The Keys to Hospitality:
A Collection that embraces, symbolizes, and shares Pappy’s legacy
The Symbol:
When we founded Pappy & Company, we discussed designing a logo that could somehow encompass the three of us sisters, our bourbon heritage, and the incredible legacy of our great-grandfather, Pappy Van Winkle. While that may initially seem like a daunting challenge, it was actually quite simple. We always knew how we would want to visually represent ourselves - with a simple set of keys.
We designed a logo of three intertwined keys. Keys that represented the triplet sisters behind Pappy & Company, these keys are entirely emblematic of Pappy’s legacy of hospitality, and the keys to unlocking the secret to the bourbon lifestyle we wanted to share through Pappy & Company.
Since then, we have intentionally displayed our logo across a variety of our products to convey our commitment to sharing our great-grandfather’s spirit of hospitality, love of entertaining, and the craftsmanship, quality, and taste of our family’s namesake bourbon.
We’ve curated a Keys Collection, full of some of our signature Pappy & Company products, that, while emblematic of our heritagein style, also bear the significance of having been intentionally designed to unlock the magic, simplicity, and joy of hospitality.
The Hospitality:
The idea of hospitality can perhaps feel both a little vague and a little exalted and unreachable. Part of the motivation for not just this collection but for our company in general is to exist as a reminder that simple moments are the ones that hold, pardon the pun, the key to daily moments of shared generosity, entertainment, and delight.
Entertaining, too, is a broad and somewhat old-fashioned word, which, of course, we like about it. It can, however, conjure up images of traditional dinner parties (those of our great-grandparents and grandparents generation), where a formal dining room was set with crystal goblets alongside grand candelabras, and trays of silver were laden with laboured dishes awaiting service.
Or it reminds us of a time when the expectation was to be greeted by a hostess in heels and an impossibly difficult hairdo, offering a perfectly mastered and chilled martini at the ready. While we appreciate the occasional opportunity to elevate an event to such an elegantly old-fashioned setting, we much prefera Friday night in jeans, a Sunday evening with a crackling fire and some homemade chili, or a lazy summer Saturday with the grillgoing and friends gatheredaround the porch.
In this sense, hospitality and entertainingare simply a feeling. While we have plenty of how-tos for gatherings and hosting, the true motivation behind our collectionsis to invite the fun in every day. To not feel the pressure of perfecting hosting skills, or culinary skills, but rather embrace the spontaneity and presence of hospitality in the otherwise mundane routine of everyday. It is simply opening the door and welcoming it in.
Life is messy and busy and chaotic and fun, if you let it be. Often, our favorite gatherings are the ones that are entirely unplanned. Having a pantry stocked with Pappy Van Winkle Bourbon Barrel-Aged gourmet essentials, Pappy Van Winkle-inspired barware, and Pappy Van Winkle Bourbon Barrel-Agedcocktail mixers that make cocktails a breeze means that, when the stress of entertaining or hosting is entirely removed, you can actually enjoy it.
The Keys:
A set of brass keys hung on the door of Pappy’s office at Stitzel-Weller Distillery. Originally meant to represent the five highly choreographed yet innately simple steps of the bourbon-making process, they came to embody the ethos of the entire company. Either as a natural evolution of his personal leadership style or simply because the product they produced was crafted for enjoyment(or perhaps a combination of these factors), the keys became, over time, emblematic of hospitality. They were so recognizable as Pappy’s Keys to Hospitality that, on the occasion of his 75th Birthday, an honorary pair of brass keys was commissioned and presented to forever commemorate their exalted status.
Pappy designed his office at Stiztel-Weller to look and feel more like a living room. A comfortable arrangement of chairs sat nestled around a working fireplace, whose mantel held treasures, family photographs, and mementos of work, travel, and life. This wasn’t some sort of corporate tickery, designed to disarm any visitors or business associates; it was simply an extension of how he lived and therefore, worked. The resounding opinion was that he considered everyone who worked at Stitzel-Weller, across all occupations and levels, a friend, and that is how he operated in both his business and personal life.
