WhistlePig The Boss Hog IIIrd Edition: "The Independent"

WhistlePig The Boss Hog IIIrd Edition: "The Independent"

In 2006, a band of dedicated Rye enthusiasts purchased a 500-acre dairy farm in the rolling hills of Vermont's Champlain Valley. Today, the farm, which is being painstakingly restored to grow organic rye grains, is home to Master Distiller Dave Pickerell's magnum opus: WhistlePig Rye Whiskey. After he graduated from West Point with a Bachelor's Degree in Chemistry, Pickerell served in the military for eleven years as a cavalry officer. Later, he received a Master's Degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Louisville, and served as Chairman of the Kentucky Distillers Association and Master Distiller at Maker's Mark in Loretto, Kentucky for 13 years. "This is what I was meant for," says Pickerell of the whiskey business. After leaving Maker's Mark, Pickerell embarked on a journey to find the perfect rye whiskey. "Rye, in its own essence, is just a brilliant grain," says Pickerell. "I wanted to do rye because it's America's historical whiskey." During the Revolutionary War, English blockades of American ports prevented the colonists from purchasing molasses in order to make rum. As a result, American distillers, including George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, started making rye whiskey. WhistlePig Straight Rye Whiskey is one of the few 100% rye whiskies available today. "Rye is the brat of whiskey grains. The higher the percent rye you get, the worse it behaves," says Pickerell. "It gets sticky. It foams. A lot of my colleagues laugh at me for persisting to work with 100% rye because the nuisance level of going from 95% to 100% is unbelievable. Most people stop at 95%. We go ahead and push the envelope and make it 100%." After fermentation, WhistlePig Straight Rye Whiskey is aged for ten years first, in new American oak casks and then in second-use bourbon casks. This decade of maturation rounds out the flavors of the rye, and gives it just a hint of sweetness. After aging, WhistlePig Straight Rye Whiskey is brought to 100 proof and bottled by hand at WhistlePig Farm in Vermont. WhistlePig Straight Rye has already received a number of accolades: it received a perfect five out of five stars from F. Paul Pacault's Spirit Journal, it earned a score of 96 points from Wine Enthusiast (the highest score a rye whiskey has ever scored), Details Magazine called it "America's Best New Whiskey" and it was named among the top five whiskeys of the year by The Wall Street Journal. WhistlePig The Boss Hog The Independent Single Cask Barrel Strength Straight Rye Whiskey is a limited-edition companion to the original WhistlePig Straight Rye Whiskey and is also crafted from 100% rye grains. After the rye is distilled, WhistlePig Boss Hog is aged in a combination of new American oak and second-use bourbon casks for over thirteen years. The maturation process tames the intense notes of the rye with soft hints of vanilla, caramel and butterscotch. After maturation, each bottle of WhistlePig The Boss Hog is bottled from a single barrel at barrel strength (the whisky is not diluted with water). Each bottle of WhistlePig The Boss Hog The Independent Straight Rye Whiskey is the product of a single barrel, and only 50 barrels of this whiskey have ever been bottled. Pick up a bottle of this amazing rye whiskies today!