Looks like the Van Winkle whiskey tradition will continue for at least one more generation — and Julian Van Winkle III couldn't be more pleased.

        When we wrote about Mr. Van Winkle in April of last year, he was hoping his son, Preston, would follow him into the family whiskey business. Sure enough, after Preston graduated from the University of Kentucky this spring with a degree in business and marketing, he joined his father at the family's distillery near Lawrenceburg, learning how to age and bottle Van Winkle bourbons and rye whiskeys.

        “Two years ago, he wasn't too interested in it,” Mr. Van Winkle says. “But he's been to a couple of (bourbon) tastings, and I guess he's seen how much fun it can be.”

Legendary founder

               Preston is the fourth generation Van Winkle to enter the bourbon business. His great-grandfather, legendary whiskey man Julian “Pappy” Van Winkle was the first. Pappy, who was said to be cunning enough to sell bourbon to moonshiners, bought controlling interest in the W.L. Weller Distillery in Louisville in 1909. After Prohibition, he engineered a merger with the A. Ph. Stitzel Co. He earned a world-wide reputation with his flagship bourbon, Old Fitzgerald, and by writing a series of personal columns that ran as advertisements in national magazines in the 1950s and '60s.

        Pappy's son, Julian Jr., took over the company in the 1950s, but was finally forced to sell Stitzel-Weller in 1972. Julian Jr. held on to a little-used label called Old Rip Van Winkle and formed a new company called J.P. Van Winkle & Son. Julian III joined his father in the business in 1974 and took over when Julian Jr. was diagnosed with cancer the next year. He died in 1981.

        Julian III's sister, Sally Campbell, documented the Van Winkle whiskey legacy in her book, But Always Fine Bourbon (Limestone Lane; $34.95), published in 1999.

        In the mid-1980s, Julian III began bottling his 14- and 16-year-old whiskey stock — bourbon that his father made while at Stitzel-Weller — and selling it under the Van Winkle Family Reserve label. His idea was to market his bourbon as a fine after-dinner sipping whiskey, like brandy or cognac.

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Ahead of the trend

               Although his aged bourbons sold slowly at first, Julian III was ahead of the next whiskey trend by at least five years. By the early 1990s, single-malt scotch whiskies and premium bourbons became the rage in cigar bars and restaurants across the country.

        Now, Julian III's bourbons are considered among the best. In 1996, judges gave his 20 year-old Pappy Reserve a 99 out of a possible 100 score at the World Spirits Championships. And in December, Food & Wine magazine named Van Winkle's Family Reserve 23-Year-Old Bourbon as the “Best New American Whiskey.”

        This year, Julian III began concentrating on developing import markets in England and Italy. Business is so good, he says there will be plenty for the fourth generation Van Winkle to do.

        Van Winkle whiskies are available at many Kentucky spirits stores. More information: www.oldripvanwinkle.com.

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