Pappy Van Winkle Wrests Control Back Over Their Prices

An April 1st The Whiskey Reviewer Exclusive With Julian van Winkle III

By Richard Thomas

Today Julian van Winkle III, head of the Van Winkle whiskey brand, announced today that he would take advantage of changes made in Kentucky law late last year and sell all van Winkle whiskeys directly to consumers.

“For a long time now, buying a bottle of Van Winkle whiskey has been a matter of having the right connections, paying an outrageously inflated price, or both. Some folks are lucky and win a lottery or raffle. Now I can get around all that nonsense, and make sure of two things: the price on the bottle I set is what people pay; and the folks who want it the most will get it.”

The Van Winkle name has become associated with high age statements and high quality whiskey in the 21st Century, but increasingly so in the last decade. An annual release of the six Van Winkle expressions might total just 83,000 bottles all told, and these bottles are so fiercely pursued by collectors, enthusiasts and bar owners that retail prices have inflated many, many times over the official asking price named by the company. Pappy Van Winkle 15 Year Old Bourbon, the brand’s middle rung expression, is officially priced at $119.99 per bottle. According to Wine-Searcher.com, the average price to obtain that bottle on demand with a retailer is $2,564. Moreover, those bottles are so sought after that “Pappy Hunting” has become an annual sport among bourbon fans.

“The first thing we are doing,” Van Winkle continued, “is raise prices. It has done my blood pressure no favors over the years to ask $100 or $200 a bottle, only for some liquor store owner in Chicago to jack that price up 25 times over. I never got a dime from that price gouging. So, effective with the 2021 releases, all Van Winkle prices will double. But, and this is a big but, those new prices are what people will actually pay.”

“I will ensure that by selling all bottles myself. Kentucky has legalized Direct To Consumer sales, but only 46 states out of the 50 allow consumers to actually receive those liquor parcels. After all the shenanigans that have gone on with the sale of my product, I decided the fairest thing was to sell out the door from my property in Lawrenceburg [Kentucky] on a first-come, first-serve basis.”

When asked if he thought people would camp out for a chance to acquire a bottle, van Winkle said, “Of course they will. Autumn is pretty nice here in Kentucky. I reckon when the pandemic is over, we’ll have the Burning Man of Bourbon going on in Lawrenceburg.”

Retailers and bar owners who have had good connections with their distributors and regular, reliable access to Pappy van Winkle whiskeys, have been been vocal in their complaints. One bar owner, who wished to remain anonymous, complained to The Whiskey Reviewer, “I was putting my kids through college selling Pappy 23 [year old] to morons for $300 a shot. Now what the [expletive] am I supposed to do?”