It’s that time of year again: Old Rip Van Winkle Distillery and Buffalo Trace have announced the 2026 Van Winkle Whiskey Collection today, and the six-bottle lineup is back to test your patience and your budget in equal measure.
Here’s a list of the drops, with ages ranging from ten to 23 years:
- Old Rip Van Winkle Handmade Bourbon 10-Year-Old
- Van Winkle Special Reserve Bourbon 12-Year-Old
- Pappy Van Winkle’s Family Reserve Bourbon 15-Year-Old
- Pappy Van Winkle’s Family Reserve Bourbon 20-Year-Old
- Pappy Van Winkle’s Family Reserve Bourbon 23-Year-Old
- Van Winkle Family Reserve Rye 13-Year-Old
And just in case you were reaching for your cash, here’s a heads-up: every expression comes back with a higher suggested retail price than last year. The 10-Year climbs to $169.99, the 12-Year to $199.99, the Rye 13-Year to $299.99, the 15-Year to $299.99, and the 20-Year to $399.99. The 23-Year holds steady at $499.99, which, in Pappy terms, is basically a discount.
Preston Van Winkle, vice president and fourth-generation family member, framed the release as more of the same patient, no-shortcuts approach the brand’s built its name on. “There are no shortcuts when you’re talking about whiskey that has spent this many years aging,” he said. “Our responsibility is to remain patient, protect the quality and carry forward the standards our family has valued for generations.”
The prices keep climbing, and nobody seems surprised
Van Winkle whiskey has always operated on its own economic logic. Suggested retail price has never meant much — bottles have traded for multiples of MSRP on the secondary market for years, so a price bump barely registers next to what people are actually paying to get their hands on one.
Still, two consecutive years of SRP hikes are worth being aware of, if only because it suggests Sazerac sees room to close some of that gap between what the label says and what the market’s already decided the whiskey is worth.
None of this will slow anyone down. Pappy’s scarcity has always been part of the appeal (aside from the flavor, obviously), and a higher sticker price doesn’t change the odds of actually finding a bottle on a shelf, which remain somewhere between “slim” and “know a guy.”
Just to make sure everyone knows the scalping and skullduggery isn’t on them, the brand has re-upped their perennial disclaimer: “The Van Winkle family reminds fans that neither they nor Buffalo Trace Distillery controls prices set by individual retailers and strongly recommends purchasing Van Winkle whiskeys only through licensed sellers.”
Where to buy it
The 2026 Van Winkle Whiskey Collection is available in limited quantities at retailers, bars, and restaurants nationwide starting today, with SRPs ranging from $169.99 to $499.99.]
