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little glass and plastic bottles, "barrel samples" from years ago. He calls them "blue cappers" or "pocket whiskey." Julian once gave one to Tompson, which is why the writer calls Julian "Pappy Claus." On one label, the "J" stands for the 10th month. So "94-J-20" means the whiskey went into a barrel on Oct. 20, 1994. Te one labeled "86-D-02" (April 2, 1986) came out of the barrel on Oct. 5, 2009, at 7:22 a.m., which means it's 23-year-old bourbon. "I just hate to throw it away because the whiskey is so good," Julian says. "So it's just taking up space." Julian takes a swig from the bottle. "Ooh," he says. "Taste good?" I ask. "Real good," he says. "It's got a little heat to it because it's barrel proof " — meaning it hasn't been "cut" with distilled water. He hands me the bottle. More sophisticated palates than mine recognize many favors: caramel, vanilla, chocolate, mint, pecans, apple, fg, tobacco, molasses, tofee. Smoothest thing I've ever tasted; I've had water with a more vicious bite. On a hunting trip in Arkansas one time, Julian says, some guys tried to mix it with Diet Mountain Dew. Sinners. He pours some of the Stitzel-Weller stuf into a snifter. It's six-year-old whiskey, bottled in 1969. Julian sips it. "Oxidized a bit, but it's damn good," he says. "Tat's the smell. Brings you back." night. A toddy before dinner. He hooked a contraption to his English setter — But Always Fine Bourbon refers to the dog as Tunder, the back of the current 20-year-old bottle as Buck — so Tunder/Buck could be his caddy. He'd hunt quail and doves in a feld at the distillery. Sally remembers her grandfather's ofce smelling like gun oil, cigar smoke and leather. (Sally reupholstered a chair Pappy would sit in and smoke. It's in her Louisville home, next to his wooden ashtray stand. Te oil painting of Pappy in her house used to hang at StitzelWeller.) In 1949, Pappy turned 75 and, that same year, the history of the distillery stretched back 100 years. During an event in a Brown Hotel ballroom celebrating the milestones, Pappy gave a speech. "We have only about 50 customers," he said, "and we cannot take any more, as we have no desire to expand." Te sign that once hung at Stitzel-Weller is now on a brick building at Bufalo Trace: "We make fne bourbon at a proft if we can, at a loss if we must, but always fne bourbon." II. A bullet he took in the gut traveled through his body and burst out his back. Whenever he'd tell the story, he'd say he "got nicked." Purple and Silver Hearts. Julian III, his only son, says, "It was a gnarly scar. When he had a bathing suit on, it freaked me out." Preston was four when his grandfather died, but he remembers how the old man used to have trucks dump giant hunks of coal onto his driveway. He would take a sledgehammer to the chunks, bag up the coal and burn it with wood in the freplace. He'd hand Preston a piece of the coal and a rubber mallet. When Julian Jr. returned from the Army in 1945, he was back at Stitzel-Weller, where he'd already worked for years. His ofce was across from Pappy's. At age 90, Pappy became "senior proprietor" and his son took over. It was 1964. Pappy would still show up, and the employees always made sure he had a tower of junk mail to deal with. By then, he was drinking a doctorprescribed ounce of bourbon every couple of hours. He died Feb. 16, 1965. "I guess we all knew he was going to die that night because "We have people with literally billions of dollars who can't fnd a bottle," Preston says. "They could buy a private jet in cash. They'd have an easier time buying our company." P appy was born in 1874, in Danville, Ky., the son of a lawyer. By his 20s he was living in Fort Mitchell in Northern Kentucky, selling whiskey throughout the Midwest for Louisville's W.L. Weller and Sons by horse and buggy. According to the book But Always Fine Bourbon: Pappy Van Winkle and the Story of Old Fitzgerald, written by his granddaughter Sally Van Winkle Campbell, Pappy often bragged that he was good enough to sell whiskey to moonshiners. Other popular Pappy quotes: "I used to be a Democrat, but I soon got tired of that"; "If I wanted to drink vodka, I'd fnd someone who'd sell me a can of alcohol"; and, if somebody questioned him about his days peddling rectifed spirits (translation: not, um, Old Fitzgerald), he'd say, "Tere's no one purer than a reformed prostitute." After Prohibition, in 1933, W.L. Weller and Sons merged with A. Ph. Stitzel Distillery. (Both were allowed to continue making and selling spirits during Prohibition for medicinal use.) On Derby Day 1935, Stitzel-Weller Distillery opened on 53 acres in Shively, of ivy-covered and Pin oak-lined Limestone Lane. But Always Fine Bourbon says that at StitzelWeller's height, the distillery's 19 warehouses and 220 employees churned out 800,000 cases a year. Pappy was president for three decades. He wore a Panama hat, walked with a cane mainly for show rather than out of necessity. Every day, lunch from the distillery's $1 allyou-can-eat cafeteria: a frankfurter with no bun and an onion sandwich. He'd take a nap afterward, another when he got home for the Of the four labels (Old Fitzgerald, W.L. Weller, Cabin Still and Rebel Yell), Old Fitzgerald, which was frst distilled in about 1870, was the fagship. Its formula: corn, malted barley and wheat instead of the rye found in most bourbon. (Generally, wheated bourbon trends toward sweetness on the sweet-spicy spectrum.) One Old Fitzgerald advertisement from the early 1900s says, "We wish to show you the diference between the best Whiskey on the market and the cheap, inferior grades now being advertised. Whiskey Under Eight or Ten Years Old is Not Fit to Drink." (One interesting part of But Always Fine Bourbon mentions how Bill Samuels Sr. talked to Pappy before creating Maker's Mark. Early this year, Maker's Mark considered watering down its bourbon to yield more bottles, then backtracked when fans freaked out. Julian tweeted about "bean counters" hurting the brand and about his dad, Pappy and Samuels Sr. spinning in their graves. When I ask him about it, he says, "No comment." Preston says, "People would riot if we messed with Pappy.") Pappy and his wife Katie lived in a fourthfoor fat overlooking St. James Court in Old Louisville before moving to 37 Hill Road in the Highlands. Tey had two children: Mary Chenault, aka "Rip," and Julian Jr., who went to Princeton and was the captain of a tank battalion in the Philippines during World War we were all at the house," Sally says. "It was the end of an era." Te time was 11:10 p.m. Sally knows this because that's when they stopped all of the clocks in the house. "Tink I still have one of those clocks," she says. T he second question callers ask Preston, after they realize they cannot get their hands on Van Winkle bourbon — Well, can you make some more? It probably goes without saying, but here's the simple math: Te 23-yearold Pappy Van Winkle's Family Reserve that will come out this fall entered the aging barrel in 1990. It's a 10- to 23-year business plan. Preston points out that when batches that entered barrels this year come out for bottling 23 years down the road, he'll be 59. "It's like planting trees," Julian says. "You plant them for the next generation to take care of." Adds Preston: "A lot of people don't realize we just can't crank up the still and have more 20-yearold bourbon on the shelf tomorrow. We're not making vodka." Why not make younger bourbon? "Just not really our style," Preston says. "But younger? What, seven years? Tat's still seven years. Call me in seven and let me know if that suggestion worked out for you." Continued on page 102 7.13 LOUISVILLE MAGAZINE 69