Danville, Kentucky-based Wilderness Trail Distillery began barreling Bourbon in 2013 and now it’s time to celebrate its first 10-year release. The distillery plans a two-fold celebration Dec. 8 with bottle sales in the morning and a party that evening.
Bottle sales start at 10 a.m. Dec. 8 at the Danville distillery at 4095 Lebanon Road.
Music by Kings of Freon and food sales by Dunn’s BBQ will be 6 to 9 p.m. Dec. 8. Both events occur during a holiday open house at the Visitor Center.
When fermentation experts Shane Baker and Pat Heist, co-founders of Wilderness Trail Distillery, started their distillery, they worked on a pot still. Producing one barrel required a 12-hour day. Their Bourbon was the first known sweet mash, bottled-in-bond wheated Bourbon made in the state since Prohibition.
The barreling of this special barrel – the distillery’s second barrel ever made – coincided with the 80th anniversary of the repeal of Prohibition. Ten years later, the release commemorates the 90th anniversary of the repeal. In keeping with this theme, the 10-year bottle is housed in a rustic cedar box inspired by the smugglers’ crates of the Prohibition era.
The flagship wheated Bourbon’s mashbill is 64% corn, 24% wheat and 12% malted barley. The cost of the bottle and cedar box engraved with Wilderness Trail is $280 plus tax and the barrel will yield about 115 bottles. Sales will be on a first-come, first-serve basis.
In addition to the 10-year barrel, the distillery will offer a 6-year expression of its high-rye Bourbon at 113 proof. Bottles will be $69.
The releases take place during Wilderness Trail’s Holiday Open House, which features gift shop specials. Each customer can select one item and purchase a second item of equal or lesser value for 50 percent off, excluding alcohol. Our Trail Mix, which features 50 ml bottles of each of the three mashbills, also will be on sale for $15 instead of the usual $19.99. Bourbon cocktails will be $10 Dec. 8 and 9 as a nod to the 10-year anniversary.