Wigle Whiskey

Family-run Wigle uses only local organic ingredients and a copper pot still to produce rye whiskey in the same traditional manner as their forebears in Pennsylvania. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is often cited as the place where American whiskey first appeared. Western Pennsylvania was the heartland of American Whiskey production throughout the 1700s and 1800s. Wigle honors one of the early distillers of Pennsylvania. In spite of his unwavering devotion to whiskey, the good natured Wigle was condemned to death by hanging. In a fight with a tax collector in 1794, distiller Phillip Wigle defended his right to do so. By doing so, he unknowingly sparked the Whiskey Rebellion, which pitted distillers in Western Pennsylvania against George Washington's army. Pittsburgh kept producing whiskey for the country even after the Whiskey Rebellion in the 1790s. It is estimated that by 1808, Allegheny County was producing half a barrel of whiskey for every man, woman, and kid in the United States. Monongahela Rye, a smoky, earthy Rye Whiskey, was considered the best American whiskey at the time. Evidence suggests that there were upwards of 4,000 separate stills in Western Pennsylvania at the height of the whiskey industry there. When Prohibition ended, Pittsburgh has been home to only one distillery; Wigle Whiskey. In the Wigle lark, the owners and operators are all related. After spending two years advocating for a change in state regulations to allow for an on-premise kind of craft distillery to flourish in Pennsylvania, the distillery went into operation in December 2011, and opened to the public in March 2012. Wigle received the American Craft Spirits Association's Best in Category Craft Rye Whiskey (2015), Best in Category Wheat Whiskey (2016), and Best in Category Genever (2016) awards in the same double-blind competition in which hundreds of other whiskeys from throughout the country also competed. Wigle invests much in new technology and produces dozens of spirits from local, organic ingredients using traditional methods (grain to bottle) for anything from Whiskeys and Gins to Honey Spirits and Bitters. Wigle never ever buys alcohol in bulk.