If you’re looking to buy a bottle of bourbon, you can easily find one for under $20. Add some age to it, though, and you can start inching up into the hundreds, even thousands of dollars. But what would it take for one to cost $50,000? Well, if you age it for 25 years, make only 11 barrels, package it in handmade glass decanters, place it in a wooden box made from the oak barrels that originally held the spirit, and you’re the venerable distiller Old Rip Van Winkle, then you may just warrant the price tag.
The Old Rip Van Winkle Distillery is known for its aged whiskeys. The 25 Year Old bourbon, released in 2017, was the distillery’s first 25-year bourbon. It was casked at the distillery in 1989 but moved when fellow Kentucky distiller Buffalo Trace acquired Van Winkle in 2002. After aging another 12 years, the bourbon was moved to steel tanks for the next three years. The 11 barrels produced just 710 bottles, with an original manufacturer’s suggested retail price of $1,800. Pappy Van Winkle, who opened the distillery in 1935, would have approved. “Fine bourbon,” he said, “ought to make itself — with just a little help from mother nature and father time.”
U.S. has strict rules on what makes a whiskey bourbon
Bourbon is a type of whiskey that can only be labeled bourbon if it meets certain United States regulations, including laws around its ingredients. For example, its mashbill — the mix of grains distilled to create the spirit — must be at least 51 percent corn. The remaining grains impart distinctive flavors to each distiller’s bourbon. The rules also regulate the process for making the whiskey. The aging period must be at least two years and in new white oak barrels that have been charred inside. In terms of alcohol content, all bourbons need to be somewhere between 80 to 125 proof by the time they reach the bottle. The only thing that can be added to the drink is water, which is often used to bring down the alcohol level. Some Kentuckians may want to disagree, but bourbon does not have to be made in Kentucky to be called bourbon.
The bottles for Old Rip Van Winkle 25 Year aren’t dripped in diamonds, silver, and gold, like the world’s most expensive vodka — you’re spending money on the bourbon itself. If you’re not ready to spend $50,000, you can cut a couple of years off the age and buy the Pappy Van Winkle Family Reserve 23 year for $449.99 or a 10 Year for $129.99. And be sure to check out the 12 terms you need to know before buying whiskey.
