Old Commonwealth (Van Winkle)

Perhaps anticipating the looming closure of the prized Stitzel Weller Distillery, the Van Winkle Family purchased the shuttered Hoffman distillery in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky 1983. They would reopen the distillery in 1984 as a rectifier, not distilling at all and simply bottling sourced whiskey. Until the closure in 2002 The OC Distillery would bottle what would become the most sought after American Whiskey on the planet... In the late 80s a large amount of "Boone Whiskey' was secured from the neighboring Wild Turkey Distillery along with a supposed 400 barrels of Hirsch Whiskey from Gordon Hue who stated he bought the barrels from the closed Michter's Pennsylvania Distillery. These along with the Van Winkle's prime cuts of Stitzel one could say brought the Bourbon industry back to life.