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Old Rip Van Winkle Bourbon – A Legendary Revival of Premium Bourbon
The Old Rip Van Winkle brand was a pre-Prohibition era bourbon brand that was revived by the Van Winkle family after the board forced them to sell their Stitzel-Weller distillery.
The new owners, Somerset Imports, allowed Julian Van Winkle II (son of the famous "Pappy") to continue using an office at the distillery and first opportunity to purchase casks to bottle his new brand.
When he died and the business passed to his son Julian III, this service was no longer extended and he moved the bottling to the old Hoffman Distillery in Lawrenceburg in 1983 and renamed it Old Commonwealth.
However, he was still able to purchase Stitzel-Weller stock and introduced the famous Pappy Van Winkle line as a tribute to his grandfather, using well-aged casks from the distillery that the now-legendary once so lovingly presided over.
When Stitzel-Weller was closed by United Distillers in 1992, it was only a matter of time before the stocks would be depleted. This necessitated a partnership between Julian Van Winkle III and the Buffalo Trace distillery in 2002, with all bottling moved there, initially with the remaining Stitzel-Weller casks, which were eventually replaced by Buffalo Trace distilled lager. The all-time product is highly regarded, and the brand is considered the first premium bourbon line to be produced in the United States.
