There’s not much that I’ve drunk that isn’t available in most good liquor stores, to be honest. Sure, I’ve had a few special releases at distilleries or gotten a pour of something quite rare at a good bar, but those are still possible to find if you really want to and know what you’re doing.
The only other exceptions are bar-exclusive bottles, blends, and infusions, but those are intentionally unique. This weekend, I was lucky enough to drink something that I really don’t think you could find outside of some extremely long Captain’s Lists from some serious bar programs.
The Story of W.L. Weller
William Larue Weller was a pioneer of whiskey in Kentucky during the 19th century, and he produced his first Bourbon using wheat, rather than rye, in 1849. He was, supposedly, the first person to do this which has cemented his legendary status in drink lore. While Maker’s Mark has owned the wheated Bourbon market for quite some time now, Weller has always been a big name in the space.
The Weller name, however, is not likely the one you first learn when talking about the whiskies that the Sitzel-Weller distillery produced (this formed in 1935 during a merger following William’s death and the end of prohibition). The name you learn first is almost certainly Pappy Van Winkle.
A legendary, delicious, famously expensive and hard-to-find wheated bourbon, Pappy deserves most of the hype it gets. But, that hype steals from Weller, which is extremely similar (and sometimes argued to be essentially identical depending on the bottle), especially since Weller is likely to have created the category before Pappy Julian Van Winkle got on the scene.
They may not have always been so similar, but they became so in 1992 when Sazerac bought both brands and moved production to the legendary Buffalo Trace distillery (which is my favorite in Kentucky and well worth a tour if you’re in town). For at least some of the Weller expressions, the well-regarded word-on-the-street is that the juice is exactly the same, but it’s pulled early when the master distillers decide that it’s not quite up to being Pappy.
But this isn’t a blog about one of those expressions.
Old Weller
Old Weller was a separate brand from W.L. Weller expressions, primarily because it was bottled at 107 proof while the main expressions were a standard 90. It carried an explicit 7-year age statement, and each bottle was hand-labeled with a bottle number and had other indicators of its production all over the place.
It’s now been reborn with the relaunch of the entire Weller brand from Buffalo Trace as Weller Antique 107. While I’ve sought out and enjoyed quite a bit of Weller Special Reserve in the last year, I haven’t come across Antique 107 yet. But, I did come across a bottle of Old Weller this weekend in Phoenix.
Bottle S9518
As best I can tell, this bottle is from the late 90s. It had been opened when I found it, but only for a dram. I found it on the bottom shelf of my father-in-law’s bar, and even though it had apparently been there for years this was the first time I noticed it. I was floored.
The story goes that my mother-in-law’s step-father owned the (small) building that at one point housed a (very small) liquor store. When the tenant didn’t pay rent and never came back to the store, he cleared out the space himself and kept the booze. This is one of the few bottles that lasted after he passed.
The whiskey is really quite delicious. It tasted much, much more like today’s Special Reserve than I expected, and it smelled almost identical. You get all of that wheat-y sweetness on the nose that stays through on the palate as the dominant note. It’s joined by baking spices, especially cinnamon, to complement the added heat from the increased alcohol. It finishes with that heat, but stays quite sweet with more spice than you expect given the mash bill. It needs ice or water to really be appreciated.
If anyone knows of a way to learn any more specifics about exactly when this was bottled, let me know! It’s been a fun excuse for a booze history lesson. If you ever see this bottle, drink it!