Pappy Van Winkle bourbon company partners to create new chef's knife

Oct 07, 2023

If you've ever wanted to wrap your hands around a barrel of Pappy Van Winkle bourbon, literally, now is your chance.

Middleton Made Knives, a culinary bladesmith brand, and Pappy & Company, a bourbon-inspired retail and culinary brand, have partnered to create the Chef Knife, a custom blade with a handle crafted from Pappy Van Winkle bourbon barrels. Along with a custom Pappy Van Winkle bourbon barrel stave handle, the 8-inch, all-purpose chef's knife features a handcrafted high-carbon steel blade that is ideal for "slicing, dicing and chopping," according to a news release.

Its handmade blade and handle make it one-of-a-kind, falling in line with the legacy of the elite Pappy brand.

Pappy & Company was founded by triplet sisters who have family ties to Julian "Pappy" Van Winkle, the founder of the Stitzel-Weller Distillery, according to the company's website. The brand sells products like maple syrup, a barrel-fermented cigar sampler, a bourbon barrel stave cutting board, and more.

For Carrie Greener, a Pappy & Co. co-founder, the Pappy Van Winkle legacy motivates everything she and her sisters do at Pappy & Company. She said Van Winkle was "completely obsessed with quality and cared about that more than anything else."

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"What drives us is making high-quality products that mean something to us and really honor our heritage and legacy in a new and innovative way," she told the Courier Journal.

Greener said the Chef Knife is clean, smooth and beautiful while still showing the patina and black charred bits that occurred during the barrels' aging process. She said the knife's appeal comes from its origins.

"In a world where everything is machine-made, and you're not really sure where it comes from, I think a huge appeal is knowing exactly where it's made ... and the materials," she said. "Not to mention that it's just as practical as it is beautiful. It's an heirloom piece ... yet it's a great knife to use for your everyday cutting."

Greener said sustainability is top of mind for her and her sisters' when deciding what to do with the used bourbon barrels.

"There's lots of uses in the world for barrels, but something that we've really worked hard on is how to reuse ours," she said. "They mean something to us, and so it is a sustainable way to reuse them ... and continues that life cycle of the barrel."

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Greener said the collaboration with Middleton Made Knives was inspired by a friendship with Quintin Middleton, the latter's inventor, and the idea of reinventing retired barrels as new, practical pieces.

"It just made sense for us when we met that we would make a knife together because [Middleton] uses really beautiful, natural materials to make the handles, and he hand-forges the knife blade or the sheath, so it just came from a really natural friendship and idea," she said.

Middleton created Middleton Made Knives in 2010 after first fashioning knives out of household items like shower rods, according to the company website. He then spent six years learning to make hunting knives, swords, and fantasy-style weapons from fellow South Carolina native and former "Forged in Fire" reality star Jason Knight.

"As a craftsman, I am always looking to create unique, one-of-a-kind pieces, and I feel the Chef Knife honors both companies' passions for quality, detail and supreme precision in the kitchen," Middleton said of the collaboration.

Middleton has curated culinary knives for Craig Deihl, the current chef de cuisine at North Carolina seafood restaurant Hello, Sailor, Sean Brock, a Southern cuisine chef based in Nashville, Tennessee, Michael Anthony, a James Beard award-winning chef and cookbook author based in New York, and more.

The Chef Knife ($495)is available for purchase on Pappy & Company's website.

Reach reporter Leah Hunter at [email protected].