The holiday season is a time for celebration, remembrance and hope. It’s also a time for giving and different people give in many different ways. Most people have someone in their life that has been touched by cancer. The folks at Wilderness Trail Distillery in Danville, Kentucky are no different. They have people in their lives that are battling cancer and they are taking the fight directly to the disease in their efforts to F-Cancer.
Doubling Down with a 15 + 1 Year = 16 Year Old Bourbon for Charity
To help support the battle against cancer Wilderness Trail owners Shane Baker and Pat Heist are doubling down on the fight. About a year ago they purchased a 15-year-old barrel of Willett Distillery bourbon at Willett-To-Be-Cured, an auction for the American Cancer Society. Rather than bottling it and selling it or drinking it they decided to continue to let is age for an additional year in the barrel making this 15 year old bourbon a 16 year old bourbon.
Wilderness Trail is now taking signups for a lottery to see who will get a chance to purchase one of only 58 bottles from this barrel. The bottles are packaged in a limited edition box set and will sell for $2,500 each. Wilderness Trail is offering three ways for people to participate in the lottery.
- Lottery for Wilderness Trail Distillery Visitors – People that sign up at the Wilderness Trail open house will be part of the first lottery. The first two winners will be drawn from those who register December 6 and 7 at the distillery.
- Lottery for Wilderness Trail Family Tree Members – Like many distilleries, they have a way for people to get on their friends and family kind of list. Family Tree members will have a lottery for two box sets by emailing their name and phone number to FTCancer@WildernessTrailKy.com.
- Lottery for Online Wilderness Trail Signups – The remaining bottles will go into the main lottery for people who sign up online at the Wilderness Trail website or in the visitor center now through December 5, 2019. Wilderness Trail will post the names and contact the winners. Entrants for the public lottery should email their name and phone number to FCancer16@WildernessTrailKy.com.
Wilderness Trail Distillery Co-Founder Shane Baker says they are excited about this release for several reasons.
“One is because this Bourbon is flat out awesome,” said Baker. “Another reason is the money raised is going to impact lives of those suffering right now and just before the holidays. The timing couldn’t be better on helping warm some hearts and help make the holidays a little better.”
That 16 Year Old Willett Distillery Barrel will Get New Life
“We distilled a special barrel of four-grain Bourbon almost 5 years ago,” said Baker. “We are going to double-barrel it and finish it in this infamous old (Willett Distillery) barrel for a while longer. Then we will have bottles of some more great, rare Bourbon to talk about and keep asking the question: How many lives can this one barrel keep touching?”
3rd Time’s a Charm
What a way for bourbon to give back. The 15 year old bourbon raised money for cancer, the 16 year old bourbon will raise money for cancer and the 5 year old bourbon will age for another few years to once again pay it forward and raise more money and awareness in the fight to cure cancer.
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