By Richard Thomas
Rating: B+
(Credit: Richard Thomas)
When Danville’s Wilderness Trail Distillery opened 13 years ago, they shared some commonality with other contemporaries in the craft whiskey sector, but were also unique in a particularly important way. They too started small, originally operating out of an industrial storage space before moving to a farm property in 2016. Yet even after that move some decade ago, they were still operating on what I would describe as a large craft outfit; later expansions would bring them up to being a medium-sized distiller, followed by their 2022 acquisition by Campari.
Wilderness Trail became a fan favorite distillery along the way, driven by their transparency and the sheer nerdiness of the unique aspect I alluded to earlier: founders Pat Heist and Shane Baker were established industry consultants before starting Wilderness Trail, a departure from the white collar, corporate refugee model that so dominated craft distilling in the early 2010s. Their expertise has always shown in their products and continues to do so in their new private barrel series, Family Reserve, which launched earlier this month with a wheated bourbon, “high rye” bourbon and a rye whiskey. The expressions in the new series are all cask strength, single barrel and six years old, and are described as intended to be the vehicle for private barrel picks, but seem to be available on a general footing otherwise.
The traditional/”high rye” bourbon recipe is made using Wilderness Trail’s 64% corn, 24% rye and 12% malted barley mash bill. In a virtual tasting, Dr. Heist expanded at length on his production process, an example of his nerdy charm. One nugget to come out of that was Heist’s assertion that to achieve total conversion of starch into sugar, one really needed more or less 17% malted barley in the mash, so they rely on manufactured enzymes at Wilderness Trail to a certain extent. That runs contrary to what most distillers will tell you about their production process, with usually only those under the 10% mark admitting to added enzymes in their mash.
Wilderness Trail also bucks tradition by using a sweet mash production process, so unlike the industry-dominant sour mash system there is no backset from previous bashes. They use char 4 barrels for maturation, entering their new make at 110 proof. The barrel I sampled came out at 119 proof.
The Bourbon
My pour took on a dark, brown-leaning nutty amber, a coloring it retained even after a big splash of water was added. The nose opened with a nutty, but musty chunk of wood, seasoned by spearmint, fennel and anise. This developed into a hot slice of apple pie on the palate, what with a very toasty, almost burnt cinnamon toast quality attached to baked apple in two nearly distinct, paired currents, plus the expected vanilla. The finish opened with a spicy tinge, faded to a woody note, and then faded in turn back to the over-toasted cinnamon toast from the palate.
The new expression of Wilderness Trail’s traditional bourbon mash is, as is so often the case from them, a lovely sipper. I found that the finish on this particular barrel put quite a complex ending onto a whiskey that is merely mature, and found myself thinking this bottling was cusping on A-. So, particular barrel picks to come from this expression in the future may very well achieve that mark.
The Price
The MSRP on this bottle is $70.
