Vintage/Dusty Spirit Bottles

2008 Pappy Van Winkle 20 750ml Stitzel Weller

Back in the 1960s through the 80s, distilleries were having trouble selling their whiskey in bottles so they started creating unique bottlings through the use of Decanters. Old Crow, which was owned and produced by National Distillers created a full chess set of decanter bottles, complete with all pieces and the ability to send them postage to receive a carpeted chessboard as well. The whiskey inside is 86pf and age stated 10 years, but is among some of the highest rated whiskey by vintage enthusiasts that has ever been produced.

Note: Old decanters could possibly have some minor leakage during transit.  We will do everything to prevent leakage but some is frequently expected and we cannot be held liable for minor leakage.  Major issues - please contact us (such as decanter breakage, significant leakage) and please have pictures/video available.  

Custom made bottling for the iconic Watergate in the late 1960s.

Back in the 1960s through the 80s, distilleries were having trouble selling their whiskey in bottles so they started creating unique bottlings through the use of Decanters. Old Crow, which was owned and produced by National Distillers created a full chess set of decanter bottles, complete with all pieces and the ability to send them postage to receive a carpeted chessboard as well. The whiskey inside is 86pf and age stated 10 years, but is among some of the highest rated whiskey by vintage enthusiasts that has ever been produced.

Note: Old decanters could possibly have some minor leakage during transit.  We will do everything to prevent leakage but some is frequently expected and we cannot be held liable for minor leakage.  Major issues - please contact us (such as decanter breakage, significant leakage) and please have pictures/video available.  

Back in the 1960s through the 80s, distilleries were having trouble selling their whiskey in bottles so they started creating unique bottlings through the use of Decanters. Old Crow, which was owned and produced by National Distillers created a full chess set of decanter bottles, complete with all pieces and the ability to send them postage to receive a carpeted chessboard as well. The whiskey inside is 86pf and age stated 10 years, but is among some of the highest rated whiskey by vintage enthusiasts that has ever been produced.

Note: Old decanters could possibly have some minor leakage during transit.  We will do everything to prevent leakage but some is frequently expected and we cannot be held liable for minor leakage.  Major issues - please contact us (such as decanter breakage, significant leakage) and please have pictures/video available.  

A rare oversized 1968 swing bottle of Crown Royal, showcasing smooth Canadian whisky heritage with gentle vanilla and soft rye spices.

Wild Turkey 8 Year 101 from 1984 (glass stamp)

Back in the 1960s through the 80s, distilleries were having trouble selling their whiskey in bottles so they started creating unique bottlings through the use of Decanters. Old Crow, which was owned and produced by National Distillers created a full chess set of decanter bottles, complete with all pieces and the ability to send them postage to receive a carpeted chessboard as well. The whiskey inside is 86pf and age stated 10 years, but is among some of the highest rated whiskey by vintage enthusiasts that has ever been produced.

Note: Old decanters could possibly have some minor leakage during transit.  We will do everything to prevent leakage but some is frequently expected and we cannot be held liable for minor leakage.  Major issues - please contact us (such as decanter breakage, significant leakage) and please have pictures/video available.  

Back in the 1960s through the 80s, distilleries were having trouble selling their whiskey in bottles so they started creating unique bottlings through the use of Decanters. Old Crow, which was owned and produced by National Distillers created a full chess set of decanter bottles, complete with all pieces and the ability to send them postage to receive a carpeted chessboard as well. The whiskey inside is 86pf and age stated 10 years, but is among some of the highest rated whiskey by vintage enthusiasts that has ever been produced.

Note: Old decanters could possibly have some minor leakage during transit.  We will do everything to prevent leakage but some is frequently expected and we cannot be held liable for minor leakage.  Major issues - please contact us (such as decanter breakage, significant leakage) and please have pictures/video available.  

Back in the 1960s through the 80s, distilleries were having trouble selling their whiskey in bottles so they started creating unique bottlings through the use of Decanters. Old Crow, which was owned and produced by National Distillers created a full chess set of decanter bottles, complete with all pieces and the ability to send them postage to receive a carpeted chessboard as well. The whiskey inside is 86pf and age stated 10 years, but is among some of the highest rated whiskey by vintage enthusiasts that has ever been produced.

Note: Old decanters could possibly have some minor leakage during transit.  We will do everything to prevent leakage but some is frequently expected and we cannot be held liable for minor leakage.  Major issues - please contact us (such as decanter breakage, significant leakage) and please have pictures/video available.  

This 12 year old bottled in bond (100pf) expression was distilled at the legendary Stitzel-Weller distillery and and Julian “Pappy” Van Winkle himself.  This 4/5 quart size bottle is in impeccable condition and comes complete with a gift box and 2 shot glasses bearing the Old Fitzgerald brand name as well.  The Old Fitzgerald brand was considered a premium bourbon during the age that this was produced and the whiskey inside is considered some of the best and most highly sought after by collectors and enthusiasts alike.

