I am sure.

[Edward_call_me_Ed]

To reduce the effect, if any, of air on the whiskey during long term storage. There is some debate on whether there is an effect and if that is necessarily a bad thing. Rather than leave a couple of fingers rye in the bottom of a bottle I decanted it while the bottle was still freshly opened. I didn't think I would be able to get it again, at least not soon. That was at least a year ago. The pour I had the other day was very nice! Unfortunately, it is a 200 ml bottle, not a 300 ml bottle as I had thought.

I bought my bottles, I think I got two, from http://www.sake-brutus.com/ If I hadn't been underemployed at the time I would have tried to clean them out.

They don't have any VWFRR 13 listed now, But they do have VW Olde Time Rye 12 yo. I had a bottle of that and it was wonderful, but not as good as the VWFRR 13 in my opinion. I have never had any of the VWFRR 13 yo that contain older rye.

Ed

[Attila]

I informed the master

:lol: You go to some kinky places, dude!!! :lol:

[nor02lei]

This excellent brand seems very difficult to find here in Europe nowadays. I have been looking for it quit a wile but failed.

Leif

[barturtle]

This excellent brand seems very difficult to find here in Europe nowadays. I have been looking for it quit a wile but failed.

Leif

The brand seems to be highly allocated, it's getting hard to find even in Kentucky.

[Old Lamplighter]

I believe it has been widely allocated. In my travels around various parts of Tennessee via my job this year, I have seen very few. Where I have seen it, never seen more than 2 on the shelf. I suppose Julian is having to spread fewer and fewer each year as supply is running lower with every bottling. Wonder how much is left? BT should be close to having some ready for him in the next 2-3 years I would think.....of course, with a higher price tag......better grab these 18-19 yr old bargains whenever we can!

[callmeox]

I believe it has been widely allocated. In my travels around various parts of Tennessee via my job this year, I have seen very few. Where I have seen it, never seen more than 2 on the shelf. I suppose Julian is having to spread fewer and fewer each year as supply is running lower with every bottling. Wonder how much is left? BT should be close to having some ready for him in the next 2-3 years I would think.....of course, with a higher price tag......better grab these 18-19 yr old bargains whenever we can!

IIRC, the rye has been tanked for a number of years, so isn't it still "just" a 13 year old rye?

[barturtle]

IIRC, the rye has been tanked for a number of years, so isn't it still "just" a 13 year old rye?

[callmeox]

Ahh, I didn't realize that it was beyond it's labeled age when tanked.

Thanks for the info, Timothy.

[Lost Pollito]

Check out post #41 on this thread. From the Man himself. :grin:

[Attila]

the last bottle available.

I just found a shop that sells it from Rakuten. Cheap too.

[barturtle]

I just found a shop that sells it from Rakuten. Cheap too.

:cool:

[Old Lamplighter]

Check out post #41 on this thread. From the Man himself. :grin:

What got my attention was the last sentence from the Man in post #41. Anyhow, I cannot say enough good & great things about this rye. It is the only rye I keep going back to again & again.......and plan to buy as much as I can while I can!

[Old Lamplighter]

Anyone with the newest "AA" bottles notice any change from the previous offerings from the last year or two? Just curious. Someone commented here about the newer/newest Saz 18 as well as Hirsch being different due to the stainless steel storage. I am curious if this might affect the VWFRR as well since it has been stored the same way for the last 5-6 years. If so, I am thinking of going back and getting 2 more of the "I" bottles @ $49.99 each that I ran across back before the holidays.......that is, if they are still there.

Probably not a bad idea to get them anyway since the price is going up yearly and supply is finite.

[Rughi]

In thinking about this further, I realized that Sam's in Chicago has had a private Saz Jr. 10 y.o. for close to two years now. That means Buffalo Trace has at least 12 year old rye juice sitting in some barrels for Julian.

Now that I'm on this, I sure would like to see a mid-aged Rye out there in the market.

I would sooo love to have a new VW 12yo Old Tyme Rye to stand alongside the Family Reserve "13yo" (19yo tanked). It would also be a great way for the legions of VW faithful to start their tastebuds segueing from the Bernheim/Medley juice to the BT juice to come.

Using Fussychicken' spreadsheet (love the whiskey and spreadsheets!) we won't get the BT juice in the Family Reserve until 2017, when the allocated stainless juice sunsets itself.

I thought I remembered, but didn't find in the archives, a passage where Julian wrote about working with BT to tailor his products to profiles he prefers. I think this would have been about recapturing the SW wheater as much as possible, though, not really the rye (which I believe Julian has said that SW never made). Perhaps 2017 is just 13 years after the BT/VW agreement, which I believe was in 2003

Thirsty for that mid-aged rye,

Roger

[fussychicken]

Perhaps 2017 is just 13 years after the BT/VW agreement, which I believe was in 2003

Thanks for the kind words Roger. This is the juicy thread that has most all of the VWFRR details that I used to make the chart.

And since Julian stated that he "wanted to keep you guys on your toes!!" I decided to update my little sheet. Attached is the new one.

And Julian, you almost gave me a heart attack a couple of months ago. You can only imagine how freaked out I was when I started to see what I thought were original A bottles popping up! :bigeyes:

[Attila]

A nostalgic

[nor02lei]

Thanks for the kind words Roger. This is the juicy thread that has most all of the VWFRR details that I used to make the chart.

And since Julian stated that he "wanted to keep you guys on your toes!!" I decided to update my little sheet. Attached is the new one.

And Julian, you almost gave me a heart attack a couple of months ago. You can only imagine how freaked out I was when I started to see what I thought were original A bottles popping up! :bigeyes:

Steve,

Hm…..The B bottle got a Frankfurt bottling on the label and van Winkle did not join BT until 2002. As I understand it is a fact on this forum that all the old Medley is from 84 or 85 stock. That would make the B bottle at least 17 years old (probably older) and if there were no Lawrenceburg bottles with higher letters than A the whole list would be wrong.

Please correct me if I am wrong, I am just speculating.

Leif

[fussychicken]

Hi Leif,

I was going off of the above post, and this one, as to the age of the rye. My understanding is that the labels changed around 2004.

[Luna56]

A nostalgic, but rather sad scene. A couple old brother soldiers in the twighlight of life.