Pappyland: Wright Thompson in conversation with Julian Van Winkle III

November 12, 2020 - 7:00pm
Prairie Lights Virtual - Zoom

Join Nate Kaeding with Big Grove Brewery for a conversation to celebrate the release of Pappyland. 

Your ticket enters you into a RAFFLE for a chance to win a bottle of PAPPY VAN WINKLE. Three bottles will be raffled off by the Lee Initiative - so three winners!

Wright Thompson, Julian Van Winkle III, and Nate Kaeding of Big Grove will come together virtually to talk about the most sought-after Kentucky Bourbon whiskey in the world. Join us to listen in, get a copy of Pappyland shipped to your door, and to have a chance to win a bottle of Pappy Van Winkle. See more details and purchase your ticket here.

Barrel-aged for over 20 years and released in limited batches each fall, fans vie for a bottle of Pappy Van Winkle each year online, seeking lottery tickets that offer a chance to purchase a bottle—which are typically priced north of $3,000. Julian Van Winkle III, the third-generation head of the family business, has been swarmed in recent years wherever he goes with people standing in lines for him to sign their bottles of Family Reserve, the whiskey he created to honor his grandfather Pappy Van Winkle, founder of the genteel craft bourbon.

PAPPYLAND: A Story of Family, Fine Bourbon, and the Things That Last​ is the first all-access account of the legendary Pappy Van Winkle brand, written by the beloved ​New York Times​-bestselling author Wright Thompson in close collaboration with Julian Van Winkle.

Publisher's Weekly's Starred Review calls Pappyland, "A fast-paced and colorful history of 20th-century Southern culture, told through the story of charismatic cult-bourbon maker Julian P. Van Winkle III. . . . ‘Being Southern,’ Thompson writes, ‘means carrying a responsibility to shake off the comforting blanket of myth and see ourselves clearly.’ Thompson more than fulfills that burden with insight and eloquence.”

Wright Thompson ​is the ​New York Times ​bestselling author of ​The Cost of These Dreams​ and a senior writer for ESPN. He lives in Oxford, Mississippi with his family.

He will be joined in conversation by Julian Van Winkle III, who is the third generation Van Winkle to be involved in the Kentucky Bourbon whiskey business. His grandfather, who was known as "Pappy", started the family in the business back in the 1870s when he was a salesman for the W.L. Weller & Sons liquor wholesalers in Louisville. He later built and was president of the Stitzel-Weller Distillery in Louisville, which opened its doors on Derby day, 1935.

Your ticket to the event will include:

  • a copy of Pappyland, including shipping and handling
  • a $10 donation to the Lee Initiative Restaurant Workers Relief 
  • entry into a raffle for a bottle of Pappy Van Winkle - three bottles to be raffled, so three winners!