Wilderness Trail Distillery 8 Year Old Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey

While Wilderness Trail Distillery’s first release was their wheated bourbon, with a mashbill of 64% corn, 24% wheat and 12% malted barley, this release uses their rye bourbon mashbill. To clarify, that means that rye replaces the wheat as the secondary grain. As usual for Wilderness Trail, this bourbon is made using a sweet mash, meaning that they start from scratch every time, as opposed to a sour mash which uses a bit of the backset from a prior distillation.

Wilderness Trail 8 Year Bourbon is a small batch, which in this case is 18-20 barrels. This bourbon is Bottled In Bond, so it’s 100 proof by definition. The first batch is being sold only at the distillery, with the second batch to be sold throughout Kentucky.

Nose: Vanilla, cherry, caramel, oak, honey, cinnamon, crème brûlée, light leather & cigar ash, but in a good way; moderate alcohol
Taste: Honey, caramel, cherry candy & cinnamon
Finish: The flavors continue, and pick up some black pepper and cayenne spice. Cinnamon spice and cherry linger. There’s a little barrel char, too. It’s a fairly long finish with a moderate burn.