Very Olde St. Nick Summer Rye Lot No A12 75cl

Very Olde St. Nick Summer Rye Lot No A12 is a rare and refined American rye whiskey that embodies the essence of artisanal distillation. Sourced from a small, carefully selected batch, this whiskey is known for its pronounced spiciness, deep complexity, and exceptional smoothness. With a rich history and a cult following among whiskey collectors, this Summer Rye offers a perfectly balanced experience for lovers of premium rye whiskey.

Tasting Notes

Nose

Bold aromas of sweet rye, honey, and freshly ground pepper, complemented by notes of dried fruit, cinnamon, and a hint of mint. Subtle accents of oak and vanilla add extra depth.

Taste

Full-bodied and spicy with a silky texture. Notes of caramel, rye bread, and dark cherries are beautifully balanced by warm spices such as nutmeg and clove. Hints of orange zest and a light floral touch provide a refreshing surprise.

Finish

Long and warming, with lingering spicy notes of black pepper and cinnamon, followed by a sweet, malty undertone and a subtle hint of tobacco and oak.

Very Olde St. Nick Summer Rye Lot No A12 is a refined and characterful rye whiskey that perfectly balances spice, sweetness, and elegance.

Background Information

The Very Olde St. Nick brand is owned by InterBev, a subsidiary of Allied Lomar in California, which also produces brands such as Rare Perfection and Wattie Boone. The company’s president, Marci Palatella, has been purchasing and bottling barrels for decades. In the 1980s and 1990s, she was the agent for Julian Van Winkle III in the Japanese market and created the Very Olde St. Nick brand to cater to Japan’s demand for well-aged bourbon, which, fortunately, was not popular in the U.S. at the time. Her first bottles were produced for her by Van Winkle at his Old Commonwealth bottling facility in the late 1980s.

At that time, however, Van Winkle did not have an abundance of well-aged stock in his warehouses, so Palatella turned to Evan Kulsveen’s Kentucky Bourbon Distillers (KBD), which bottled Olde St. Nick throughout the 1990s and early 2000s at the then-dormant Willett Distillery in Bardstown. KBD sourced most of its barrels from its neighbor, Heaven Hill, although Kulsveen once jokingly claimed that their warehouses contained bourbon from every distillery in Kentucky except his own. However, Van Winkle was not yet finished with the Very Olde St. Nick story and introduced Palatella to representatives from United Distillers, who sold InterBev a number of aging barrels they no longer had interest in. Many of these barrels were transferred to stainless steel tanks and stored in California to prevent further aging.

When KBD restarted the Willett stills in 2012, they began sourcing fewer barrels from other distilleries and reserved their best stock for their own Willett Family Reserve label. As a result, the production of Very Olde St. Nick was nearly halted and moved to California, where some of the tanked Stitzel-Weller barrels were bottled by Frank-Lin Distillers.

In 2018, Palatella opened the Preservation Distillery in Bardstown, Kentucky. It is a small craft distillery with a pot still, producing only a few barrels per day. Very Olde St. Nick is now bottled there and will eventually feature the distillery’s own whiskey.