286. Wilderness Trail 8 Year Bourbon Review

Welcome to another trip down the Bourbon Road with your hosts Jim and Mike. So grab a glass of your favorite bourbon and kick back.

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Hello everybody, I'm Jim Shannon. And I'm Mike Hyatt. And this is the Bourbon Road. And today, Mike, it's another craft distillery Monday, but this time we're talking about a little bottle growing up, right?

Yeah. I mean, this distillery was a craft distillery in Kentucky. And then eventually they came off the craft distillery tour and they went on the regular old Kentucky Bourbon Trail tour, right? Yeah. The boy who would be king. Not yet, but they're getting there. They're like the Prince of Bourbon right now, or Princess of Bourbon.

Yeah, and you know, this little Danville, Kentucky distillery has been doing it right from day one. The whole concept, their humble beginnings, the very focused effort that they put forward to get to where they are today is just an amazing feat and one that they'll kind of be studying in the business books for a while because they've really managed to take an idea and turn it into a behemoth in a very short period of time.

Yeah, I don't think they care how much whiskey they make. They never want to be the biggest, but they care how they make their whiskey. And the distillery we're talking about is Wilderness Trail. Like you said, out of Danville, Kentucky, you got Shane Baker, Pat Heist, Dr. Pat Heist. Better correct myself there, right? That's right. They're just two good guys down to earth. They'd be dressed no different than we're dressed. T-shirt, blue jeans, work boots on. Just down to earth, salt of the earth, good guys that started with nothing in a day. You know, just over there, Jim, there's Rick's houses on both sides of the road now. So, and now they just released their eight year old Ry Bourbon.

And that, that is kind of a, that's a pretty big milestone in my mind, you know, because we've all heard Jimmy Russell, right? Eight to 12, right? Yeah. So I'm thinking that they've just hit that point where it gets to be considered a well-aged bourbon.

Yeah, I think they're going to get there to that, you know, extra age or that well age, whatever you want to call it. But this is that sweet spot, right? That everybody wants to get to wilderness trail said, uh, They hit that sweet spot by having a year old bourbon. They call it the sweet spot because of the age is where the fruit candy and nut flavors peak. We're about to find out though.

Yeah. I mean, we've, we've talked a few times. We've had, we've had wilderness trail whiskey on the show a number of times in the past, whether it be a Crafted Story Monday episodes or actually having somebody on from wilderness trail or actually one day where we visited the distillery and actually a couple of times now we visited the distillery. You went down for the barbecue festival. And I mean, it's just been a great relationship we've had with that team down there and we've got to taste their whiskey along the way. So I would say that we've been front row for watching that grow up to its eight year old self.

Yeah. It's like you put a little check mark in your laundry room with your kids. You know, we're putting those check marks out there, that little mark, you know, eight years old.

So let's, let's talk a little bit about this, this whiskey. People may not know, uh, the mash bill on this whiskey, Mike, you got it at the top of your mind?

Yeah. 64% corn, 24% rye and 12% malted barley. Now this is a bottled bond mean it's 100 proof. It is eight years old. So it went four years beyond that, uh, that four year mark. But I would say that to me, that's that high right there.

Yeah, I'd say that's a high rye. And you know what? It's got a pretty substantial amount of malt in it as well. So, you know, both of those contribute flavor to the final whiskey and they're both evident in the profile. Now this bottle, let's talk a little bit about the bottle before we get to our first taste. This bottle has changed a little bit. Uh, I should say it's lost a little weight. Yeah. A little skinny around the waist. Slimmed itself up. It's like they tighten the belt a little bit. They tighten the belt a little bit on it. Same, same bottle, just a slimmer waistline. Uh, the neck tag on this is the only indication that you're dealing with an eight year. As far as I can tell, maybe there's somewhere else on the bottle, but that's how we're looking at it. And they did a little bit of a redesign on the label, but everything else looks pretty much the same. The whiskey does appear to have a nice deep dark color to it. I'd have to put another bottle next to it to know if it's gotten much darker than the six year that was before it. But in the glass, it looks awful good, Mike. It's, it's deep rich copper, right?

Yeah. So this is, and they, they put that wilderness trail in copper on the bottle, which is in the eight on copper. So kind of match that whiskey. Now this is batch one seven F two, two, two, one. This is 18 barrels, Jim.

So 18 barrels and we've purchased a barrel from one of those trail before and we know you get right at 200 full proof bottles, right? Yeah, now these are proof down to 100 proof. So they're probably getting around 220 250 So 18 barrels of that, you know, we're looking at about four to five thousand bottles That's a lot of whiskey. So a lot of whiskey, but you know when you have to spread the love That's not a lot to go around.