Meetings often turned into long walks or even duck hunts in the lush fields surrounding the distillery, and business almost always concluded with a friendly tasting around his fireplace. In fact, he was known to turn up to the office already dressed in his camo, his hunting gear always at the ready in his closet. Stopping by Pappy and Nana’s house on Hill Road (a much more customary habit in the days before technology had us constantly connected) was known to turn into an invitation to a fully set breakfast table or an evening cocktail hour.
The legacy: bourbon heritage.
Our grandfather, Julian Van Winkle, II (affectionately referred to as FaFa), felt the same way. A magnanimous presence, he was larger than life both in stature and personality. His time at the helm is marked by memories of a charming, natural leader who went out of his way to ensure everyone felt appreciated and who felt deeply committed to leadership and to maintaining his father’s legacy. His time serving as a Silver Star Captain in the Army during WWII left an indelible impression on him, and he carried forth that level of sacrifice, dedication, and loyalty to all facets of his life.
A connective thread through all generations of Van Winkle leadership, continuing with our dad, Julian Van Winkle III, is a genuine curiosity, a sense of humor, and an inherent commitment to the legacy, heritage, and, of course, the product itself: the bourbon.
Bourbonbegins with a small set of, honestly, rather unremarkable ingredients. It is only through time, patience, tradition, and old-fashioned know-how that they are transformed under the magical combination of Kentucky limestone, a hand-crafted oak barrel, and the warming sun of a hot southern summer and the brisk winds of a cold winter into the delicately layered flavors of our family’s iconic bourbon.
The grandest achievement for which is to be sipped around a fireplace, not unlike the one in Pappy’s original office, enjoyed on a duck hunt, not unlike Pappy’s regular jaunts through the fields behind the distillery, masquerading his favorite pastime into a business meeting, or enjoyed on a round of golf, similar to his Pappy’s time on the links with his beloved dog Thunder as his caddy.
Pappy Van Winkle Bourbon is crafted for enjoyment, with the kind of care, dedication, and fealty that remains today, and continues to be a guidepost for all of our Pappy & Companycollections.
Sure, you can save it for a special occasion, or make an occasion special for enjoying it. Or take Pappy’s approach, when in his 90’s, the doctor told Pappy to cut back, Nana would remind him, “the doctor doesn’t want you to have too much of that,” he would reply, with his signature wit and quick charm, “he doesn’t want me to have too little either.”
Bourbon is crafted to be enjoyed, time is necessary for its development, and the good stuff is always better shared. That, of course, is our version of hospitality, and one that we share with you through our Pappy & Company Keys Collection. Inspired by Pappy’s Keys to Hospitality, his motto, and his overall embrace of life, are simple ways to infuse the everyday, celebrate the little moments, and notice the small details. Represented both in style, by our Pappy & Company keys logo, and in the intentional design and intended use, everything in this collection is crafted to be used. Perhaps they all ask, or answer a question: What would Pappy do?
In most cases, the answerwould be to open a bottle, share a cigar, extend a chair, enjoy a meal together, take a walk, or hit the course.
The Collection
Coasters, cutting boards handcrafted from our retired Pappy Van Winkle Barrels, napkins inspired by our grandparents’ original vintage cocktail napkins, sophisticated, retro, and versatile glassware, grilling tools, barware, home decor, and accessories, are all marked with the highest honor, our keys. A symbol of Pappy’s legacy, they invoke a spirit of enjoyment, togetherness, and gathering, and they unlock the daily potential of hospitality. They are a reminder that events, gestures, and occasions don’t have to be grand, just thoughtful. In the same way that delivering a homemade meal to a friend is meant to convey the message “I am thinking of you,” these entertaining essentials were intentionally crafted to inspire the same sense of welcome, invitation, and warmth.
Explore the Collection: the door is always open, come on in and grab a drink!
