by Strayed » Sun Apr 10, 2005 5:53 pm
Yes Mike, and Andrew Carnegie sure could whip up an ingot or two of fine steel when he wanted to, too. 8)
There isn't any indication anywhere that Pappy Van Winkle had any involvement at all with the production side of his whiskey manufacturing business, other than his support of the folks who worked to fill the orders.
No, you didn't tell me about the strike in 1961 where the whole family, including Pappy, went to work distilling whiskey. I think that might be because it didn't happen. That was Julian II and King McClure, not the whole family. And they worked at bottling and distribution, i.e., contract fullfillment, not production. Pappy was 87 years old in 1961 and he wasn't even all that involved with the business anymore (he officially retired less than three years later).
Thomas Jefferson wasn't a great explorer. That was Clark & Lewis. But that doesn't detract from his importance as the president who authorized the mission. Pappy was great whiskey man, and it shouldn't be necessary to pretend his greatness was as a distiller.