DISTILLERY PROFILE
Wilderness Trail
The city of Danville bills itself as the ‘Historically Bold Birthplace of Kentucky’, and is famous for its culinary and arts scene, and events like the Great American Brass Band Festival. It’s also home to Wilderness Trail distillery, the brainchild of co-founders and former musicians Shane Baker and Pat Heist. Lee ‘Connas’ Connor finds out more
PHOTOS: COURTESY OF CAMPARI
ABOVE: Shane Baker (left) and Pat Heist, former musicians and co-founders of Wilderness Trail distillery in Danville, Kentucky
Back in 2006, former bandmates Shane and Pat decided that rock ‘n’ roll was not a sufficient outlet for their creativity. Given their experience in scientific industries and Shane’s family being connected to distilling since the 1940s, they set out on a mission to create “the finest whiskies in the world”.
A noble pursuit, no-doubt. And a narrative we’re used to hearing from fledgling distilleries. In the case of Wilderness Trail’s self-funded approach, Pat and Shane called upon their backgrounds in engineering and microbiology to support alcohol production, via process optimisation, forensics and problem solving. They also supplied spirit on a contract basis for various brands. The profits from these ventures along with a ‘pay as you go’ streamlining of their business allowed them to fund their Wilderness Trail distillery dream.
And so, after six years of consulting on external projects, ‘the science guys of bourbon’ founded the state-of-the-art Wilderness Trail distillery in 2012. Centred, naturally, around in-distillery processes, first class raw materials, and extensive know-how, Shane and Pat set out to create precision-made, small batch (no more than 20 barrels in each batch) releases of Kentucky straight wheated bourbon, Kentucky straight high-rye bourbon and Kentucky straight rye.
OUT OF THE WILDERNESS
As you would imagine, given their backgrounds, attention to detail is paramount at Wilderness Trail. From the selection of local corn, wheat, barley and rye varieties, all grown in Kentucky, to the eventual cask selection for each batch, each stage of production is subject to the very highest scrutiny, ensuring the best possible outcome.
A unique aspect of production at Wilderness Trail is their adoption of a ‘sweet mash’ during fermentation, as opposed to the more traditional ‘sour mash’ technique.
Sour mashing is where low alcohol wash left over from previous distillations is added to a new mash, to create more acidic conditions and aid with fermentation. With a sweet mash, this process is left out. This potentially increases the chances of a mash failing, due to a higher likelihood of contamination issues.
The team at Wilderness argue that a sweet mash distillate appears ‘softer’ and ‘more flavourful’ than that from a sour mash. So, they designed the entire facility with a view to utilising fresh ingredients and a pristine clean environment to eliminate these issues.
ABOVE: Pat Heist comes from a background in microbiology and plant pathology, subsequently becoming an expert in yeast and fermentation
PRE-PROHIBITION QUALITY
The story around Wilderness Trail is very much focussed on up-to-date, state-of-the-art analysis and execution. But a refreshing twist in the tale is their adherence to the rigid pre-Prohibition production standards of “bottled-in-bond” classification, a rigorous set of rules established by the US government in 1897.
To uphold these criteria, Wilderness Trail’s small-batch bottled-in-bond whiskies are all house-distilled on-site in a single distilling season, aged for at least four years in bonded warehouses and bottled at exactly 100 proof (50% abv).
It’s a welcome throwback to the origins of American whiskey making amidst the modern technology in use.
ABOVE: Wilderness Trail’s small-batch bottled-in-bond whiskies are all house-distilled on-site in a single distilling season, aged for at least four years in bonded warehouses and bottled at exactly 100 proof (50% abv)