As it presently stands, the Pappy Van Winkle family of whiskeys is probably the most lauded and sought-after in the world. It’s so coveted, in fact, that finding a bottle at a reasonable price (if at all) is damn near impossible. Luckily, there are a lot of alternatives to Pappy popping up all the time. The latest is actually made by the same folks at the same facility in Frankfort, Kentucky — however, it was released under the Buffalo Trace label.
The Buffalo Trace 12-Year-Old Wheated Bourbon you see here is a part of the brand’s Experimental Collection and actually shares a lot more in common with Pappy than just being made at the same distillery. In fact, it also calls upon the exact same mash bill, it’s aged for more than a decade (the youngest PVW clocks in at 15 years), and it’s even bottled at the same 90 proof. The “experimental” portion comes during the aging process, which saw the whiskey barreled at 117 proof, aged four years, cut to 100 proof, and then re-barreled and matured for an additional eight years. It remains to be seen how good this $47 whiskey is, but it seems poised to be one of the best releases of the year. Look out for it this May.