No, but you can still get your hands on this. So, you know, take a trip to the distillery. Hopefully you'll see some on the market. I love it. You know, I can't say enough good things about Wilderness Trail. One of our favorite distilleries and mainly because of the people there, you know, Jared, Haley, working with Emily for their public relations and stuff. It's always, it's always fun to work with them.

Yeah, it's a pleasure to go down there. Pleasure to meet up with those guys anywhere. So Mike, I think we should get, get to the whiskey. It's been a minute.

I'm, you know, I'm jonesing for it.

Yep. Just check it out. Cheers. Cheers. It's a nice rich nose, a little bit of leather and oak. I'm getting a little bit of that old Christmas fruitcake, Jim. Now it does have a rich fruitcake nose to it. It is, it is fruitier, Mike. I have to give you that. but it's that, uh, it is that fruit cake sort of that, uh, it's got those nuts in there. Yeah.

Yeah.

It's a, it's kind of a little bit of sweetness to it, but it is fruity and nutty at the same time with a little bit of, uh, oak and leather barrels really starting to come through a little bit.

I'm getting a little bit of spice bite on this on the nose.

Yeah. I'm ready to taste it. Well, cheers. Cheers. Oh my Lord, that is very impactful on the mid-palate. It's got a lot of kind of a dry sweet. It's terrible to say this because it really is, they don't really go together. It's kind of got a dry sweetness. It's dry on the back while it's still a little bit of sweetness up front, but it really impacts the middle of the palate. And it kind of digs in and it's not dripping yet. But I'm thinking if I take another sip, it's going to be dripping.

When you say a dry sweetness, I could get a dry sweetness out of this. You know, if you were to take a honeycomb cereal, Jim, and just snack on that without milk or anything else, and it is kind of drying when you eat it. But this has got that honey flavor to it, that sweetness we're looking for. But that cereal is there with this too.

Yeah, go back to the nose after that first sip and I'm getting a little bit of butterscotch. I won't take a second sip, Mike. Yeah, definitely a little bit drying. Um, but wow, the full body on this. I mean the, it's just, it's got a lot going on. I have to, I almost have to take a minute and dissect it just a little bit. I'm getting that butterscotch note, but the fruit is very evident in this. It is nutty with that barrel char and leather.

Very beautiful whiskey right here. What I like about this is it doesn't give you that gigantic hug that you would get out of somebody's ears. Now, the reason why I think it's this way is because it's a sweet mash, not a sour mash. Folks, that doesn't mean it's a sweet whiskey and a sour doesn't mean it's a sour whiskey. It means that's the process they use at Wilderness Trail. They use a sweet mash process, meaning they clean their tanks out every time they get rid of all the waste and they start all over every time.

Then they reintroduce the, a fresh, um, yeast culture into our batch.

Almost a chewy whiskey this is.

Yeah. And for a hundred proof, that's, that's pretty amazing. I would have to say that this is, uh, This whiskey is reminding me a lot of whiskeys more in the 10 to 12 year old range. It doesn't have a lot of sweetness up front. is pretty quickly overcome by what you get in the mid and back of your palette. Um, I do get the fruit, the fruits more evident on the nose, but you get it on the palette too. I love that butterscotch. I think it's a little bit drying on the back end, but it's got some character.

It definitely is showing its age. I'm getting a little bit of root beer candy. You know, those just really hard candies from Tractor Supply. We always talk about those old fashioned candies. Yeah.

The one shaped like a root beer.

Yeah. Yeah, I'm getting a little bit of that on this and maybe those come with a little bit of drying effect too.

Yeah, the nose is just phenomenal on this. I really like that nose. I keep going back to it and that's probably my favorite part. It does drink well. Mike, it drinks easy. In my opinion, the drink's pretty darn easy for an eight-year-old bourbon.

Now, this is $86, Jim, at the distillery. You might find it a little cheaper out on the market. Pretty fair for an eight-year-old. $10 a year, you know. Some people say that. I like it. You know, obviously it's a buy for me. I like the new bottle design. I think it's easier to grab in your hand. It's already narrow this way, but for this way, you know, it won't slip.

I'd like to think they've been listening to the show and I know they do from time to time, but they've probably been listening to the bartenders. He's just a little bit. Cause that helps a lot when you're pouring in the bar, doesn't it? It helps the ladies a lot for sure. Yeah.

