Outryder Wyoming Whiskey Review

Bourbon, Distilleries, Spirit Reviews, USA, Whiskey

A few weeks ago I’d never heard of Wyoming Whiskey, and didn’t even know they made whiskey in Wyoming. In fact, till 2009, they didn’t. Not legally, anyway.

Then one day the Wyoming Whiskey distillery, based in the small town of Kirby (population: 92), sent me a tasting sample of their new Outryder Whiskey. A day or two later I started reading the excellent book, The Curious Bartender’s Whiskey Road Trip, and the author singled out Wyoming Whiskey as one of his best 50 whiskey distilleries in the USA. Something’s happening here!

The Curious Bartender drove to the distillery in winter, and said that for an hour they saw no other vehicles on the road, save for snow plows. Wyoming is the 10th biggest state but has the lowest population, and 92 of them live in Kirby. Also here is the 1,200-acre Mead family ranch, a cattle ranch which is now also home to the Wyoming Whiskey distillery.

The distillery opened in 2009 and it’s hard to believe it but it was Wyoming’s first-ever commercial whiskey distillery. The original plan was to build a winery, but co-owner Brad Mead went to Kentucky and came back with a still, and they converted what had been a roping arena into a still house.

Wyoming Whiskey recently recruited a new general manager, who joined them from Stranahan’s in Denver, an excellent pedigree. The original distiller here, Steve Nally, who set up the operation, had also worked at Maker’s Mark for 33 years, so not too shabby a background either. The distiller now is Sam Mead, son of the co-owners Brad and Kate (the other owner is their friend David DeFazio, also from Kentucky). Sam must be the only distiller who’s also a skiing champion and the town mayor.

The distillery’s water is piped in from a limestone aquifer about 42 miles north, and their grains come from a Wyoming farmer, 100 miles north. With these ingredients they currently produce four spirits:

A Small Batch Bourbon Whiskey, which was awarded a 95% rating by Mark Gillespie of Whiskycast.
A Single Barrel Bourbon Whiskey, limited to about 220 bottles.
A Barrel Strength Bourbon Whiskey.
Outryder, which is a Straight American Whiskey blended from two different mash bills and using more rye than their bourbons but without getting up into rye whiskey territory.

Outryder Wyoming Whiskey Review

It was Outryder I was sent the tasting sample of, and at 50% ABV this is a whiskey to be reckoned with. As it retails at $75 for a 750ml bottle, you’d expect good things from it. And you get them.

It looks like a good whiskey should, a lovely color somewhere between amber and brown. On the nose it’s a potent mix of aromas – honey, gentle spices, caramel, butterscotch. It has a warm and gentle smell, with a hint of smoke, the kind of smell you can go on sniffing indefinitely. Except, of course, you’re intrigued to taste a whiskey that smells this good.

And the taste is kick-ass wonderful. I’m not sure that’s an official whiskey-tasting term, but it was my first thought on taking a sip. It tastes molasses-sweet, with spices balanced by honey, some vanilla notes, that rich caramel/toffee/butterscotch taste, and some citrus too. And you certainly know that it’s strong. A second sip and some of that rye comes through, and a delightful spiciness. Like smelling it, you could go on tasting it indefinitely, though at 50% ABV, perhaps not for too long.

It has a lovely lush mouthfeel, and a long, slow and warming finish, when the caramel/butterscotch flavors really come through for a very satisfying end.

When the Curious Bartender visited, Wyoming Whiskey had about 10,000 barrels of whiskey maturing, in six warehouses. And if they’re anything like their Outryder, Wyoming Whiskey is definitely going to be a name to be reckoned with in the whiskey world.