diptych # 24 (civilized ku # 2451-52) ~ an Act of Congress and a sad tale of betrayal
Saturday, January 26, 2013 at 04:54PM ;)
Unobtainium 1 and 2 / chicks with cameras • click to embiggenFriday was a Red Letter Day (rød dag, röd dag) and a day which will also live in family lore infamy. Let me explain ....
PART 1 ~ the backstory
... it all began a little over 2 yeas ago when I had my first taste of Pappy Van Winkle's Family Reserve 20 year old Straight Kentucky Bourbon Whiskey (click on the red Family Reserve label to read about it). As a long time bourbon drinker, having sampled many a fine example of that particular expression of the distiller's art, I knew I had come upon one of the finest examples of the type. Of course, at $40.00USD a shot, I kinda figured it might be something special.
So, a day or so later, I visited our little hometown liquor store and requested that they get me a bottle. It only took about of month of scrounging and begging for them to find out that any of the Van Winkle bourbons are extremely difficult to obtain and the 20 years old was the rarest / hardest to find of them all. There was some mention of having to be on the "original" Van Winkle liquor store list or all hope is lost.
I expanded my search to NYC only to find the same story. Those few stores which carried Van Winkles had absolutely none in stock and, just to keep it interesting, would have none until the next release date (only 1 or two releases a year). That date is usually around early to mid September but, if you aren't in the store the day it arrives ... well .... once again, all hope is lost.
"Never give up hope" is my motto, so I encouraged my local store to keep on searching. Lo and behold, late last autumn (2 years after my quest began), they received a call from a distributor informing them that 1 bottle of the 12 years old Special Reserve was available. Did they still want it? They immediately called me and, needless to write, I said "yes". While the 12 yo (rated a 98 by the Beverage Tasting Institute) is not the 20 yo (rated a 99 by the Beverage Tasting Institute, the # 1 rated bourbon in the world), it ain't shabby by any stretch of the imagination.
PART 2 ~ an Act of Congress
A little over a month later, I'm talking with my friend, the US Congressman. He's telling me about drinking - at the Irish Embassy with the Irish Ambassador - an incredibly good Irish Whiskey. In turn, I tell him about my quest for the unobtainium 20 years old Van Winkle bourbon. He then tells me he's good friends with the office-next-to-his Congressman from Kentucky and that he'd be happy to make an inquiry on my behalf.
Long story short, it turns out that the Representative from Kentucky is the Chairman of the Bourbon Caucus. That's the caucus which meets in the Kentucky Congressman's office in order to drink Kentucky Bourbon. That said, one phone call to the owner of Van Winkle and a bottle of the 20 years old unobtainium is on it's way to me.
Ain't it good to know that US House of Representatives can get some business done? Although, my friend is a Democrat.
PART 3 ~ the sad tale of betrayal
To be perfectly clear, the bottle in question was on its way to the wife's office because the Congressman did not have our home address handy at the time of the deal going down. That was no problem - the wife does tend to come home every evening after work and barring a roadside ambush, what could go wrong?
Answer: On the same day that the bottle arrived at the wife's office, the Congressman's son, who had just passed the Bar Exam and was now a certified attorney and an official associate in the firm, was summonsed to the wife's office (along with the other attorneys and partners) to have a bit of a welcome-to-the-party meeting. The wife arranged her office furniture around her office fireplace, a fire was lit, and drinking glasses for a toast were obtained and .....
.... need I go on? Sure, why not.
There, sitting in plain view on the wife's desk was the very rare and nearly impossible to obtain without an Act of Congress bottle of Van Winkle bourbon ... need I go on? Well, why not? Because ....
.... to be perfectly honest, the betrayal - forever to be known as The Pappy Van Winkle's Family Reserve 20 year old Straight Kentucky Bourbon Whiskey Affair - was reasonably restrained. Only about 3-4 fingers worth were actually consumed (as evidenced by the picture above) and to be honest, I can live with that (even if I wasn't there to collect 40 bucks a shot). Really. Does a guy with almost all of his $250.00USD worth of rare Van Winkle bourbon still in the bottle really have anything to bitch about?
The wife thinks not.
PART 3a
However, that was not the end of the wife's give away Marks' stuff day. After moving on to that evening's Annual Chamber of Commerce Awards and Recognition Dinner (see the chick's with cameras picture), I won a raffle prize - 2 nights in any North American La Quinta Inn & Suites of my choice.
But, before the glow of my winning had begun to ebb, there was the wife, winning certificate in hand, giving it away to one of the very lawyers who had been sucking up my booze that afternoon in the wife's office .... in a comfortable chair .... in front of a toasty fire.
With that in mind, I took the bottle of 20 years old with me today when I went to pick up Hugo. I'm gonna try like hell to never let it out of my sight again.
Reader Comments (3)
Hope the marriage survives.
I dont know how would have reacted after the second affront. But you seem to be cool about it. Cheers
If you get the chance watch “Angel’s Share” by Ken Loach. Whisky plays an important part in the plot, as the title implies.
Sorry the wife’s so generous with your stuff. Why not give away a few of her cherished possessions to your local charity?