Julian Van Winkle, the third-generation head of the Pappy Van Winkle distillery, now is thought of as something like the Buddha of Bourbon. His grandfather presided over a magical kingdom of craft and connoisseurship, but, when Julian took over the business after his father’s death, he faced the challenge of his lifetime: how to preserve the taste of pappy, the taste of his family's heritage, in a new age? Wright Thompson was invited to be his wingman and he set about to try. The result is an extraordinary testimony to the challenge of living up to your legacy and the rewards that come from knowing and honoring your people and your craft. Wright learned those lessons from Julian as they applied to the honest work of making a great bourbon whiskey in Kentucky, but he couldn't help applying them to his own craft, writing, and his upbringing in Mississippi, as he and his wife contemplated the birth of their first child.
