This is the story of the Stitzel-Weller Distillery, which, for much of the 20th Century, was known for making the finest bourbon in the world. But it's a bigger story than that: It's the tale of the Van Winkle family, of the legendary "Pappy" Van Winkle himself, of an era when businesses were still run by larger-than-life men who had other priorities than maximizing the bottom line.
It's also a story of the American Dream: the creation of a family company, so common a part of this country's history, but now disappearing in our age of mergers and acquisitions.
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