Wilderness Trail Readies 6 Year Wheated, Bottled-in-Bond Bourbon

The Wilderness Trail Distillery in Kentucky heralds back to an idea among friends from 2006 that was sparked by a “passion for creating the finest whiskeys in the world.” One of its founders, Shane Baker, comes from a family tied to Kentucky whiskey making history, with his grandmother Doris Ballard at one point retiring from Stitzel-Weller after a more than 50 year career in the industry. 

Now the distillery, in a plan to highlight the Kentucky Bourbon Trail’s reopening on June 8th, is releasing its first six year old, wheated bottled-in-bond bourbon. 

The new Wilderness Trail 6 Year Old Wheated Bourbon, according to those behind it, follows on the heels of previous whiskey releases such as 4 year old, bottled in bond bourbons and a cask strength rye. The typical mash bill for their bottled in bond releases is 64 percent corn, 24 percent wheat and 12 percent malted barley, using the distillery’s unique yeast strains. Barrel entry of said whiskeys happens in a “cooper select, toasted and #4 char barrel at 110 proof” after coming off the still around 137 proof.

The bourbon is then aged in the distillery’s two-story Rickhouse A, moving floors each year of maturation.

“We always practice patience in aging our whiskeys,” said Baker, the distillery’s master distiller, in a prepared statement. “We’re used to waiting for those great flavors the years spent in the barrel produce. But it’s been hard to wait for the return of our visitors. It seems like years since we’ve had guests. We wanted to make the first day back extra special.”

Plans call for this bourbon to price around $83 per 750 ml bottle. A select number of said bottles (100) will be made available in a mahogany box with two shot glasses, with “Family Reserve” written in gold lettering on the box’s exterior. These boxes will be available for pick up at the distillery June 8th and can be pre-ordered online. Another 300 bottles will be put up for sale afterwards.