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Pappy Van Winkle 23 Year spirit image
90Excellent

Pappy Van Winkle 23 Year

Bourbon Buffalo Trace Pappy van Winkle
  • Distiller

    Buffalo Trace

  • Bottler

    Buffalo Trace

  • ABV

    47.8%

  • Age

    23 Years

  • Price $200+

This is an annual release from Buffalo Trace/ Van Winkle that is comprised of hand selected barrels blended at a minimum of 23 years of age. This is the 2019 release. Certainly a bourbon hunters dream, this bottle is hard to acquire, and from the looks of the internet, it's even harder to open. It's been a while since I've had this, so I'm looking forward to diving in. This more or less kicks off a mini series of some limiteds I've been writing on, to go along with the Chattanooga test batches, and some other fun stuff in the works. Let's cut the chatter and get to it.

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Aggregated Reviews
  • Raided Score: 85
  • Drinkhacker
  • By Rob Theakston
  • The oak goes full throttle on the palate along with faint notes of vanilla and dried black cherry. Oak-heavy on the long finish, it’s quite dry and full of dark berries.
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  • Raided Score: 92
  • Whiskey Consensus
  • By Matthew Evans
  • Without question, we’re going to chalk this up as a bucket list opportunity and would highly encourage you to give this bourbon a try if the opportunity presents itself at a realistic price.
  • Read Full Review
  • Raided Score: 97
  • WhiskyCast
  • By Mark Gillespie
  • It’s hard to put a dram of Pappy into words, though. The first word that comes to mind is “Wow!”
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  • Raided Score: 89
  • Distiller
  • By Rob Morton
  • The palate is thick and viscous with more oak, spice, leather, and tobacco.
  • Read Full Review
  • Raided Score: 96
  • The Whiskey Wash
  • By Margarett Waterbury
  • Where the 20 Year is lush and rounded, the 23 Year is more austere, yet more complex. This is a grown-up whiskey, assertive and self-possessed.
  • Read Full Review
  • Raided Score: 80
  • The Daily Pour
  • By t8ke
  • This is really something, but it's not for me. Price tag and rarity alone, this much oak is overbearing and manages to sap enjoyment from the notes I do really like by accentuating a bitter oak note that I don't love.
  • Read Full Review

Raided Score is a conversion from an external site's score, to our in house uniform scoring system. Please see the FAQ for more.

House Review
  • Nose:

    Sweet cream, rich oak and some toffee. Old musty tobacco, cedar, pine and unsurprisingly...oak. A lot of oak. A ton of oak. Some red berries.

  • Taste:

    Medium on the palate, although there is no heat. Sweet cream, red berries, powerful oak and tobacco. It coats the palate nicely, but it immediately leaves a bitter essence behind.

  • Finish:

    Short, bitter, tannic and drying. Like a bonkers aggressive Cali cab dialed up to 11, the finish here is so quick to disappate and leave bitter oak and pepper behind without a hint of moisture.

  • Overall:

    This is really something, but it's not for me. Price tag and rarity alone, this much oak is overbearing and manages to sap enjoyment from the notes I do really like by accentuating a bitter oak note that I don't love. A bummer, but I'll happily take the 15 year in favor any day. Bourbon is in a weird place where it's probably preposterous to designate one hyper expensive hyper rare bourbon better than another hyper rare hyper expensive bourbon in preference since neither can truly be easily found, but for a solid yard stick...a good single barrel of Buffalo Trace will top this without much trouble.

  • Score:

    80

  • By t8ke
  • Our in house critic rates spirits on a scale of 0-10 (10 best) and is aggregated the same as external sources