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Vermont farm and distillery WhistlePig is best known for releasing rye whiskey, but it has a few bourbons in its lineup as well. The latest to join the family is a 10-year-old bourbon called Snout-to-Tail, which got a special secondary maturation in barrels made with two unique heads to infuse the whiskey with some extra flavor.
WhistlePig sources most of its rye whiskey from Alberta Distillers in Calgary and MGP in Indiana, which it bottles (and often finishes) for its core age statement expressions. But the distillery has also been releasing its own in-house produced whiskey over the past few years as part of its FarmStock series—and this includes bourbon as well as rye. There are two main bourbon expressions, PiggyBack 100 Proof (a 6-year-old sourced bourbon) and Beyond Bonded (a single barrel bourbon that is produced farm-to-bottle in Vermont). Snout-to-Tail Bourbon was distilled at an undisclosed distillery in Kentucky and aged for 10 years before being brought to Vermont for a three-month secondary maturation. In this step, the whiskey was put into barrels with custom-toasted heads: medium-toasted Vermont oak for what the distillery calls “the snout” end, and smoked-maple-wood-toasted Vermont oak at “the tail” end. These barrels were flipped over while aging to “capture each barrel head’s unique toasted flavors,” although it seems like that isn’t entirely necessary since the whiskey is exposed to equal surface area on both ends (although perhaps there is a difference).
“After years pushing the boundaries of rye whiskey, we have a point of view on age and experimental finishing that brings something new to bourbon,” said WhistlePig head blender Meghan Ireland in a statement. “The equal and opposite of our flagship 10 year rye, Snout-to-Tail Bourbon takes toasted barrel aging to ten with bold flavors and new complexity earned before and after the barrel flip.” She goes on to provide tasting notes with flavors of honey, brown sugar, toasted cashew, almond, cornbread, and cedar on the nose and palate of this new bourbon.
Snout-to-Tail is bottled at 88 proof, which is supposed to be a reference to the 880 miles between the distillery in Vermont and its new Kentucky location. This summer, the WhistlePig PiggyBank will open in Louisville, turning an old bank and billiards hall into a bar and tasting room that will feature, in the brand’s typically pun-filled prose, “snout-to-tail experiences, exclusive tastings, a big pig bar, and other ham hijinks.”
WhistlePig Snout-to-Tail Bourbon – Aged 10 Years is available now (SRP $90) from the WhistlePig website (the pre-sale sold out, but it will be available again soon) and specialty retailers around the country. You can find the rest of the lineup available to purchase from websites like ReserveBar now.
