Van Winkle 18yo Cask Strength

I wouldn't know anything about either one. Those are very limited, rare, special bottlings. Binny's has been offering the 18 year old for a long time. I've never heard of the 20 year old cask strength, and wouldn't know why an 18 year old would cost more. Very strange. I'm sure either one is good, but I have trouble springing for that much money, and for the past two "seasons" have been going lower and lower as far as price goes for the things I've been stocking up on. Cask strength seems to me to be another way of saying "barrel proof," so either one should be way over 100 proof.

The 20 year old from Pappy's is great. The best price can be had at:

http://www.shoppersvineyard.com

RfD:

There was a 20 year old Cask Strength (special barrel purchase), I'm reluctant to say which retailer carried it as it was a ways back and don't want to make a mistake.

There also were I believe at least three 18 year olds. Park Avenue (NY) Sam's (Chicago) and Binny's (Chicago) have all had private bottlings of Van Winkle whiskey at least 18 years old.

If I'm not mistaken there was also a special "Blue Smoke" bottle put out by Julian Van Winkle which I believe was also 18 years old or thereabout.

It's also my understanding that since the whiskey is running out the Van Winkle whiskey has been removed completely from Buffalo Trace's Barrel Purchase Program. Although it wouldn't surprise me if Sam's or Binny's were able to twist another barrel out of Julian or BT's grasp... when you have long standing business relationship that extends to personal relationship of the caliber these appear to have, the rules probably are little bit more flexible.

Yes I assume all the "cask strength" items are unfiltered. I also noticed over the years that they were bottled -- there were some pretty good variations... A couple of the bottles were in the 110's proof range while others (I believe Binny's) was is in the 120's+ range.