A Grand Old Age - How super-mature American Bourbon and rye whiskeys helped revive a stagnant category—and why no one thought of it before

[JohnS]

An interesting article from Cigar Aficionado's January/February 2026 edition which emphasises that Bourbon and Rye whiskey is not 'dead', or perhaps not as 'dead' as previously thought!

A Grand Old Age

How super-mature American Bourbon and rye whiskeys helped revive a stagnant category—and why no one thought of it before

By Jack Bettridge - From The Top 25 Cigars Of The Year, January/February 2026

If you went by the dozens of American whiskeys that start with the word “Old”—Old Tub, Old Home, Old Log Cabin, Old Grand-Dad—you might be forgiven for thinking that Bourbons and ryes have an extensive history for creating antiques of the spirits world.

But you’d be mostly wrong. Scotch makers have long been known for producing whiskies (largely single malts) aged for two, three, four and even as long as six decades. But when it comes to American whiskeys, for most of their more than two-century history they have never been particularly old.

More recently, however, several whiskeys have challenged the norm by more than doubling the concept of what a very old whiskey could be—and with great success. Led by a couple of unicorns—first and foremost the 20- and 23-year-old Pappy Van Winkle’s Family Reserve—producers have bottled a litany of examples that are that old and even older.

Julian Van Winkle III made landmark forays into ultra-aged Bourbon.

Consider the lineup: among them Jefferson’s (30), Heaven Hill (27), Michter’s (25), Eagle Rare (25), Buffalo Trace (23), Rittenhouse Rye (23), Knob Creek (21) and Elijah Craig (21). By comparison, 10- and 12-year-olds, which previously occupied the outer limits of age in American whiskey, seem unremarkable.

Why did it take so long for American distillers to light up to the widely held idea that older is better? The simple answer is they didn’t have to. The places that Bourbon and rye come from—largely Kentucky and Tennessee—enjoy sweltering summer temperatures that hasten interaction with the wood barrels, the source for a huge portion of whiskey’s compelling flavor. Scotch comes from cooler climes with narrower temperature fluctuations between seasons. Add to that the legal stipulation that American straight whiskeys be made in new, charred-oak barrels—other spirits may utilize reused casks—and you have an atmosphere for brisk maturation.

Other manufacturing, marketing and legal wrinkles also have had their effects. It wasn’t until around the turn of the 20th century, that American whiskeys had aging requirements at all. Elizabeth McCall, master distiller of Woodford Reserve, points out that previous to that, unscrupulous whiskey makers could color and flavor their product to make it stand out. “When you started seeing ‘Old’ on the label, it meant that had been barrel-aged,” she says. Old Forester, made by her parent company, Brown-Forman, was the first to bottle and seal Bourbon to assure its quality.

Pappy Van Winkle 15-, 20- and 23-year-old.

In 1897, the Bottled-in-Bond Act created a category that added rules, among them the stipulation that the whiskey inside had to be at least four years old. In a political atmosphere of protecting the public health, the Pure Food and Drug Act was passed in 1906 and a 1909 addendum called for straight whiskey to be at least two years old. If it was younger, then it had to say so on the bottle. “Four years became the standard for a lot of reasons,” McCall says. “Because that’s where you see a lot of symmetry of time in a new charred oak barrel.”

Along with codifying standards for the coveted bottled-in-bond designation, the Bottled-In-Bond act also allowed distillers to defer paying taxes on such spirits for the time whiskey was in bond, a moratorium that ended after the whiskey aged past eight years. When taxes came due, it was hard to justify further aging. A 1958 amendment to the Act extended that maximum tax-free period to 20 years, an incentive that resulted in a spate of what was then considered extra-old whiskeys a decade later. One of those was the 10-year-old Very Xtra Old Fitzgerald release, laid down by Julian “Pappy” Van Winkle, a founder of Stitzel-Weller Distillery, near Louisville. The bottles that remain from that early endeavor typically sell for several thousand dollars at auction today.

Julian Van Winkle died in 1965 and ownership of Stitzel-Weller passed to his son, Julian Van Winkle Jr., who sold it in 1972 with the stipulation that he kept the Old Rip Van Winkle trademark and could buy stocks from the site. Such product was distinct because most Bourbons are made with corn, rye and barley, but the Stitzel-Weller distillery created Bourbon using a grain formula that used wheat in place of rye. Van Winkle Jr. continued the brand and upon his death in 1981, his son, Julian Van Winkle III, became president of Old Rip Van Winkle.

Along with liquid from the Stitzel-Weller facility, the company acquired whiskey from stocks made at other shuttered distilleries, including Glenmore, Yellowstone and Old Boon. The company’s original release was a seven-year-old, but that was not what would make the Van Winkle name famous.

Full Article: https://www.cigaraficionado.com/article/a-grand-old-age