If you love a good whiskey story (Hi, that’s us!), get a load of this one about Wigle Whiskey’s roots. Wigle Whiskey is named after Philip Wigle who defended his right to distill whiskey without paying taxes and unwittingly helped spark the famous “Whiskey Rebellion” of the late 18th century. Wigle was sentenced to hang for treason and was prepared to die defending his rights. George Washington eventually pardoned him and by 1808, “Allegheny County was producing half a barrel of whiskey for every man, woman and child living in America.” Because Western Pennsylvania was the epicenter of American whiskey production throughout the 1700 and 1800s, American whiskey is said to have been born in Pittsburgh!
The gold standard of American whiskey at that time was a spicy, earthy rye whiskey called Monongahela Rye. Wigle Whiskey was founded to bring back that tradition with organic regional grains milled on site, then fermented and distilled in their copper pot still and became the first distillery in the city of Pittsburgh since Prohibition. Wigle has been the most awarded craft whiskey distillery for five consecutive years by the American Craft Spirits Association and has won Best in Category Craft Rye Whiskey (2015), Best in Category Wheat Whiskey (2016), and the National Innovation Award for Eau de Pickle (2019) and Saffron Amaro (2020). That’s not all: Wigle is also hell bent on investing local, supporting the agriculture community with sourcing local, organic ingredients and are social and economic stewards in their communities. As one of our top 10 finalists, Wigle Whiskey represents everything the Craft Distillery of the Year Award stands for. If you want to see Wigle Whiskey crowned as RackHouse Whiskey Club’s Craft Distillery of the Year, vote now! To learn more about Wigle’s rich history and the impact it’s making on the local Pittsburgh community, click here.
Our first step to determine the Craft Distillery of the Year Award winner was to open up the competition to the public to nominate your favorite craft distillery. From there, an expert panel of judges narrowed the list down to 10 finalists based on these four categories: compelling story, impact on community, marketing presence and branding and packaging. Now we’re turning the competition over to you to determine the distillery you believe deserves to be named the 2021 RackHouse Whiskey Club Craft Distillery of the Year. Get your votes in now, voting closes on Nov. 30! VOTE NOW!
