(WhistlePig)
“We were initially drawn to Khari Baoli as the largest spice market in Asia, knowing that unique spices tend to both balance and stretch the unique spice character of Rye Whiskey,” explains Meghan Ireland on her creative team’s exploratory trip to India for WhistlePig’s latest adventure in wild barrel experimentation.
“Even before arriving in India, we had heard about thandai and were fascinated by it. We had tried to make it with spices we could get in Vermont, but it just wasn’t right; something was missing. We needed to go to India to have the real thandai—and I’m glad we did.”
That’s why WhistlePig’s Chief Blender and team traveled more than 7,000 miles from the bucolic forests of their 500-acre farm in Shoreham, Vermont to the deserts of India to unearth the secrets of thandai—an aromatic local drink born of nuts and spices. Spices which WhistlePig hoped would work their magic with the brand’s superb rye whiskey to craft the eleventh chapter in their halo Boss Hog annual expression.
“The thandai we were given in India was incredible—far more vibrant, aromatic and harmonious than any of the iterations we had made back in the distillery,” continues Ireland, noting the efforts they learned selecting from the heaps of fresh spices, grasping the nuances to search for among the stalls overflowing with exotic delicacies.
“By comparison to the thandai we had in India, the thandai we had tried to make back in Vermont may as well had been a cardboard cutout of the real thing. It is impossible for me to truly describe the depth of flavor I was able to experience having real thandai,” she adds. “The experience was enriched by the lush aromatic cacophony of thousands of spices from the market, the street vendors making food you could practically taste by walking by, and all the truly amazing people we had met. We did our best to distill down this experience and offer you a taste of what we had experienced through The Boss Hog XI.”
(WhistlePig)
And with this exploration in thandai their WhistlePig Boss Hog XI: The Juggernaut was born. But the exact alchemy of how they married the spicy Indian drink with the Vermont distillery’s oldest straight rye isn’t quite so simple.
First they poured their carefully selected thandai spices—including saffron, cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, fennel, poppy and black peppercorn—into stainless steel tanks holding their foundational four-year-old rye. There they let the spices infuse the whiskey for no less than 14 days before filtering them from the spirit. Stainless steel tanks were used instead of barrels so only the whiskey and spices would interact, without influence from wood characteristics.
“It is impossible for me to truly describe the depth of flavor I was able to experience having real thandai.”
This newly mulled whiskey was never meant to be consumed, however—instead they filled 127 barrels with it to season the virgin oak. When the barrels were ready, the mulled 4-year-old rye was dumped out and replaced with WhistlePig’s rare 13-year-old rye, which aged an additional 21 days in the finishing barrels. Three weeks on average, that is, as they decide the finishing time by each barrel independently, not by stopwatch or days on a calendar.
“When we season barrels we are looking to accomplish a couple of things: One, we are trying to impart flavors unto the barrel that the wood varietal itself would not have. Two, we are looking to soften some of the sharper elements of that barrel,” explains Mitch Mahar, another team blender. “It’s a bit of a balancing act monitoring this seasoning process—balancing between act of love and insanity—but without this process, we could not create the whiskey we envisioned.”
(WhistlePig)
As this is the first thandai-influenced rye ever made, the results are truly unique, something even the most adventurous whiskey drinkers could never have tasted. Unsurprisingly, think rushes of clove, cardamom, cracked black pepper and allspice complementing the rye spice—at times subtle, other times in deep, rich waves. Which is the exact point of the wildly creative Boss Hog series. “Each edition of The Boss Hog is a world’s-first finish, never before dreamed of in the world of spirits, let alone whiskey,” Ireland has told Maxim before.
“If the creation of a whiskey is easy, it’s probably not of a caliber to be called The Boss Hog,” says Mahar. “Every edition of The Boss Hog has allowed us to hone our craft, and make us into an even more disruptive whiskey-making force.” Bottled between 51.9 to 52.6 percent ABV (103.8 – 105.2 proof), WhistlePig Boss Hog XI: The Juggernaut comes packaged in the collection’s sturdy display case, its beloved pewter Chief Pig Mortimer Jr. topper fully dressed in the style of the majestic elephant Raja, the tallest elephant ever recorded in India.
The eleventh chapter in The Boss Hog series is available now for $600.
Follow Deputy Editor Nicolas Stecher on Instagram at @nickstecher and @boozeoftheday.
