Wilderness Trail Distillery

Along the Kentucky Bourbon Trail in Danville, Wilderness Trail Distillery built its reputation on a fermentation method most of its neighbors do not use, and on a founding team who understood yeast and grain science before they understood whiskey marketing.

History & Heritage

Wilderness Trail Distillery was founded in 2012 by Dr. Pat Heist and Shane Baker, two Kentucky natives whose prior company, FermSolutions, supplied proprietary yeast strains to distilleries across the state. That background shaped everything that followed: rather than buying off-the-shelf yeast, Wilderness Trail built its own house strains and applied them from the first distillation run, which began in 2013. Growth was rapid and closely tracked by the Kentucky Distillers' Association. In 2020, the distillery earned Heritage Level Membership with the Association, a designation signifying at least 25,000 barrels aging in Kentucky warehouses, and that same year became the eighteenth official stop on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. Also in 2020, the distillery received the Association's Esprit de Corps Award for producing and donating hand sanitizer during the COVID-19 pandemic, and co-founders Baker and Heist were named Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year for the East Central region. In October 2022, Campari Group acquired a 70 percent majority interest in Wilderness Trail Distillery for 420 million dollars, with an option to purchase the remaining stake by 2031. Baker and Heist retained the remaining 30 percent and stayed on as shareholders. As of July 2026, Wilderness Trail Distillery is owned by Campari Group (70 percent) together with co-founders Shane Baker and Dr. Pat Heist (30 percent), making it a distillery whose day-to-day production team and its corporate ownership are no longer the same thing, a distinction worth stating plainly for anyone tracking who actually controls a bourbon brand.

The Whiskey

Wilderness Trail is a full grain-to-glass distiller, meaning it makes every drop on-site in Danville rather than sourcing barrels. Its defining technical choice is sweet mash fermentation, a method that uses fresh ingredients in every batch instead of the acidic backset from a prior batch that most Kentucky bourbon distilleries rely on for sour mash. That approach is paired with proprietary yeast strains developed by Heist and Baker, locally sourced grain from farms including Caverndale Farms and Walnut Grove Farms, and limestone spring water. Cooking runs through a proprietary Infusion Mashing Process designed to gelatinize starches precisely and preserve flavor, and Wilderness Trail was the first Kentucky bourbon distillery to run a clean steam boiler for chemical-free steam in that process. Distillation happens on multiple copper stills, including a 40-foot, 18-inch Vendome beer column still with a 250-gallon doubler and a newer 40-foot, 36-inch continuous beer still with a 500-gallon doubler, together capable of producing up to 216 barrels a day. Every whiskey is double-distilled, entered into barrels toasted to a number 4 char at 110 proof for bourbon and 100 proof for rye, then aged a minimum of four years on-site in bonded rickhouses, with standard releases typically reaching six to eight years. The Kentucky Straight Wheated Bourbon runs 64 percent corn, 24 percent wheat, and 12 percent malted barley. The Kentucky Straight High-Rye Bourbon runs 64 percent corn, 24 percent rye, and 12 percent malted barley. The Kentucky Straight Rye Whiskey runs 56 percent rye, 33 percent corn, and 11 percent malted barley.

Why It Matters

Recognition has followed the process. The Kentucky Straight High-Rye Bourbon took Platinum at the 2023 Ascot Awards, Gold at the 2023 Global American Whiskey Masters, Gold at the 2023 San Francisco World Spirits Competition, and a Highly Recommended rating at the Ultimate Spirits Challenge. Blue Heron Vodka won Gold at the 2017 San Francisco World Spirits Competition and additional Gold and Silver medals at the American Distilling Institute's competition that year, and Harvest Rum earned Bronze at San Francisco in 2017 after the distillery was named Kentucky Rum Distillery of the Year by the New York International Spirits Competition in 2015. VinePair named Wilderness Trail its Next Wave Award winner for Spirits Brand of the Year in 2021. For those who appreciate good whiskey, Wilderness Trail is a useful case study in how a distillery built by fermentation scientists, rather than by an established whiskey family, earned a seat on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail within a decade. The Sentinel Room carries 2 Wilderness Trail Distillery expressions in the Reserve Whiskey Library, including Wilderness Trail Single Barrel Bourbon.

Visiting the Distillery

Wilderness Trail Distillery offers tours Tuesday through Saturday, six times daily at 9 AM, 10 AM, 11 AM, 1 PM, 2 PM, and 3 PM. Each tour runs about an hour, covers fermentation, distillation, and barrel aging, and ends with a tasting. Tours start at the visitor center, which also houses a gift shop and tasting room, and cost 15 dollars per person, with free admission for active military and veterans. Online reservations are available, and groups larger than six seeking a guided sampling are advised to call ahead.