State lottery open for rare Pappy Van Winkle bourbon

Whiskey lovers, now is your chance to get your hands on the biggest name in bourbon — but you’ll need plenty of luck to grab a bottle.

The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board opened the annual lottery for Old Rip Van Winkle Distillery’s bourbons and rye whiskey.

The most coveted release is the Pappy Van Winkle’s Family Reserve Straight Bourbon 23 Year Old. Sold for $399.99 a bottle, the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board has only 23 bottles available — 18 for individuals, and five for bars, restaurants and clubs.

The state has about 1,900 bottles of other Van Winkle bourbons and rye whiskeys available in the lottery, which range in price from $89.99 to $249.99.

Entrants have until 5 p.m. Friday to enter any or all of the drawings for the six whiskey varieties at finewineandgood spirits.com. There’s a limit of one bottle per winner, so winning one drawing will automatically disqualify participants for the rest. Entrants must have an account on the site to register.

There likely will be plenty of competition. Last year, the state had 167,180 individual entries and 1,784 licensee entries in the annual Van Winkle lottery, according to the PLCB.

Pappy Van Winkle has been a hot commodity for years, but there’s even less of the 20 and 23-year-old varieties available this year because of greater-than-usual evaporation during the aging process, according to the Kentucky distillery.

The distillery tries to keep prices relatively low despite huge demand, president Julian Van Winkle said in a statement. The suggested retail price for a bottle of the 23-year-old variety is $299.99 — $100 less than what the PLCB charges.

“We are committed to releasing quality whiskey at a reasonable cost and we hope retailers will honor what we suggest as a fair retail price,” Julian Van Winkle said.

The disconnect between price and demand has led to a booming black market. Selling alcohol without a license is illegal, but that hasn’t stopped people from selling bottles of Van Winkle online for several times the MSRP. Some even take part in alcoholic counterfeiting — filling empty Van Winkle bottles with heap bourbon to sell, Esquire magazine reported.

In 2015 Pennsylvania State Police conducted a sting operation at Duquesne University, seizing a bottle of Pappy Van Winkle 20 Year from a man who tried to sell it for $800 on Craigslist. The man was not arrested.

The full list of whiskeys available in the lottery:Pappy Van Winkle’s Family Reserve Straight Bourbon 23 Year Old 95.6 Proof, $399.99 – 18 bottles for individual consumers, five bottles for licensees

Pappy Van Winkle’s Family Reserve Straight Bourbon 20 Year Old 90.4 Proof, $249.99 – 54 bottles for individual consumers, 17 bottles for licensees

Pappy Van Winkle’s Family Reserve Straight Bourbon 15 Year Old 107 Proof, $149.99 – 134 bottles for individual consumers, 44 bottles for licensees

Van Winkle Family Reserve Straight Rye Whiskey 13 Year Old 95.6 Proof, $159.99 – 134 bottles for individual consumers, 44 bottles for licensees

Old Rip Van Winkle Handmade Straight Bourbon 10 Year Old 107 Proof, $89.99 – 370 bottles for individual consumers, 123 bottles for licensees

Van Winkle Special Reserve Straight Bourbon 12 Year Old 90.4 Proof, $99.99 – 741 bottles for individual consumers, 247 bottles for licensees