The topic of Stitzel Weller (SW) and what’s left keeps coming up. Steve Grady asks me on twitter regarding Jefferson 25 Year Bourbon “@stevengrady: Do we know where the juice is from? SW or elsewhere?” It’s a loaded question which leads to another question “of does it matter”? Why answer on twitter what can turn into a long blog post right?
I will preface this with I can offer a knowledgable guess. First and foremost as I’ve eluded to on twitter there is a magic clue in today’s American whiskey to narrow where it’s from. There is an implied taste/value and therefore marketing advantage in the legal designation of a “Kentucky Straight Bourbon”. Unlike the lax federal codes/enforcement ignoring brands using Canadian Rye as “Domestic”, the Commonwealth of Kentucky isn’t as forgiving. If you say it’s Kentucky it better be. If it doesn’t say Kentucky it almost never is. The Jefferson 25 Bourbon never uses Kentucky as it did with others such as the 17/18 year Bourbon. If a bourbon is 25 years old and not from Kentucky than there are a few possibilities. Since Jack Daniels and Dickel follow the rules for the bourbon designation it’s by choice and the fact they have a “Lincoln County” process of filtering through several feet of Maple Charcoal that makes them different so it’s their choice to use Tennessee Whisky and not Bourbon. If someone were to choose to call sourced Dickel barrels Bourbon I guess you could. There are old Dickel barrels floating around as I noted in a recent posting. The other suspect is MGPI of Indiana. I don’t think there are any other non-Kentucky possibilities. This brings up my question of does SW matter and why or why not? So let’s dive into this one.
The Van Winkle’s spent more time and effort securing SW barrels than anyone. They were and are the best in consistently having phenomenal product bottled year after year with much credit now going to the Buffalo Trace team. Since the family was forced to sell SW in 1971 they shortly thereafter began to contract and commission the SW/Old Fitzgerald Distillery (as it was later known as before changed back) to make Whiskey for them to be used in not only the reestablished Van Winkle brand but many other labels they had and created in the 1980’s and 1990’s. Once SW shut down for good around 1991/92 the future supply ceases. As late as 2012 Michters/Chatham Imports had some SW barrels owned by KBD bottled for them and was released as a 20 year. The 2013 bottling isn’t KBD or believed to be SW nor is it very good.
Jefferson’s post 18 year bottling’s haven’t been SW and word is they do not own anymore decent (if any) SW barrels.
I’ve been told by some places still owning SW barrels that what they have left have gone so far south they can’t even be used in an average blend for a branded label fearing ruining the batch.
This romance of age in American Whiskey isn’t as glamorous as with Scotch. Age is almost never a Bourbon’s friend beyond 10-15 years. If and when it is, the extra age often doesn’t improve the whiskey it just doesn’t ruin it in very very rare circumstances. When you deal with a Stitzel Weller it must now be at least 21 years in the barrel (unless tanked or already bottled). As noted, no one knew nor nurtured old SW barrels more expertly than the Van Winkles and by extension Buffalo Trace. In differing interviews Julian Van Winkle stated that all the remaining barrels of SW were bottled a couple years ago before they were too far gone. His son Preston more recently said that 2013 was the last year of their SW barrels. I’ll go with what Julian said since frequent conflicts/double speak of not getting their stories consistent is common. In either case unless something surprising happens, the 2013 release of 23 was announced to be the last 100% SW by them. Since this hasn’t sunk in to the vast number of Pappy lovers and Pappy lover wannabes, current 23 values and rarity will explode even more so (if that’s possible) as time goes on.
I’ve had 28 year old Willett and 28 Hirsch Selection Bourbon. Others have tasted it with me and few think their not super woody, and none feel better than a nice 10-15 year old. Very few bourbon aficionados prefer Van Winkle 23 over 15 or 20 year. The mystique of the silent distilleries of Single Malt places such as Brora, Port Ellen, Kariizawawa etc have at least caused, if not created the Stitizel Weller momentum. Single Malt can get better and more expensive as it gets older. Bourbon reaches a point of no return that in super rare circumstances that barrels haven’t gotten much worse or undrinkable. They don’t get better after peaking. In a few blog posts such as “Honey I’m home” I get into it more globally. Drilling down to famed American silent distillery legends none have an equal to Stitzel Weller although super geeks can argue Old Bernhiem and such are as good or better. So when the Jefferson Brand pops up with Stitzel Weller barrels a few years back at the perfect time of the start of the Pappy craze it blows up and it has.
The later Jefferson 18 year old batches at the end of the bottlings (supposedly still from SW) were not even close to the quality/taste of the 17 year and earlier 18 bottlings.

One could, start to draw some conclusions that that the “good stuff” is all gone.
At the 2013 New York Whiskyfest Ewan Morgan, Master of Whisky for Diageo (current owner of the SW warehouses, remaining stocks and the closed SW distillery) says there are still good barrels left. I forgot his exact term but he implied there was a decent amount of SW distilled/aged barrels left and brought a sample for tasting to show it off. I’ve got no idea what went into selecting this barrel. Was it one of 100, the closest to the elevator? All I know is if they were trying to show it off it wasn’t too successful. There wasn’t much wow or buzz. With loads of Whiskey media and press attending the seminar, I can’t say a very positive review stands out in my mind. If that’s among the best of what’s left, it’s not encouraging.
Diageo’s Bulleit brand of Bourbon uses Four Roses for its source and MGPI in Indiana for its Rye source. It’s been recently widely reported that Four Roses can’t support Bulleit’s supply needs so they are getting cut off at some point. It’s thought that the warehouses at SW have plenty of Four Roses aging so who knows what or when it stops.
Then this pops up in the news from the Diageo CEO (excerpt taken from Chuck Cowdery from publicly released news) “The goal of The Orphan Barrel Whiskey Project is to share old and rare whiskey from our barrel houses with discerning whiskey adorers. The first two whiskies to be released from the project will include the 20-year-old Barterhouse and the 26-year-aged Old Blowhard. Both are American Kentucky Bourbons, hand bottled in Tullahoma Tennessee and are expected to begin appearing on select shelves throughout the U.S. in early 2014 under strict allocation due to limited supply.” Is this SW bottled barrels? No definitive word yet if ever.

So getting back to the question; Is the Jefferson 25 SW, no. If it were its only usefulness I fear would be for nostalgia not superiority or even a WOW factor. That’s “If” it’s really 25 years old to begin with. It’s not like there are hard evidentiary pieces of proof or inspections going on of this stuff. No one in the mainstream or Whisky press seems to want to dip their toe into this hot potato time bomb of an issue, no one!! I’ve heard things. Been told things by people I trust in absolute “in the know” positions. I’ve been emailed some of the “Where’s Waldo” treasure map of where to poke around for this dark place of proof. Is it a dirty little secret yet to become fact? Where it brings me back to is that 15 year SW Pappy will beat 20 or 23 blind most of the time. If it’s important to find and buy a drinkable 25 or 30 year bottle of SW one has to keep in mind that your not buying the best, just oldest. If your buying an old bone of a famous racehorse it’s value is as a souvenir, a trophy of past greatness but it’s never going to be in a position to run let alone win a race. If a 40 Year old SW barrel was found to have anything in it other than goo, and it was bottled, I say never open it. Treat it like art. Display it, stroke and caress it, but if you drink it I’d be curious but not encouraged.