Distillery
Wilderness Trail
Pat Heist and Shane Baker played together in a heavy metal band at the University of Kentucky, long before whisky ever came up. The two later founded Ferm Solutions in 2006, consulting for distilleries before opening their own in Danville, Kentucky. That hands-on experience became Wilderness Trail in 2012, built on Heist's training as a plant pathologist and Baker's as a mechanical engineer. They use a proprietary sweet mash process with seed-grade corn, wheat and rye grown in Kentucky. Three copper stills turn it into whisky in small batches of twenty barrels or fewer. The science-first approach worked well enough that Campari bought a seventy percent stake in the distillery in 2022. Wilderness Trail still bottles several bourbons in bond, honoring old rules even as the lab work pushes forward.
