Era: Bottled 1988
ABV: 40%
Volume: 75cl
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William Larue Weller was born in 1825, and at the tender age of 24 years old is credited with being the first to replace rye with wheat in bourbon making, thus founding the tradition of wheated bourbon still going strong today. In 1893 Julian "Pappy" Van Winkle Sr. was hired by W.L. Weller & Sons as a salesman, and upon the death of Weller, Van Winkle and a co-worker, Alex Farnsley, purchased the company. When prohibition hit Van Winkle and Farnsley merged with Arthur Stitzel's distillery and kept the ship afloat selling medicinal whiskey.
Farnsley is credited with bringing back the old wheated bourbon formula first pioneered by W.L. Weller, and in 1936 Stitzel-Weller released their first batch of Rebel Yell, only available to states in the Old South. With Julian Van Winkle Sr.'s passing in 1965 the distillery was taken over by his son, Julian Jr. who in 1972 sold the concern to a holding of Somerset Imports. They eventually sold it to what is now Diageo. Rebel Yell was distilled at Stitzel-Weller until United Distillers moved production to the Bernheim distillery in 1992.
