Distillery: Wilderness Trail Distillery
Proof: 100
Age: 6 Years
Mashbill: 64% Corn, 24% Wheat, and 12% Malted Barley
BACKGROUND: Wilderness Trail is a family-owned distillery in Danville, KY launched in 2013. They were whiskey consultants for 10 years prior to launching. Their whiskies include a Single Barrel Bottled in Bond bourbon, a wheated bourbon, another Small Batch Bottled in Bond bourbon, a cask strength single barrel rye, and this new, 6 year, bottled in bond Kentucky Straight Bourbon. They use a copper pot still from a single fermented batch of sweet mash which means each mash is fresh. They enter their whiskey into the barrel at a low proof of 100. Bottled-in-Bond is a federal designation that mandates a bourbon must be made by one distillery in one season, aged at least four years in a federally bonded warehouse, and bottled at 100 proof in order to highlight the skill of the distiller.
NOSE: Sweet scents of butterscotch, honey, browned butter, brown sugar, and citrus dominate the nose. There is also a metallic scent that adds a unique flair to the nose. After some time in the glass we were also able to pull some oak notes as well. (21/25)
PALATE: An oily feel coated my mouth at first with notes of cinnamon, oak, tannins, and brown sugar flavors. As the whiskey sat for a second I started to pull some vanilla and honey flavors. The wheated mashbill really shines in the flavor profile as it has a nice softness and delicacy to it. Overall, the whiskey is relatively straightforward with a sweeter flavor profile and lighter, oily mouthfeel. (34/40)
FINISH: The finish is medium in length with a lot of bitterness and woodiness to it. The oak and bitter tannic notes dominate and noticeably missing were oak notes given the age. (21/25)
VALUE: The age and bottled-in-bond annotation lead to a $70 SRP. (6/10)
Overall: 82/100
FINAL THOUGHTS: Wilderness Trail 6 Year Bottled in Bond is a sweet bourbon whiskey that can be enjoyed by any bourbon drinker out there. It makes for a sweeter cocktail or a nice refreshing summer pour. We would recommend this to those who like sweet and light whiskey. We think this whiskey could use 2 additional years in the barrel.
Similar & Slightly Better Whiskey: Bluegrass Wheated Bottled-in-Bond
Similar & Equal Whiskey: Garrison Brother's 2021 Small Batch
Similar & Slightly Worse Whiskey: Weller Special Reserve
Tell us what you think and give us some feedback!
Scoring Legend:
96-100: The perfect dram, juice of the gods
90-95: Near perfect, truly incredible whiskey
85-89: Amazing whiskey, will always try to keep a backup bottle of this
80-84: Very good, some minor flaws here or there
75-79: Good, quite enjoyable to drink, Will try and keep a bottle on the shelf
70-74: Solid, wouldn’t go out of my way to get this
60-69: Decent, would offer this up to non whiskey drinkers
50-59: Not my cup of tea
Below 50: Give away