WILDERNESS TRAIL

News release

DANVILLE, KY — Wilderness Trail Distillery’s Bourbon-influenced Blue Heron Vodka earned a platinum medal at the 2017 Spirits International Prestige (SIP) Awards. The platinum award is the highest honor for the vodka that already boasts numerous medals and best-in-class honors.

The 2017 SIP Awards hosted its largest blind tasting competition to date with 673 spirit brands and 118 consumer judges. Taking place at the Hyatt Regency at Newport Beach, CA, the competition gave domestic and international spirit brands the rare opportunity to be distinguished solely on the merits of taste, aroma, and finish by unbiased consumers.

Participation from new spirit brands has grown exponentially and consistently since the first SIP Awards competition in 2009. All judges are carefully vetted to ensure that they do not bear affiliation with any spirit brands, distributors, or marketers. This standard was strictly enforced even though the over 46 percent jump in brand entries this year called for a proportional increase in the number of judges.

“Spirit brands driven by the pursuit of quality exist to serve their consumers, but honest and unbiased feedback straight from those very people is hard to come by,” says SIP Awards founder Paul Hashemi. “We foster a controlled and professional environment for spirit brands to not only get in front an audience with zero industry entanglements but also receive feedback straight from their taste buds.”

Wilderness Trail Distillery’s Blue Heron Vodka features unfiltered smoothness resulting from a multiple distillation process and sweet triple-grain mash bill of corn, wheat and malted barley. After distillation, limestone-filtered spring water is added to bring the proof from 190 to 80.

The vodka earned a gold medal in April at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition. Like the growth experienced by the SIP Awards, the San Francisco competition was the largest in its history with 2,100 entries.

Another 2017 accolade  was a gold medal for grain-to-glass vodka with a neural character at the 2017 American Distilling Institute’s competition. Blue Heron Vodka also received a silver medal from ADI for grain-to-glass vodka with a residual base character.

In addition to the Blue Heron Vodka, Wilderness Trail Distillery is a producer of fine Kentucky spirits such as Kentucky Straight Bourbon, Kentucky Straight Rye Whiskey and Harvest Rum. In December, Wilderness Trail Distillery will have a limited 2017 release of a Bottled in Bond Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey with a flavor worth the wait. Early 2018 marks the limited release of Settlers Select, a single barrel Kentucky Straight Rye Whiskey. Wilderness Trail Distillery intends to age its whiskey stock to 6- to 8-years-old before regular releases will be available.

The distillery, owned by Shane Baker and Pa Heist, features Kentucky Proud spirits. The corn and wheat for the vodka and Bourbon and the rye for the rye whiskey are sourced 3 miles from the rolling Bluegrass hills of the 35-acre campus outside Danville. The sorghum molasses for the rum is produced in Mount Sterling, KY.

Tours are offered 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday beginning at the top of the hour. The gift shop and tastings are open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday. For more information, contact Emily Toadvine at emily@wildernesstrailky.com or phone 859-402-8707.

Wilderness Trail Distillery

4095 Lebanon Road / Danville, KY 40422

www.wildernesstrailky.com