Say it ain’t so, Pappy.
In an act of treason against every man who’s ever pressed his face nose-deep into a snifter of their otherworldly Kentucky bourbon, Pappy Van Winkle has asked a Kentucky judge to order 28 bottles recovered from a 2013 theft to be flushed down the drain.
The haul, which includes reserves aged 23, 20 and 15 years that would retail for around $3,000 and could fetch $20,000 on the secondary market, were going to be sold at auction after the criminal case was wrapped up … until the fine folks at Pappy had a change of heart and asked the judge to step in.
Their (alleged) concern? That the booze bandits might have tampered with or contaminated the bourbon after spiriting it away. Though some have lauded Pappy, which produces about 100,000 bottles annually, for its concerns about quality control, others think the company’s motivations are more sinister.
“The conspiracy theorists say the Van Winkles are loving the attention… again,” says bourbon writer Fred Minnick, alluding to the distiller’s (or perhaps their PR team’s) penchant for making headlines. His personal opinion, though? Chuck it. “You will only validate criminal activity giving a stolen Pappy auction any credence.”
Our drains are efficient and definitely not retrofitted with a discreet filtering apparatus, should they need any assistance.
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