Buffalo Trace Released an Ultra-Aged Whiskey: Weller Millenium

In a move that sent the whiskey world into near hysteria, news broke earlier this month that Buffalo Trace, the third oldest distillery in the world with roots dating back to 1773, was planning to release a new W.L. Weller whiskey. 

Bourbon enthusiasts first discovered it in an application to the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau’s website, which sought label approval of a “straight blended whiskey.” 

And the sleuths were right. The brand, which is often billed as “Poor Man’s Pappy Van Winkle,” officially announced yesterday at a private event held at Blue Hill at Stone Barns that it is set to release an ultra-aged expression called Weller Millennium. 

As the new millennium began, Buffalo Trace Distillery set aside several barrels of the first whiskeys distilled in the 2000s, all to create something special in this new period of history. Weller Millennium — a blend of vintage straight wheated bourbon and wheat whiskeys distilled in 2000, 2003, 2005, and 2006 — clocks in at a robust 49.5% ABV and spotlights “the impact wheat has on the whiskey’s flavor.” Of course, wheat is an important ingredient for the W.L. Weller brand, which was the first to use wheat instead of rye in bourbon. 

“At Buffalo Trace Distillery, our motto is ‘Honor Tradition, Embrace Change,’” says Harlen Wheatley, Buffalo Trace’s master distiller. “As we are in constant pursuit of making the world’s best whiskey, we often hold back small lots of barrels to continue aging beyond our typical brand standards in the hope that this aging experimentation will result in a particularly well-balanced, matured whiskey. In this case, we found the whiskey distilled in 2000 to show incredible balance and asked ourselves how wheat would perform as an ultra-aged spirit. It’s proven to be an impeccable backbone to this expression, allowing us to showcase wheat’s versatility and innovate beyond traditional wheated bourbon.”

The bottle and packaging are works of art in themselves. The liquid is encased in a crystal decanter with a custom-made crystal topper hand-etched with Weller’s logo. The box includes an illuminated display with exactly 99 bursts, as a nod to the high-proof of the expression. 

This type of ultra-luxury release has become par for the course for the Sazerac group, which has recently launched several high-end expressions. In the fall, the distillery announced the arrival of only 200 bottles of Eagle Rare 25 with a suggested retail price of $10,000. It also debuted the inaugural Prohibition Collection, featuring the five Prohibition brands “that were legally produced and sold at the distillery.” And prior to that, Daniel Weller, a $499 experimental bottle of whiskey using Emmer wheat, an ancient grain. Of course, there’s the distillery’s much-lauded annual release, the Buffalo Trace Antique Collection (BTAC), a line of non-wheated bourbons that’s become a cult collectible among whiskey enthusiasts. 

All this to say, if you’re itching to get your hands on a bottle, that’ll be tough. According to the brand, Weller Millennium will be shipped to retailers, bars, and restaurants as of June 2024 at a suggested retail price of $7,500 per 750-milliliter bottle. (And it’ll probably cost much more than that in the secondary market.)

But one thing’s for certain: This is no Poor Man’s Pappy.