Wonderland Blend of Straight Whiskeys Review

By Richard Thomas

Rating: C

Michigan’s Wonderland Distilling Company enters a pretty crowded field, because the Wolverine State has a pretty well-developed craft whiskey scene. Like many newcomers, they have started by releasing a sourced product; what many croakers have never been willing to accept is that liquor is a business, and it makes all the business sense in the world to build your brand even as you sink hefty sums of capital into plant and aging spirits.

Unlike many newcomers, however, Wonderland has taken an approach to sourcing that has really only become possible in the last couple of years. Instead of buying aged whiskey from MGP, as so many have done, or sign a production contract with Bardstown Bourbon Company or one of the handful of mid-sized distillers with extra production capacity, they are sourcing from Michigan’s own craft whiskey sector. Moreover, they have drawn from a handful of distilleries, putting them in the position of one of the new crop of American proto-negociants. The practice of blending whiskey stock from several distilleries, the way a painter works colors together, is standard in Scotland, but hasn’t been seen on any scale in America since pre-Prohibition times. All that is changing now.

In this instance, Wonderland has drawn on separate batches of rye and wheat whiskey. This blend is bottled at 84 proof.

The Whiskey
The color of this blend is golden, while the nose bears a note of raisins atop honeyed sweetness, vanilla, and a light dash of the sort of cloying woodiness that was characteristic of many Craft Whiskey 1.0, small barrel aged whiskeys. It’s not built up to the same degree that made such whiskeys so infamous; it is a modest presence, but there nonetheless.

The mouthfeel on this youthful blended whiskey is light, while the flavor is a touch spicy, a touch honeyed and vanilla’ed. Once again, that modest, but noticeable cloying woodiness is there. The flavor, however, takes a serious twist for the better. That bit of cloying wood disappears, replaced by a lovely nuttiness. That finish really pulls the whole drinking experience up.

I really wonder what Michigan whiskeys were the basis for this blend, because one of them seems to have been aged in the 2006 style. That said, the blend has some potential, and I think using it in a cocktail would wipe out the inferior woody note that holds it back, while perhaps keeping that solid, nutty closer.

The Price
No pricing data for this bottle were available at time of print.