The Weller 12 Year Old is sometimes called the "poor man's Pappy" in reference to the highly sought after Pappy Van Winkle wheated bourbon that's produced by the same distillery, Buffalo Trace.

Now, this all got sparked off when it was discovered the Weller line up shares the same wheated mashbill as said Pappy.

But let's go back alittle bit. Well, all the way back, since we're at it, because it's really cool to see how this all converges.

And that all starts with W. L. Weller, for whom the Weller line up is named after. The Weller's was a family with German origins who settled down first in Maryland and then in Kentucky, where several generations down they got into the distilling business.

William Larue Weller, or W. L. Weller, had spent his life building the family's whiskey business, and was said to be the first to produce straight bourbon using wheat in place of rye in the mashbill. Now this took place in the mid 1800's, so we'll just have to go out on a limb and take his word for it.

Some decades later, close to the 1900's, Julian P. "Pappy" Van Winkle Sr. came to work for the W. L. Weller whiskey business as a salesman. When W. L. Weller himself had passed on several years later, the opportunity of a lifetime arose for Pappy to purchase the company he had worked for.

Now, Pappy wasn't just a great whiskey-maker, he was also a pretty shrewd businessman it seems, and through a number of acquisitions, came to form the Stitzel-Weller Distillery. Prohibition would throw a big wrench in the gears, nonetheless, Stitzel-Weller had come to achieve great fame for his wheated bourbons - this would lay the groundwork for the critically-acclaimed and later highly coveted Pappy Van Winkle's Family Reserve, or simply, Pappy.

Perhaps stupidly obvious, but it is worth noting that the term "Pappy", taken to mean grandfather, is a necessarily relative term. In this case, because at the helm of the brand is currently Julian P. "Pappy" Van Winkle Sr's grandson, Julian P. Van Winkle III, it makes sense that the brand pays homage to his iconic grandfather. But what if eventually a Julian P. Van Winkle IV takes over the family brand, would the brand lose it's referential correctness? Or would the name be changed to "Great Grand Pappy"? Just me?

In any case, Pappy's grandson as referenced above, had eventually moved production of the Pappy and associated Van Winkle lineup to Buffalo Trace for production, given that his father had sold the Stitzel-Weller Distillery, which was eventually closed in the early 1990's. With no more production capabilities, a handing over of the secret recipe to Buffalo Trace's Sazerac Company was necessary.

And thus it had come to be that the Weller brand, along with the Pappy, would be produced using the same wheated mashbill. In fact, it was said that at some point Julian P. Van Winkle III would handpick select barrels of the best Weller's for bottling under the Pappy label.

Of course, it had to be put out there that even in this instance, some of that final Stitzel-Weller juice would be sprinkled in as the MSG to give off that sought after Pappy flavour - nonetheless the Weller 12 was reasoned to be as close as one could get to a Pappy, short of the W. L. Weller itself that is part of the Buffalo Trace Antique Collection - yet another ridiculously sought after annual bottling. The Weller 12 was favorably produced year round and way more affordably priced, and so the resulting fervour was to be expected.

Now, how true that is, is probably less fun than the whole story behind it, but we're going to get to try the Weller 12 today anyway.

This one's bottled at a rather lower end 80 Proof (or 40% ABV). 

W. L. Weller 12 Year Old - Review

Tasting Notes

Color: Amber

Aroma: This is pretty bright and fresh - honey and vanilla cream, with a light cherry note. There’s lashings of caramel sauce with a real custard pudding sensibility. There’s alittle bit of sugared pecans, with a bit of frosted cereals. Very faint notes of stewed fruit - apple pie.

Taste: Oily and creamy, with a great mouthfeel - not particularly heavy but a good creaminess. There’s light caramel, butterscotch, and then this dense cooked fruit - cherry tart, cherry candy, cherry cobbler and crumble. There’s more on melted brown sugar and menthol.

Finish: More sweet caramel, that same concentrated cherry dense sweetness, with a light squeak varnish, and alittle bit of the umami nuttiness of rancio. Then finally more on vanilla cream and mint.

My Thoughts

This was pretty good! I really enjoyed the cherry notes that’s always so well integrated in a way that’s not tart as you might think fresh cherries or maraschino cherries, but it’s really more of a dense cooked cherry - the sort you find in tarts and crumbles - sweet, gooey and just a touch of acidity. This really sets it apart from other Bourbons where I’ve tended to find really tart, sharp cherry notes that can come across alittle artificial.

That said, the umami nutty rancio note on the finish did throw me off alittle, where it got too squeaky and also thinned out on the mouthfeel. So altogether, decent aroma, great taste, weak finish.

Kanpai!

@111hotpot