Dinner and a Tasting at Pittsburgh’s Wigle Distillery

On the first night of our weeklong road trip from Maine to Kentucky, Dan, Mitch, and I stopped in Pittsburgh.  Our dinner destination was the Wigle Distillery in Pittsburgh’s Strip District.  The Distillery features a full bar with cocktails, beer, and wine as well as a full restaurant menu.  The ambiance is bright and modern, but also comfortable with a nice energy. It was a great place to relax and enjoy dinner and whiskey after a long day spent (mostly) in the car.

The Wigle (pronounced vig-le) distillery is a family owned distillery founded in December of 2011.  It is named after Phillip Wigle, a 1790's era distiller who fought for his right to distill spirits without taxation, and inadvertently started the Whiskey Rebellion. Just like Phillip Wigle, the distillery's owners had to fight to make whiskey. They battled for two years to legalize on-site distilling in Pennsylvania before becoming the first distillery in the City of Pittsburgh in the post-prohibition era 

We began with flights of Wigle’s craft whiskies. Our server steered us away from the flagship bourbon and rye, which he indicated were quite young, to more mature single barrel, cask strength, and finished products. We also ordered dinner, but settled in to enjoy our whiskey and take some notes before the food came.

Trevor’s Wigle Whiskey Flight

Wapsie Valley Bourbon: Mash Bill 80%  red corn, 20% wheat, 20% malted barley. The name of this bourbon comes from the source of its red corn, which has a higher protein content than traditional yellow dent, Aged more than two years in new charred oak barrels. 92 proof.

Nose: Spearmint, vanilla

Palate: Vanilla, pepper, breads

Finish: Medium length peppery finish with hints of bread and a moderate heat

Wigle Single Barrel Rye: 70% rye, 15% corn, 15% malted barley. Aged 4 years in new 53 gallon charred oak barrels. 100 proof.

Nose: Vanilla, spearmint, green apple

Palate: Rye bread, oak, black pepper

Finish: Short finish with lingering black pepper and bread notes

Wigle Sherry Finished Rye: 70% rye, 15% corn, 15% malted barley. Aged 4 years in new charred oak before finishing 8 months or more in used sherry casks. 80 proof.

Nose: Butterscotch, dark red fruit

Palate: Sweet berries, pepper, and butterscotch

Finish: Short finish with hints of dark red fruit and leather

Afterglow Ginger Whiskey: Straight rye whiskey infused with locally grown whole ginger root. The ginger infusion comes through strongly enough that most other rye notes are overpowered by it, although the black pepper notes still come through. 80 Proof.

Nose: Pickled ginger (think sushi), mint

Palate: Sweet, ginger and black pepper

Finish: Short with continuing ginger and pepper notes

From my flight, I ended up bringing home a bottle of the Single Barrel rye.  In addition, we were able to get small taster pours, and I later tried and purchased a bottle of the Deep Cut cask strength single barrel rye, which apparently left a better impression on me than it did on Dan.

Dan’s Wigle Whiskey Flight

Wigle Deep Cut Single Barrel Cask Strength Rye: 70% rye, 15% corn, 15% malted barley.  Hand selected barrels aged a minimum of four years. 118.6 proof.

Nose: Mint

Palate: Lots of pepper, mint

Finish: Fresh grain

Wigle Sherry Cask Finished Rye: (See above for details.)

Nose: Butterscotch

Palate: Sweet and light, red fruit notes

Finish: Short, sweet fruit notes

Wapsie Valley Bourbon: (See above for details.) Dan’s notes on this pour indicate that he found it very grain-forward and not complex.  He did not record n/p/f.

City of Champions Bourbon: Small batch of hand-selected honey barrels from aging inventory. Overall, Dan felt this bourbon had better maturity than the Wapsie bourbon. NAS.  92 proof.

Nose: Vanilla, caramel

Palate: Brown sugar, vanilla and oak

 Finish: Sweet and smooth

Dan ended up bringing home a bottle of the sherry cask finished rye, along with a bottle of the Kilted Cask Rye from Mitch’s flight.  This rye whiskey has been finished in Laphroaig casks and has quite a bit of what Dan calls “Islay Funk,” which is probably why I had no interest and both of them liked it. 

Closing Thoughts

In general, we all found Wigle’s ryes to be better and more mature than their bourbons which were good, but young and grain-forward. Our server indicated that much of the bourbon stock had been depleted during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, resulting in younger overall stock, which may explain why the bourbons tasted so young.  Finished and select ryes, in particular, were the most impressive to us, including the Kilted Cask, the Single Barrel, and the Sherry Cask.

Food and service were both excellent. In addition, the cocktails we ordered were delicious and well presented. Given that the ryes seemed to be the best of what they had to offer, I ordered their “Sazerac” cocktail, which I found to be in the top 10% of the ones I had tried. Too often, the Absinthe in a Sazarac overpowers the whiskey, and that was not at all the case with this one. Dan’s rye old fashioned was also very good.