Living the Bourbon Lifestyle: Honoring the Legacy of Pappy Van Winkle with the Keys to Hospitality
If you’d been fortunate enough to visit the hallowed halls of the Stitzel-Weller Distillery, you would have been understood if you had mistaken it for a home instead of an office. You would have felt beckoned in, welcomed by a fireplace and an office that felt and looked more like a living room. You would have seen not an expected door knocker on the door but rather a set of heavy brass keys. Five keys, to be exact, designed in honor of Pappy’s 75th Birthday, were a physical welcome to all guests who came to his office. These keys symbolized the keys to hospitality and were the tangible link to Stitzel-Weller and the old southern traditions of hospitality they honored.
The five heavy keys initially represented the 5 steps of the bourbon making process: grains, yeast, fermentation, distillation, and aging. Over time, they came, equally as importantly, to symbolize the keys to hospitality. While no one is quite sure how they transitioned to that, it would be easy to connect it to the overall mandate proffered from the beginning - that ever-present promise that enjoying the finer things in life was of utmost importance. The belief that the simple ritual of enjoying the result of those five steps is the key to enjoying life, and thus the key to perhaps the greatest old Southern goal: hospitality.
While hospitality may seem old-fashioned to the more modern ear, we tend to believe the opposite. It has never been more important to embrace the true nature of hospitality. In a world where much of our interaction is digital, and the primary directive is to rush rather than slow down and enjoy, we need to infuse as many moments of generous hospitality as possible.
While untangling the meaning of the word itself from its most common consecutive term of industry may seem difficult, hospitality itself means so much more than that commonly used moniker. Hospitality is a broad term, yet holds a much more intimate connotation. It is a generosity of spirit, an invitation, a warm welcome or embrace; it is in the small moments of selecting a gift that shows meaning, serving a favorite meal to your guests, offering help to a friend or stranger, or lending a hand, it is reaching out and checking in, it is the warmth of a welcome reception that means you are wanted here.
The image of Pappy’s keys on the door that led into an office filled with personal touches, mementos, curios, and a roaring fire are so ingrained in his legacy that the keys themselves became the basis of our own company. Those keys remain an integral part of our shared inheritance and our own business model - based on Pappy’s original promise of quality above all else, appreciation of true craftsmanship, and the ultimate goal of enjoying the small moments and savoring the finer things in life - even if those finer things aren’t fancy at all.
Our Pappy & Company logo consists of three brass keys designed to symbolize Pappy’s model of hospitality. The three intertwined keys envisage not only the three of us sisters behind the company but also Pappy’s original ideals and commitments. The idea that hospitality can be as simple as the feeling you get when pouring your favorite glass of whiskey and savoring it by the fireplace. As simple as a bottle of wine shared among friends or a summer night where conversation and company linger long after the sun fades into the night while children chase fireflies.
These are the moments that invite warmth, character, and a welcome that feels like a warm embrace. They are moments rooted in tradition and elevated from ordinary to extraordinary by the sheer presence of friends, family, food, drink, and laughter. It is comfort over formality, the goal of enjoyment over aesthetic ideals, serving food that tastes good and drinks because they are old favorites. The belief is that all occasions have the opportunity to be special, that rituals deserve meaning, and that small moments deserve to be celebrated. It is sharing that sensation of joy and savoring the everyday moments the same way you would your favorite glass of bourbon. These keys to hospitality are the keys to unlocking what it means to live the bourbon lifestyle and, thus, to enjoy life to the fullest.
