If Nick Laracuente’s calculations are correct, the first age statement from Buffalo Trace Distillery in Frankfort, Kentucky’s archives was around the time of Prohibition. The distillery’s archivist and exhibits designer does, however, give me that piece of information with a caveat: “We have about 400,000 items and we’ve only examined five per cent of it thus far!”
Age-statement American whiskeys in recent years have been an intriguing factor of the category. Case in point: in 2022, Jack Daniel’s released its first age-statement whiskey (its 10-year-old) in over a century. Earlier in the year, I was lucky enough to do a very special Pappy Van Winkle tasting of its much-coveted 10, 12, 15, 20 and 23 year olds. But conversations around age statements
