Van Winkle and BT

[sku]

Can someone help me through the morass of ownership and distilleries related to the various Van Winkles (Old Rip, Pappy, etc.)

I understand that some are made at Van Winkle and others at BT. Which are which and why, etc?

I'd be greatful to figure any of this out. Thanks.

[HighTower]

All are bottled at BT. (In the Blanton's bottling hall, IIRC. Some of the bourbons (Pappy 20 and Pappy 23 at least) come from Old Fitz barrels from Stitzel Weller. Not sure if this bourbon is currently stored at BT or elsewhere, but I believe any juice left from SW stock would be in excess of 15 years old and would be used in the future for Pappy 20 and 23. The other juice is a wheated bourbon being produced by BT.

There's plenty of people on here that could go into more detail than that.

Scott

[sku]

So are all the current 20/23 yos not wheaters?

[barturtle]

All current Van Winkle bourbons are wheated. Only the original batches of the 20 and 23 weren't.

The Old Fitz/Weller mashbill is a wheated one, and that is where the VW line started.

When Diageo/UDV sold out most of their KY holdings, and stopped the production of wheated bourbon, the Van Winkles had to find someone who was going to continue to produce it, in doing so they teamed up with BT who had at one time been part of the UDV/Schenley portfolio and had done some distilling of the wheated mashbill.

That's probably the most vastly simplified version of it, if you want more info just ask.