What Makes Wyoming Bourbon So Special

Kentucky is indisputably home to bourbon royalty, cradling at least 100 licensed distilleries producing 95% of the world's bourbon supply. But volume isn't everything, and neither are production methods. I recently learned this when tasting a bottle of bourbon born far from the cornfields of Kentucky. That bourbon hails from Wyoming, a state I once considered an unlikely source of highly refined bourbons with fierce, nature-cultivated nuances.

Wyoming is a relative newbie on the whiskey scene. The state's first legal distillery, Wyoming Whiskey, debuted its flagship small batch bourbon in 2012. A few other notable names include Pine Bluffs Distillery, whose operations began in 2017; the veteran-owned Chronicles Distilling, which launched in the same year, and Cowboy Country Distilling, which debuted in 2018. Overall, small distilleries in the state still number less than a dozen. They are spread across eight regions, all significantly influenced by Wyoming's rich natural resources, high elevations, and extreme climate fluctuations. It all starts, evolves, and ends with the state's natural bounty — lassoed, cultivated, and coaxed into the requisite new, charred American oak barrels required of any bourbon produced in the United States.

Wyoming's water availability (or lack thereof) shapes whiskey-making in multiple ways. It impacts where operations can occur and helps determine the products' characteristics vis-à-vis water's effects on fermentation, flavor formation, and mouthfeel. For example, Wyoming Whiskey co-founder David DeFazio notes that the distillery is in Hot Springs County. The very name of that locality indicates a lack of suitable water for whiskey production. "So, we considered ourselves fortunate when we identified a mile-deep limestone aquifer to supply us with ideal water for our purposes," DeFazio tells Tasting Table. Those pristine waters, known as the Madison Formation, have reportedly laid untouched since the Bronze Age and now form the foundation of bourbon produced in the distillery's hometown of Kirby.

For Master Distiller and Cowboy Country Distilling founder Tim Trites, water passing through the Wind River Mountains near Pinedale proved pivotal for production. As Trite explains to Wyoming Livestock Roundup, "It's the cleanest water I've found in the world." By contrast, Pine Bluffs Distilling founder Chad Brown found an inventive way to sustain water access. Constrained by scarcity, his company uses recycled condensing water kept in a 6,000-gallon tank.

In addition to water considerations, the state's ferocious winters and blistering summers make it necessary to use grains that can withstand the environment. In the case of Wyoming Whiskey, DeFazio notes that "all the raw ingredients we needed to make bourbon were readily available in the Big Horn Basin." So they partnered with local farmer Brent Rageth to cultivate the ideal non-GMO grains for bourbon high-starch yields. Pine Bluffs Distilling likewise works with Wyoming farmers to produce its oat, rye, and single malt whiskeys, as well as wheated bourbon, among other spirits. Cowboy Country Distilling relies on local corn, wheat, and barley,and proprietary yeast to produce its award-winning Straight Bourbon.

Perhaps more than anything else, the wildly fluctuating climates inform all bourbons in Wyoming, contributing significantly to factors that set them apart from Kentucky bourbons. The extremes of the summer and winter months not only impact which plants can thrive in an area but also the logistics of the aging process. Wyoming Whiskey Master Blender Brendan Cook shares insights on how all that ultimately influences what rests inside bourbon bottles.

The maturation environment within the warehouses differs vastly on each level due to different conditions. "In the summer months, the top levels of our warehouses can reach over 115°F," says Cook, "while the lower levels hover around 68°F at the same time of day. This allows each level of the warehouse to develop distinct flavor characteristics, ranging from caramel, orange, and vanilla to dark dried fruits, deep tobacco, leather, and spice notes."

The extreme swings from hot summers to frigid winters cause the barrels to "go into hibernation" during cold months. "Consequently, we do not see the same oak interaction that a distillery in, say, Kentucky would experience," notes Cook.

I was personally fortunate enough to share a bottle of the flagship Wyoming Whiskey Small Batch Bourbon with a group of friends, and we all agreed that the nuances and characteristics of Wyoming bourbon have no basis for comparison to those made in Kentucky. The Small Batch is a robust sipping bourbon that took the fourth spot out of 12 in Tasting Table's ranking of the best wheated bourbons under $50.

Compared to a different non-Kentucky small-batch sourced bourbon we sampled previously, one carrying a release price of $350, our group voted definitively for the multi-faceted, complex, and considerably more affordable Wyoming bourbon. It's unique production and aging process gives the bottle a caramel, orange, and vanilla-forward flavor profile. 

By contrast, Cheyenne-based Chronicles Distilling — founded by siblings and Marine Corps veterans Aaron and Chase Lesher — creates its own brand of uniqueness by incorporating fresh fruit in some of its corn-based products. Perhaps its most notable offering is Berry & Barb Whiskey, which was inspired by strawberry rhubarb pie, per Wine Enthusiast. Pine Bluffs Distilling offers a number of standout creations, including both a wheated and a rye bourbon. The Ryed Bourbon, boasting a mash bill of 60% corn with equal amounts of rye and malt, is characterized by creamy, smoky notes with a bold, malty finish. Lovers of protected open spaces appreciate the National Park bourbon series from Wyoming Whiskey, with nods to Wyoming's Grand Teton National Park and old Faithful in Yellowstone. In fact, Tasting Table's list of the best bourbons we tried in 2024 put National Parks No. 4 firmly in its proper place.