WhistlePig unveils North America’s oldest single malt
Vermont-based distillery WhistlePig has released its oldest whiskey to date: a 30 year-old single malt.
Speaking exclusively to The Spirits Business, WhistlePig’s chief blender Meghan Ireland and CEO Charles Gibb claims the expression is the oldest North American single malt.
Named The BigShǝBàng, the whiskey was aged for 30 years in American oak before finishing for one-month in Vin Santo casks. It was distilled at the first single malt distillery in Canada, just more than 30 years ago, and then moved to Vermont in 2024 to finish its maturation.
Ireland says the launch of The BigShǝBàng ties into WhistlePig’s mode of operating, which is “always looking for something that hasn’t really been done a whole lot before, and introducing something that the world hasn’t necessarily had access to in a lot of ways.”
She adds: “It’s looking for what’s going to be the next biggest thing, but not only in an age statement, but also the best liquid. We always want to make sure our quality is there.”
The 30-year-old completes a trinity of single malt whiskeys from the brand, following the 2023 release of The Béhôlden – aged for 21 years – and the 2024 release of The Badönkådonk – aged for 25 years.
A lover of wine finishes, Ireland opted for Vin Santo barrels, which she says “are not used a lot within whiskey”.
Vin Santo is an Italian dessert wine from Tuscany, and elevates the aged whiskey with sweeter big berry notes, Ireland observes. “It gives this really nice balance to that classic single malt flavour – toasted almond and dark chocolate with aged and oak notes from the 30 years.”
Ireland notes the prestige of Vin Santo barrels in Europe: “They’re also very hard to source and it took us a little while to find the barrels,” she says, explaining that she acquired the Vin Santo barrels through a barrel broker in France.
“I had emails out to every barrel broker that I could think of, or have ever contacted in my time here,” she says. “I got one barrel I think four years ago as an experimental one that had come across my desk, and I got to use that. I’d been sitting on it and thinking about it, but it took me two years to actually get my hands on a couple more to be able to execute the project.”
WhistlePig’s rarest release
As the oldest and rarest whiskey to come out from WhistlePig’s profile, the release is super limited, with around 600 bottles available for a price of US$4,999.99.
Only four barrels of the whiskey are in existence and speaking on the scarcity of the release, new CEO Gibb, who took up the role in June, says the pricing was decided on a number of things: “Number one: obviously, this is extraordinarily rare with around 600 bottles for the entire world. You’ve got an extremely long ageing process, which adds to the value that we can attribute to the product. And then you’ve got a combination of the Vin Santo barrels, a very delicious, rare and high-end Tuscan dessert wine.
“So you’ve got all those different factors coming in there. And the fact that it has taken an awful lot of time and energy to create it.”
Regarding the whiskey maturation, Ireland suggests that the whiskey’s taste profile almost did a full circle. “Over time in its evolution, there’s a peak and it kind of comes back around. It tasted really good around the 10-12 year mark and I would almost say that it gets a little funky again in the 15 to 20 year range.
“It’s cool to see the labour profiles change again and come back. They softened in those last few years. We generally haven’t been able to get up to this high age statement before, so it’s really cool to see it develop from that standpoint.”
Alongside its notes of toasted almond, dark chocolate and berry fruits from the finish, other notes the brand lists include aromas of honeyed bread and wheat crust, followed by freshly kneaded dough and honeysuckle on the palate.
The whiskey is bottled at 45% ABV, which was a result of maturation, Ireland explains.
“It was basically finding an ABV we could hit because of where it was aged, we lost proof over time. While some barrels were obviously a little higher – a little off. It’s not going to be perfect in every single barrel, or exactly the same, but that was where we could get the proof out.
“It’s different to Scotch in terms of the climate. For us, ageing overtime we lose proof instead of gaining it.”
The whiskey is also chill filtered, to keep the whiskey “nice and clear”, she says.
As for the name The BigShǝBàng, it came up in a monthly brainstorming meeting for the brand’s internal marketing team.
Gibb says the “off the beaten track type” name, as was given to The BigShǝBàng’s predecessors The Béhôlden and The Badönkådonk, is at the core of WhistlePig’s DNA. “Its a brand focused on having zero generations of tradition behind it. What that means is that it gives us freedom to experiment within the category.
“Megan’s got this wonderful quote, which says: ‘I’ll put anything in any barrel once to see what happens’, and it’s this aspect of bold experimentation. We’ve got this sort of witty irreverence. Whether it’s the name WhistlePig itself, everything we do has always got this touch of irreverence to it, and that’s part of allowing you to stand out.”
Exciting time for American single malt
American single malt was an officially recognised category last December, but Ireland doesn’t see high aged statements like this necessarily becoming a trend just yet because “people haven’t been distilling single malt for that long in North America in general”.
But she does feel an excitement around the category, and American single malts are getting people in the US interested in single malt again: “America is such a Bourbon-focused country, but the recognition really brought a cool light to single malt and I definitely think it’s growing as a whiskey category here.”
Of the whiskey landscape in the US, Gibb notes that particularly for high-end consumers, it’s about “looking to rare, exclusive and highly differentiated products”, which The BigShǝBàng falls into.
“This gives you that in a super aged single malt whiskey and the Vin Santo casks just add that additional element of intrigue for those connoisseurs and/or collectors.
“That’s the key thing here – you’re appealing to the real whiskey adorers, but also the real whiskey collectors.”
While future higher aged statement releases from WhistlePig are a possibility, Ireland rules it out for now and puts the focus on letting this launch have its moment.
“I’ve been at WhistlePig for seven years now and I’ve definitely learned to never say never. I think we’re always looking for what’s gonna taste the best and how we can find that kind of modern fun twist.
“If the right opportunity comes across, definitely, but nothing within the playbook for next year. I can say that. I will be continuing to do my experiments and seeing what else we can do in the future.”
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