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Some of the most sought-after bottles of bourbon have been put on the lottery by the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board in what amounts to any whiskey lovers’ dream! All together a bounty of 1,208 bottles of the coveted Old Rip Van Winkle Distillery’s bourbon is available through the lottery which opens Friday, January 28th.The bottles range in price from $89.99 up to the Pappy Van Winkle’s Family Reserve Straight Bourbon 23 Year Old at a hefty $399.99.
According to TribLive.com,
“Despite the prices, there likely will be plenty of competition throughout the lottery, which attracts “tens of thousands of entries,” said Shawn Kelly, PLCB spokesman. In 2020, the state had 167,180 individual entries and 1,784 licensee entries in the Van Winkle lottery.”
It was that overwhelming demand that led Pennsylvania to enact the lottery system in order to give everyone a fair crack at sampling the fine bourbons.
“It’s difficult to get in the state in general,” said Frank Cekus, manager at Industry Public House in North Fayette. “To my knowledge, the only way you can get it is via lottery. That being said, I have friends living in other states that have it on the shelf, but the price is so high due to it not being through the centralized liquor control board-type situation.”
A Lottery That You Can Actually Hope To Win!
The Atlantic reported, that typically only about 7,000 cases of Pappy’s is produced at the distillery each year. It’s quickly become regarded as a “unicorn” amongst the rarest and finest whiskies, one to be sought after and treasured.
“It is rare,” Cekus said. “They only release so much in general. The bourbon industry right now is kind of in a flux. It got super, super popular and just the supply has not reached the demand. You have that issue and then you have just a really rare product.”
The 2022 lottery won’t quite be the same as the 2021 though with just five whiskeys offered instead of six. This year the 2021 Van Winkle Family Reserve Straight Rye Whiskey 13 Year Old was not released, and there are also fewer of the 10, 12, and 15-year-old bottles to go around than in previous years.
“If you take a look at the production of bourbon versus the demand for bourbon, these products have to sit in a barrel for at least 10 years, in some cases you’re talking more than 20, 23 years, 25 years,” Kelly said. “If you don’t guess the demand that you will see at least a decade in the future, you’re not going to have the right number of bottles available.”
You can register for your chance at the lottery at finewineandgoodspirits.com.The opportunity to purchase is limited to one bottle per participant and winners will be chosen on February 7th.
