Van Winkle 13 Year Old Family Reserve Rye - 47.8% 70cl

Van Winkle 13 Year Old Family Reserve Rye is an extra-aged rye whisky produced at the Buffalo Trace Distillery in Frankfort, Kentucky.

 

While most rye whiskies are matured for a maximum of four years, the Old Family Reserve Rye spends fully 13 years maturing in cask, making for an unusually complex, harmonious rye whisky which is made for slow sipping.

 

“This 13 year old breaks the mold as it is one of the oldest rye whiskeys available today. The maturity it has achieved while ageing is quite obvious when you take the first sip. It’s a truly unique and rewarding rye whiskey experience… Rye whiskey lovers who try this bottling will never again look back at younger whiskeys." Paul Pacult

 

Released in 2009 when the whiskey was actually now 19 years old, despite the label. The Van Winkle Family Reserve rye actually continued to age in cask until 2004 when it was eventually tanked at Buffalo Trace. They are all labelled as 13 years old regardless.

The Family Reserve Rye is presumed to have been distilled at Medley in Owensboro, and acquired by Julian III through his connection to Stitzel-Weller, as United Distillers closed it down in the same year.

The whiskey is also thought to have had the 1980s-distilled "Cream of Kentucky" rye from George T. Stagg blended though it prior to being tanked in 2004.

The rye was the last of the remaining reserves that Julian Van Winkle III warehoused at Buffalo Trace by the time it finally ran out in 2016. A new batch distilled at Buffalo Trace was first bottled in 2018.