Whisky Advocate: Beyond Kentucky, Distillers Are Pushing The Boundaries Of Bourbon

A new wave of U.S. distillers are reimagining what great Bourbon can taste like, stepping out of Kentucky’s long shadow to embrace differences in terroir, experiment freely, and examine every step of the whiskey-making process. The result is a group of Bourbons that isn’t bound by tradition and expectation, but instead challenges convention and builds upon the style’s longstanding reputation.

“Kentucky Bourbon is a unique product unto its own. And frankly, it’s a very good one,” says Bill Welter, owner and head distiller at Journeyman Distillery in Michigan. As for Journeyman’s Featherbone Bourbon, which uses an all-organic mashbill of 70% corn, 25% wheat, and 5% rye, Welter states, “We weren’t really setting out to try and replicate something that was already being done very well.

“We’ve been in business now for 11 years, and I think it’s been shown that there is a significant market of people who may very well like Kentucky Bourbon, but they’re oftentimes looking for something that is different and unique.” Welter says. “And, certainly, I think we’ve appealed to that crowd.”

When David DeFazio launched Wyoming Whiskey in 2006, there was, as he puts it, “no craft spirits playbook.” So they modeled their distillery after those in Kentucky, enlisting former Maker’s Mark distiller Steve Nally. Wyoming produces a small batch and a double cask Bourbon, both of which use a 68% corn, 20% winter wheat, and 12% malted barley mashbill. “What we are is distinctly Wyoming. It’s definitely not from anywhere else. And that’s, in my opinion, a direct result of environmental factors that these barrels are faced with every year.”

Breckenridge Distillery in Colorado takes extreme aging even further, as the highest distillery in the country at 9,600 feet above sea level. While Breckenridge began by sourcing and blending whiskey, founder and CEO Bryan Nolt credits the aging conditions for imparting a signature flavor. “It definitely has an effect on the whiskey,” he says. “We found that flavors seem to concentrate because of the way pressure fronts move through here; you get a lot more interaction with the wood. So I think the two-mile high-ish aging environment, it makes quite a big difference in what we end up with.” Whisky Advocate has the full story.—Ted Simmons

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