<http://schema.org/articleBody>
" There isn&amp;#039;t enough Pappy Van Winkle to go around. Everyone knows that. The bourbon is so good, and in such short supply, that it has gone from whiskey to talisman, and the oldest bottlings are now bought and sold for four figures on the black market. Which is fine. Whatever. But what is a regular person supposed to do if they want some? Well, we explained that in detail a couple days ago, with one man&amp;#039;s strategy for hoarding the actual stuff, with a picture of Pappy smoking on the label and all. But there is another answer, too, which we hinted at, but will now further explain: You need to find something else \u2014 something as similar as possible. Which is problematic. Bourbon nerds, working in concert and after repeated testings, have come up with a workaround involving Weller family bourbons. All the Weller bourbons are made from the same wheated mash as Pappy, a distinctive formula that gives the latter spirit its much-admired mellowness. (The wheat is subbed in for rye, which is spicy/hot.) Weller, like Pappy, was made in the old Stitzer-Weller distillery, and shared with its more famous sibling not only the same mash, but the same circumstances of birth. Julian Van Winkle, the Pappy patriarch himself, recommends it to people who like his family&amp;#039;s product, but can&amp;#039;t get any. That isn&amp;#039;t to say that they are the same thing. But the oldest of the Wellers, such as W.L Weller 12 and William LaRue Weller, are old enough to a lot like Old Rip Van Winkle 12-year-old (a.k.a. Pappy Junior) or, yes, Pappy Van Winkle 15-year-old, the best Pappy of them all for my money. So far, so good. Now here is the intriguing part. Of the original lot of Pappy produced in the twilight of the Stitzer-Weller, before it closed in 1992, most of what remains was snatched up by the Van Winkle family, and now constitutes Pappy 23. But the Van Winkle family didn&amp;#039;t get all the juice; some made its way into the hands of the resourceful Trey Zoeller, the founder of Jefferson&amp;#039;s, who sold it as Jefferson&amp;#039;s Presidential Select 17- and 18-year-old four years ago. Some of those bottles are available on the gray market for a high sum indeed, but nothing compared to black-market Pappy Van Winkle 23-year-old. These bottles, for all intents and purposes, are Pappy Van Winkle, blended of several older barrels between 15 and 20 years old. The older Presidential Reserve Jeffersons on sale now come from other barrels and don&amp;#039;t taste like Pappy at all. Not that they aren&amp;#039;t good. I should note here that there is no final word on the subject, at least not one I know. One blogger says that the true secret is to mix two different Wellers; others say there is no solution at all. Julian Van Winkle, when asked, recommends 8-year-old W.L. Weller, which amounts, more or less, to W.L. Weller Special Reserve, although the latter is a blend and not a single bottling. Confused yet? The short version is that the Weller whiskeys, and Weller 12 in particular, are the closest thing to the younger Van Winkle bottlings on the market, and Jefferson&amp;#039;s Presidential Select the closest to old Pappy. Only a taste test will tell, and neither you nor I are going to be doing one anytime soon, alas. If by some misfortune you can&amp;#039;t get either of these two fine whiskeys, Julian Van Winkle suggests Maker&amp;#039;s 46 and Four Roses Single Barrel. Though again: If you try hard enough, you might just be able to track down the real thing.  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/food-drink/drinks/a27820/pappy-van-winkle-idiots-guide/>