Pappy & Company honors the Legacy and Heritage of Pappy Van Winkle
through the principles of Sisterhood. Legacy. Gratitude
The pillars of our Pappy & Company mission have been well defined. They have informed us on a day-to-day basis about small tasks, as well as our overall business model, vision, and goals. Yet, underlying the big ideas and overarching themes, lingers a few sentiments that play just as vital a role in our lives, both professionally and personally.
As we near the year's end, we reflect on these sentiments, as they are integral to our personal and professional lives, and equally representative of our heritage, just as our family’s namesake bourbon: Sisterhood. Gratitude. Legacy.
While we may not intentionally approach our day with the mindset of being “women-led,” it is nearly impossible to undermine the significance, even if sometimes quietly, that it has had, from the very beginningof our company. As triplet sisters, we have naturally spent a good amount of time in the commune of women. This has encouraged us to be outspoken, confident, generous, and mindful leaders.
Being a female-founded company is only one of the unique traits of our small business, yet it is nearly impossible to untangle each element from the others. Pappy & Company is deeply connected to our appreciation of all aspects of our heritage. It just so happens that we have generations of strong, empowered, generous, and welcoming women who have paved the way and shown us, both emphatically and silently, what it means to lead with courage, curiosity, gratitude, and, of course, always with a layer of hospitality.
Perhaps, forging ahead with starting a small-business could have been considered naive; however, we never questioned our abilities or dreams of founding our own business. We still believe, even with our knowledge and understanding of the challenges and obstacles we have faced along the way, that we would make the same choice again today.
Similarly, and perhaps naively as well, we never questioned the challenges of navigating as heavily male-dominated an industry as the bourbon world is, as a female-founded company. We believed in our voice, our ideas, and, of course, perhaps most importantly, we believed in the value of sharing our family’s legacyof quality, craftsmanship, and hospitality with all of you.
As a small business and a female-founded business, we also gravitate towards and connect with other small businesses, women-led businesses, and partners who are committed to the same values we are.
Naturally, either as a product of our heritage, our female founded sensibilities, or more likely, a combination of those factors, we gravitate towards partners and collaborators with a similar background, passion, and values. Whether its subconsciously, or intentionally, we have found ourselves working more often than not, with small businessesthat are either entirely, or partially, female-founded, or with strong female leadership.
We are proud to be sisters who work together, who bring our ideas to the table, and fight for our seat. While we’ve never shied away from challenges, we know that the legacy of Pappy, and the heritage of our family’s own hard work ethic, overall ethos of dedication, quality and craftsmanship, and underlying hospitality, have played a significant role in running our small business for over 12 years.
We feel an immense amount of gratitude for our family, our team, our partners, our collaborators, and our loyal Pappy & Company family. Gratitude is of course a word that becomes a part of the national lexicon during the holiday season, especially during November in the lead up to a holiday entirely devoted to the premise of Thankfulness. Yet gratitude plays a larger role in our heritage and legacy, and our overall business model.
We are forever grateful for the generations of Van Winkles who paved the way and who stood firm in their principles, even, and especially when, it would have been far simpler or more lucrative to take the easier road. The dedication and commitment that was required of, yet so easily given as to almost seem not as consequential, by our great-grandfather, Pappy, never ceases to amaze us. The sacrifices made by our grandfather, and the grit and determination it took for our own dad to rebuild a family business are inspirational in their quiet magnitude. Especially when all that remained was a name, a promise, and a single-minded focus on one product. One product that is the result of time, simplicity and dedication.
These are the layers that are present in everything that we do, make and celebrate with our carefully crafted line-up of Pappy Van Winkle Bourbon Barrel-Aged, Pappy Van Winkle Inspired, Pappy Van Winkle Barrel Fermented, and Pappy Van Winkle heritage driven collections. In this holiday season, we remain committed to celebrating, honoring and sharing Pappy’s legacy.
We are incredibly grateful for our partners, our customers all over the world, the support of our philanthropic mission, and most important of all, the opportunity to be even a small part of your celebrations, holidays and family gatherings. That is our legacy. Thank you for embracing it with the same spirit of hospitality, enjoyment, care and dedication that Pappy himself embodied. Cheers.