A whiskey glut was happening in America as sales began to decline at the end of the 60s and continued through the 80s and 90s. Distilleries did not slow down production, assuming the glut was only temporary, but as they realized it wasn't, they had to come up with creative ways to move product. Many distilleries partnered with Non Distiller Producers, to bottle their whiskey under a different brand and export it overseas. This is a 20 year rye distilled in the 80s, most likely by Michter's at their location in Pennsylvania at that time, bottled under a different brand and exported to the Japanese market. It's a wonderful expression of aged pennsylvania rye, the same distillate as the Rye Royal 20year, but in a totally different and more rare bottling brand.

This 21 year kentucky bourbon was bottled by dowling distillery which actually sourced their whiskey from a few different distilleries at that time that this was distilled which was early 1950s. Dowling was owned by Schnley in the 50s and they maintained about a dozen kentucky distilleries who were producing at that time. Rumors exist that this was distlled at Hoffman distilling, but there is no way to know, unless you can track down someone who helped with the acquisition 70 years ago.

A true collectors Rye with an intricate and storied past! The Van Winkle Family Reserve Rye is age stated as 13 years old, but is in fact 19 years old. It's the Pappy of ryes, or so the story goes. In fact, Van Winkle Family Reserve Rye was not actually distilled at Stitzel-Weller. The distillery from which the 2008 rye comes is the Medley distillery in Owensboro. However in 2004, when the rye was moved to stainless steel tanks, it was blended with rye distilled at Cream of Kentucky (Old Bernheim). The 2008 is particularly sought after as it is rumored that in 2012, 4 years later, Buffalo Trace began added their own rye to the blend, making the 2008 an example of a pure Medley/Bernheim Rye. Lastly, The move to stainless steel tanks was done to arrest the aging process which actually makes the 2008 vintage a 19 year rye even thought it is labeled as a 13 year.

A true collectors Rye with an intricate and storied past! The Van Winkle Family Reserve Rye is age stated as 13 years old, but is in fact 19 years old. It's the Pappy of ryes, or so the story goes. In fact, Van Winkle Family Reserve Rye was not actually distilled at Stitzel-Weller. The distillery from which the 2008 rye comes is the Medley distillery in Owensboro. However in 2004, when the rye was moved to stainless steel tanks, it was blended with rye distilled at Cream of Kentucky (Old Bernheim). The 2008 is particularly sought after as it is rumored that in 2012, 4 years later, Buffalo Trace began added their own rye to the blend, making the 2008 an example of a pure Medley/Bernheim Rye. Lastly, The move to stainless steel tanks was done to arrest the aging process which actually makes the 2008 vintage a 19 year rye even thought it is labeled as a 13 year.

In 1893, when he was 18 years old, Julian "Pappy" Van Winkle Sr. began working as a salesman for the liquor wholesaler, W.L. Weller & Sons. Fifteen years later, he and another Weller salesman bought the firm. In 1910 they acquired the A. Ph. Stitzel Distillery in Louisville, Kentucky, which had started as a sour mash whiskey distillery in 1872.

The Stitzel Distillery supplied much of the whiskey sold by the Weller wholesale firm. The consolidation coincided with prohibition, during which time the Stitzel-Weller firm was licensed by the government to produce whiskey for medicinal purposes. One of their labels that was introduced on the market just before prohibition was Old Rip Van Winkle. After prohibition, the brand was not reintroduced until after 1972 when the Stitzel-Weller distillery and its current brand names (including W. L. Weller, Old Fitzgerald, Rebel Yell, and Cabin Still) were sold to other companies.The only brand name the Van Winkle family had kept the rights to was the pre-prohibition brand Old Rip Van Winkle.

The Stitzel-Weller Distillery was opened on the day of the Kentucky Derby in 1935, just outside Louisville in Shively, Kentucky. At the time of his death in 1965 at the age of 89, Pappy Van Winkle was the oldest active distiller in the nation. A photo of him lighting a cigar graces the bottle's label.

Sometime after the Stitzel-Weller distillery was sold in 1972, Julian Van Winkle, Jr. resurrected the pre-prohibition Old Rip Van Winkle brand and initially used old whiskey stocks from the distillery for its bottlings. Julian Jr. died in 1981 and Julian Van Winkle, III (Pappy's grandson) took over the Old Rip Van Winkle Distillery company.

After the initial sale in 1972, the Stitzel-Weller distillery was eventually closed completely in 1991.

Since 2002, the Van Winkle brands have been distilled and bottled by the Sazerac Company at the Buffalo Trace Distillery as a joint venture with the Old Rip Van Winkle Distillery company.

In 2013, Julian Preston Van Winkle III, said the 2013 bottlings of the 23-year brand expression "may be the last of its kind", since at that point there was very little left of the aging stock from the Stitzel-Weller distillery (although he said the brand would not be discontinued). The makers say that they do not want to boost production, as there is considerable long-term risk, and they do not want to be left holding copious quantities of unsaleable bourbon should tastes, fashions or circumstances change.