PLCB offers whiskey connoisseurs 2nd chance at Van Winkle releases

If you missed out on the opportunity to purchase bottles of rare Van Winkle whiskeys earlier this year, you have another chance.

This week, the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board is awarding lottery registrants the opportunity to purchase 183 bottles of rare whiskeys, including the coveted 2021 Van Winkle releases, through its Limited Release Lottery.

The lottery is limited to Pennsylvania residents and licensees, and the deadline is 5 p.m. Friday to opt in to one or more drawings. Those interested can go to the Limited-Release Lottery web page at FWGS.com.

In all, there will be five lotteries, one for the Van Winkle bourbons and four for other limited-release whiskeys.

This opportunity arose in part because of unforeseen circumstances — new Van Winkle bottles were received by the PLCB to replace damaged bottles — and also to hand out bottles from the last lottery in January that went unclaimed by the winners.

“We typically have one Van Winkle lottery a year,” said PLCB spokesman Shawn Kelly. “In this case, we happen to have some product that was unclaimed and some bottles that were replaced, so we figured the best way to fairly distribute this is to have another lottery.”

This lottery includes four separate drawings, and participants can enter as many as they like. However, there’s a limit of one bottle per winner for purchase, and a winner selected in one drawing will be removed from subsequent drawings in the Van Winkle lottery.

So, what makes the Van Winkle products such a Holy Grail among bourbons? It turns out that they’ve achieved a certain cultural significance after being referenced on the popular television show “NCIS Los Angeles.”

In one episode in 2014, the character of Henrietta Lange, or “Hetty,” played by Academy Award-winner Linda Hunt, offers Nell Jones (Renee Felice Smith) a special Pappy Van Winkle whiskey as a token of appreciation.

After that, Van Winkle began flying off the shelves, according to Kelly.

“Long before that happened, Van Winkle products would sit on our shelves, sometimes for months,” said Kelly. “As bourbon became a more popular alcoholic beverage and as Van Winkle products achieved this cultural phenomenon status, they’ve become a lot more in demand.”

Kelly said before the PLCB created the lottery, when they put Van Winkle products for sale online, the demand was so great that the people who wanted them would crash their website.

“There would be way too much traffic to handle, and people who were just on to buy other products would not be able to get through,” he said. “So, we created the lottery as a way to fairly and evenly distribute the chance to win the right to buy these bottles.”

Limited-Release Lottery products have to be delivered to a Fine Wine & Good Spirits store and, in light of attempts by previous lottery winners to resell products, the PLCB is reminding folks that it’s illegal to resell liquor under Pennsylvania law.