Pappyland

Julian Van Winkle III inherited a struggling bourbon business after his father died, and with it a family motto his grandfather had set down: make fine bourbon, at a profit if possible, at a loss if necessary, but always fine bourbon. The company was in its wilderness years, and Julian decided he would either protect the legacy that carried his name or go down trying.

His luck turned when he learned that hundreds of barrels from the family's old distillery had survived its sale to a multinational conglomerate. The whiskey he bottled from those recovered barrels was quickly hailed as among the best in the world, and just as quickly became nearly impossible to find. It made the Van Winkle name, and Pappy in particular, the most coveted cult bourbon in Kentucky. When the old barrels ran out, a new problem arrived: how to keep the taste of Pappy intact in a very different era, where authenticity is as scarce as the bottles themselves.

Wright Thompson was invited to follow along as Julian took on that task. Spending time with the Van Winkles, he learned about great bourbon, but also about inheriting a complicated legacy and about what it means to honor your people and your craft. Those lessons spilled into his own work and life, and the book becomes as much a reflection on family, loyalty and finding yourself in someone else's story as it is an account of a whiskey.