Wyoming Whiskey Outryder Review
Alright, I'll jump in on the Bottled-in-Bond Day train. The Bottled-in-Bond Act of 1897 was an early consumer protection act, partially put forth by Kentucky Colonel Edmund Haynes Taylor. You may have heard of him somewhere before.
It's important to point out that Taylor is a Kentucky Colonel, and not a real one. No military service at all, the same as Colonel Harland Sanders.
If you want a full rundown of the Bottled-in-Bond Act of 1897 and what it means then and today, check out my article in the Summer 2019 issue of Artisan Spirit Magazine!
From Wyoming Whiskey this Outryder is a real treat. It also has my favorite story about a spiteful contract distiller not wanting to make rye whiskey.
The story as told by David DeFazio (one of the founders of Wyoming Whiskey) details a time at Wyoming while the legendary Steve Nally, formerly of Maker’s Mark fame, was still under contract to make the whiskey and show the now distiller Sam Mead the ropes.
DeFazio and the Meads asked Nally to make a rye whiskey, as rye in the US was and still is a hot commodity. Nally protested profusely and repeatedly that he hated rye, that rye sucked, and that he didn’t want to make one.
DeFazio continued to insist until finally Nally relented and laid down both some barrels of rye as well as bourbon using rye as the secondary gain.
Nally’s contract came to an end and he went his separate way. Some time later the barrels of the rye came to maturity at about 5 years old. To the surprise of Defazio and the Meads, the recipe on the rye legally wasn’t a rye at all! While rye was the largest portion of grain used, it came in just shy of the legal minimum of 51% at 48%. DeFazio gave Nally a call, hoping to have some inspiration and clarification for what to call this strange whisky. Upon DeFazio asking why the whiskey was onlu 48% rye Nally replied to the effect of, “told you I wasn’t going to make any rye whiskey!”
Current label stolen from Wyoming Whiskey’s website.
The solution to the problem was simple, and delicious. Blend the two rye containing whiskies together and bottle them as a Bottled-in-Bond American Whiskey. American Whiskey tends to be a category that has negative connotations attached as many brands under that umbrella blend in large quantities of NGS (neutral grain spirits) with the whiskey to spread the batch further and make it much more profitable.
Thankfully using the Bottled-in-Bond designation, the addition of NGS is impossible and that removes any doubts about what lies inside the bottle. No sourcing, no NGS, just Wyoming’s own whiskies. This whiskies being comprised of; 68% corn, 20% rye, 12%malted barley and 48% rye, 40% corn, and 12% malted barley.
Being a blend of less than 50% rye grain whiskey and a rye containing bourbon, it has an awesome balance of spicy and sweet notes. Bitter orange peel, roasted corn on the cob, cedar closet, dusty bookshelf, dried vanilla bean, and a little bit of baking spice. I dig it.
The price on this seems to have creeped up a bit over the years, but I still find it to be worth the cost of admission.
This was not a completely objective review as it was not done blind. I was aware of what I was drinking at the time of drinking it. The bottle was purchased by myself and was not provided by Wyoming Whiskey for review.
