The story behind this bottle began when hosts Chad and Sara of “It’s Bourbon Night” created a 19 minute video short featuring Wilderness Trail for their YouTube channel (link at the bottom of this review). While shooting the video they were invited back to do a barrel pick. A few weeks later, they were joined by Wilderness Trail’s Macaulay Minton (Private Barrel/QC Manager) and Haley Perros (National Brand Manager). Eventually, three barrel samples out of six were eliminated. Although one sample stood out, the two remaining had characteristics that were hard to ignore. In the end, the three remaining samples were blended offering characteristics unmatched by any of them individually. Since this was now a three barrel small batch rather than a one barrel offering, the combined yield was much larger than originally planned. Wilderness Trail liked how this batch turned out and held back a third of the yield to sell at their gift shop while the rest can be found at the IBN section on the Keg N Bottle website. Let’s get into this.
Taken: Neat in a Glencairn glass, rested about 15 minutes.
Distillery: Wilderness Trail, Danville Kentucky.
Proof: 113.4.
Age: 4 years, 5 months. Rickhouse A, yeast strain FP1.
Barrel type: ICS Cooper Select 18 month air cured staves, toasted heads, #4 char.
Batch #: BN-WC22. 3 barrel small batch “Wheat Science”.
Mash bill: 64% Corn/ 24% Wheat/ 12% Malted Barley.
Price: Retail $65.
Appearance: Dark amber.
Nose
Werther’s caramel, crème brûlée chocolate, apricot, plums, pecans, orange marmalade, allspice and oak. There are a lot of caramel, stone fruit and chocolate notes up front with some nuttiness, but also good balance of allspice and rich oak to round it out. Underneath it all is a delicious classic wheated bourbon “bready-ness”. This nose is a pretty incredible.
Palate
This has a nice medium oily, viscous mouth feel. The nose transfers to the palate with caramel, crème brûlée, chocolate, apricot, plums, pecans, orange marmalade and rich oak, followed by a very nice balance of cinnamon spice entering mid-sip. While there are a lot of delicious, sweet and fruity notes, there’s also just the right amount of spice and oak for a fantastic balance. Also worth mentioning is the proof point which works well making this a delicious and very easy sipper.
Finish
Cinnamon spice lingers for a long time. As cinnamon fades light oak tannins arrive along with delicate stone fruit, chocolate and almonds coming back towards the end for a subtle but medium-long finish.
Conclusion
This Wilderness Trail small batch is an incredibly delicious wheated bourbon that has become one of my new favorites. There is a unique character about it (possibly due to its yeast strain) but there are also some characteristics that remind me of Maker’s Mark. Could be that Wilderness Trail uses a lower distillation proof (then most other distilleries) of around 137, Maker’s is 130 and a barrel entry proof of 110, the same as Maker’s. Also unique, Wilderness Trail uses a sweet mash verses a sour mash. I would describe this to be a desert bourbon that has a lot of rich oak to balance out its sweeter notes. Chalk that up to the Cooper Select toasted char #4 barrel, which also contributes to this bourbon tasting somewhat older than it is. The main age tell is the finish. Wilderness Trail has created an impressive wheated bourbon that rival favorites Maker’s Mark and Old Elk. If this is what they can do with barrels aged under 5 years, I’d love to taste their wheated bourbon aged at around 8 to 10 years is like.
Rating: 7.9/10.
1 | Disgusting | So bad I poured it out.
2 | Poor | I wouldn’t consume by choice.
3 | Bad | Multiple flaws.
4 | Sub-par | Not bad, but better exists.
5 | Good | Good, just fine.
6 | Very Good | A cut above.
7 | Great | Well above average.
8 | Excellent | Really quite exceptional.
9 | Incredible | An all time favorite.
10 | Perfect | Perfect.
