Pappyland: A Story of Family, Fine Bourbon, and the Things That Last
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Review : An instant New York Times bestseller From the bestselling author of The Cost of These Dreams The story of how Julian Van Winkle III, the caretaker of the most coveted cult Kentucky Bourbon whiskey in the world, fought to protect his family's heritage and preserve the taste of his forebears, in a world where authenticity, like his product, is in very short supply. As a journalist said of Pappy Van Winkle, "You could call it bourbon, or you could call it a $5,000 bottle of liquified, barrel-aged unobtanium." Julian Van Winkle, the third-generation head of his family's business, is now thought of as something like the Buddha of Bourbon - Booze Yoda, as Wright Thompson calls him. He is swarmed wherever he goes, and people stand in long lines to get him to sign their bottles of Pappy Van Winkle Family Reserve, the whiskey he created to honor his grandfather, the founder of the family concern. A bottle of the 23-year-old Pappy starts at $3000 on the internet. As Julian is the first to say, things have gone completely nuts. Forty years ago, Julian would have laughed in astonishment if you'd told him what lay ahead. He'd just stepped in to try to save the business after his father had died, partly of heartbreak, having been forced to sell the old distillery in a brutal downturn in the market for whiskey. Julian's grandfather had presided over a magical kingdom of craft and connoisseurship, a genteel outfit whose family ethos generated good will throughout Kentucky and far beyond. There's always a certain amount of romance to the marketing of spirits, but Pappy's mission statement captured something real: "We make fine bourbon - at a profit if we can, at a loss if we must, but always fine bourbon." But now the business had hit the wilderness years, and Julian could only hang on for dear life, stubbornly committed to preserving his namesake's legacy or going down with the ship. Then something like a miracle happened: it turned out that hundreds of very special barrels of whiskey from the Van Winkle family distillery had been saved by the multinational conglomerate that bought it. With no idea what they had, they offered to sell it to Julian, who scrambled to beg and borrow the funds. Now he could bottle a whiskey whose taste captured his family's legacy. The result would immediately be hailed as the greatest whiskey in the world - and would soon be the hardest to find. But now, those old barrels were used up, and Julian Van Winkle faced the challenge of his lifetime: how to preserve the taste of Pappy, the taste of his family's heritage, in a new age? The amazing Wright Thompson was invited to be his wingman as he set about to try. The result is an extraordinary testimony to the challenge of living up to your legacy and the rewards that come from knowing and honoring your people and your craft. Wright learned those lessons from Julian as they applied to the honest work of making a great bourbon whiskey in Kentucky, but he couldn't help applying them to his own craft, writing, and his upbringing in Mississippi, as he and his wife contemplated the birth of their first child. May we all be lucky enough to find some of ourselves, as Wright Thompson did, in Julian Van Winkle, and in Pappyland. Read more
Review : If I were able, I'd give this a 4.5 star. Great story on the Van Winkle family; on whiskey; and I appreciated Wright's weaving his own story into it. That's how the story evolved. But the overall story of the south, whiskey, and the Van Winkle family history was exceptional. The only complaint I would have, and only legitimate one (the rest are overblown, imo), is that in an attempt to jump around and not make the story a simple straight narrative (which is not as entertaining in today's storytelling world) some of the stories were disjointed with some esoteric elements in the story, to the point that trying to follow could be confusing here and there. Some parts and people were introduced so subtly, then later re-introduced, that it created a more confusing element. Otherwise, great book and a great wordsmith. The insights into the problems of the whiskey industry (which perhaps may be a reason behind some dislike of this book) were eye-opening. Lastly, to speak to the complaints about politics. This is a massive over-reaction. This is not a political book nor is it laced with political elements as it appears to be from many of the reviews. It strikes me as a product of an overly sensitive environment. There were hardly any political elements and a minuscule reference to the former president that is blown out of proportion. There were a few and only brief references to the problematic issues of southern heritage; one which has both great tradition (which Wright touched on) and the dark spot of Jim Crow over past generations. If we are denying that element of past generations in the south and its impact - again, only touched on for a few seconds here and there, then not much more to say; other than such are a product of being overly sensitive and reading too much into the book.
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