bourbon

Someone Stole $26,000 of the Best Bourbon in the World

John Cook · 10/17/13 11:46AM

Julian Proctor Van Winkle III and his son Julian Preston Van Winkle are the proprietors of Kentucky's Old Rip Van Winkle Distillery, and they make the best bourbon in the world at a rate of roughly 7,000 cases per year. Which is why you can't find any of it, anywhere. Sighting a bottle of the 20-year-old Pappy Van Winkle's Family Reserve, which retails at $130, in a liquor store is like spotting a Scaly-Sided Merganser in the wild. The Van Winkles are personally beset by desperate high-class drunks seeking an in. Personal assistants have wasted days trying to track down bottles for well-heeled bosses. Pappy is furtively deployed to seal multi-million-dollar business deals. Leads are whispered about among aficionados: "I heard about a warehouse in Jersey that just got a shipment."

Meet the Pickleback, the Latest Fauxhemian Nectar

Ravi Somaiya · 05/07/10 05:17PM

Drinkers are apparently weary of all the fancy-pants cocktails filled with tinctures and obscure violet-based liquors. The kids these days are, apparently, enjoying a shot of whisky followed by a shot of pickle brine.

abalk · 10/05/07 04:20PM

And we have a winner. Ya know, if we knew you people would do this kind of thing for us, we never would have looked for another job in the first place.