Drink Pappy Van Winkle’s Entire Insanely Hard-to-Find Whiskey Lineup at the Saratoga

Whiskey fanatics will have their work cut out for them with the launch of Pappy Days at the Saratoga, a seven-week tasting of America’s cult bourbon, Pappy Van Winkle. The tastings take place each Monday during the weekly series, starting with the 10-year ($10) and ending with the 25-year ($225).

Bar director Brandon Clement has been amassing a huge collection of Pappy over the past ten years, an undertaking any collector will understand as formidable. Now the Saratoga — the sleek Tenderloin restaurant from Bacchus Management Group — is unleashing them into the world, taste by taste for very decent prices.

The Saratoga

Drinkers will be issued a Pappy Passport (basically a punch card) to check each tasting off their list; those who drink their way through the entire list will receive dinner for two at the Saratoga and bragging rights amongst whiskey nerds.

Does the math work out? Kinda. But does someone with a bloodlust for Pappy care? Probably not. The cost for one person to drink their way through the entire tasting equals $360 (excluding tax and tip), while a free dinner for two would likely hover around $200 if those two diners really went for it. Still, though, bottles of Pappy are difficult to find out in the wild due to their cult status and low production numbers, and can go for hundreds (or thousands) of dollars above retail price.

Naysayers will immediately protest that there are many other excellent (or even better) whiskies in the world. That’s true, but does the Pope declare those whiskies to be “very good?”

• The Saratoga Delivers Two Levels of Swanky, Supper Club Elegance to the Tendernob [ESF]
• Why People Lose Their Shit Over Pappy Van Winkle [E]