Wilderness Trail "Where the High Rye-id Things Are" Cask Strength Single Barrel Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey The Prime Barrel #53

Most of our members wanted us to bring back Wilderness” wheated bourbon expression. Like good soldiers, we tasted through 6 barrels of their wheated expression and were pretty underwhelmed. Out of 6, only 1 barrel was remotely appealing, but nothing to write home about. The other five were “meh.”  Knowing that the distillery also has High Rye bourbon and Rye whiskey expressions, we asked them to taste them. Our wish was granted, and 6 more barrels were presented for our tasting pleasure. We tasted these blind with the goal of leaving there with the best-tasting liquid. The second flight was miles better than the first one. We liked almost all 6 but really were drawn to two out of those 6 (barrels 1 and 5). Both barrels had a lot going on on the palate and had a medium to long finish, but  Barrel 1 had a slightly better nose and won out at the end. It turned out to be a High Rye Bourbon selection (64/24/12 mashbill).

Tasting notes:

• Nose: candied qualities, brown sugar, a little bit of heat, roses
• Palette: green apple taffy, roses, after opening up lots of dried apricot.
• Finish: medium finish with a little bit of heat that balances out the candied qualities.

Barrel Details:

• 110.86 proof,
• 64/24/12 high rye mash bill
• ISC Char #4
• staves air cured 18-21 months

$5 from each bottle will go to support hungry people in Kentucky (sadly, there are many of them, even in this day of age). God's Pantry Food Bank does a lot of good for those people.  Wilderness Trail distillery is located in counties served by this organization.