I like it overall. This is a great whiskey, a great sipper, not overpowering. You know, it's that bid range, I think. Everything they did with this is spot on.

Yeah. I got nothing bad to say about it. It does settle in a little bit. I am starting to feel a little bit of a hug now and it's kind of settled in on me and it's, it's not like sweet mash. You won't get a hug. It's just not, you don't get like an overpowering hug. You don't get that punch in your chest, but it's still got that nice warming effect at a hundred proof. Like I said, it drinks, it drinks easy. You can get yourself in trouble with this real quick. It's got a lot going on, so you could sit and analyze and discover this bottle for probably a half hour, 45 minutes an hour, a time, and just really discover some of the flavors that start to pop out. As this thing's developed over the years, it's gotten more complex. It's got a deeper flavor. It's certainly got a deeper color. I think these guys are doing it right.

Well, I think this has that medium finish that we're always looking for, Jim. I wouldn't call it a long finish if it was 10 or 15 more proof, then it might have that long finish. But I would call this a medium all day long.

Yeah, and if you're into super sweet whiskeys, this is not going to be your jam. This whisky is a little more on the drying side. But you would expect your whiskeys to kind of go that direction a little bit as they start to age and as they start to bring in more of those barrel tannins and things start to change a little bit. I have to say, though, it is developing those fruity flavors, those nutty flavors that everybody loves. And that butterscotch is just a bonus point right in the middle. Yeah, love it. Where can our listeners find us on social media, Jim? Well, you can find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube. You can find us on TikTok. You can also find us on our private Facebook group, The Bourbon Roadies, where we've got a good group of people who love whiskey, listen to the show. Love to share their whiskey, share stories about whiskey and pictures. About 3,000 folks in there, going pretty strong. We'd love to have you stop by and give us a visit, but you have to understand that we want you to behave while you're in there. You got to answer three questions to get in. What are those questions, Mike?

Are you 21? You know, that's the legal drinking age across the United States. Do you like bourbon? Yeah, everybody likes bourbon. And do you agree to play nice? Like Jim says, it's a group about a celebration of whiskeys of life, births, anniversaries, retirements, even celebrating somebody's life when they pass away. We want to raise a glass to that person. Raise a glass to your life. We want to share those stories, share those experiences in whiskey. Share your journey down the bourbon road.

Yeah. So we do two shows every single week. We do a short episode like today's on the eight year wilderness trail, Rye bourbon, uh, where we'll explore a craft distillery expression, a single bottle. We'll let you know whether we think you should add that bottle to your shelf. Mike, I think it's a thumbs up from both of us.

Heck yeah.

Every Wednesday, a full length episode. We'll go a full hour, maybe a little more, maybe a little less. We'll at least get you two working back. We usually have a guest on. We'll have a couple of expressions. Mike and I will deep dive a more interesting and in-depth subject. We do both those shows every single week. Mike, what can they do to make sure they don't miss one?

Well, you want to scroll on up, hit that check sign, that plus sign, that subscribe sign, whatever you got to do so that app tells you, hey, these two jokers have a show out today and you need to listen to it. You never can tell. We might be giving some stuff away on some shows. Then we want you to scroll on down, hit that five star review, leave us some comments. You know what's going to happen if you don't leave us a review and some comments. The big bad booty daddy of bourbon is going to come to your house, drag and Jim with him and some of this wilderness trail eight year old bourbon whiskey with them. By the end of the night, you're going to have a big old smile on your face. You'll leave us that five-star review. But seriously, those comments, those reviews, open up distilleries doors to us. They get great whiskey in our hands like this Wilderness Trail eight-year-old bourbon whiskey, and we'd appreciate it.

Yeah, when you see Mike and I in town, I want to let you know that we're very approachable. When you're at the USA Cares event this weekend, make sure you walk up to us and shake our hand. Have a drink with us. We'd sure love to meet you. If you see us in a liquor store, if you see us at an event, make sure you stop by. We love our roadies. We love our listeners. We always want to meet you and talk about why bourbon and whiskey in general is so important to you. If you've got a distillery in your small town, if you've got somebody you think could make a good guest on the bourbon road, make sure you let us know about it. Up onto our website, go to the contact us page, leave us a message there. We'll get back with it. You can always send us an email. I'm Jim at the bourbon road.com. He's Mike at the bourbon road.com. But like we always say, probably the best way slip into them old DMS on Instagram. I'm Jay Shannon 63. I'm big bourbon chief. I will see you down.

It's been a very, very long time.