The Wheat Whiskey At Colorado’s Laws Whiskey House Keeps Getting Older

Laws Whiskey House has announced the annual release of their Bottled in Bond Centennial Straight Wheat Whiskey. This seven-year-old limited release will be available for tasting and for purchase in the Laws Whiskey House tasting room in Denver on June 8 and will be available for purchase online and in key markets starting late June for a suggested retail price of $79.99.

Bottled in Bond Centennial Straight Wheat Whiskey is a distinctive release for several reasons. To start, the mash bill is 100% wheat which is unusual in the category of American whiskey. The wheat in this whiskey is also the same soft white Centennial wheat that is used in the brand’s flagship Four Grain Bourbon. This particular heirloom varietal is grown for Laws Whiskey House by the Cody Family Farm in Alamosa, Colorado.

Second, this release meets and exceeds the standards of the Bottled in Bond Act of 1897. To qualify as a Bottled in Bond whiskey, the spirit must be made by one distillery in a single season, must be bottled at 100 proof (50% abv) and must be aged at least four years in a federally bonded warehouse. Meeting and exceeding these standards allows the distillery to fully explore the distinctive properties of a whiskey made with heirloom grains.

Lastly, this is the oldest wheat whiskey that Laws Whiskey House has released to date. The nine barrels for this small batch were filled during July and August of 2015 and were harvested in April of 2023, making the whiskey an average age of seven years and nine months. Just 2,100 bottles of Batch 5 were produced.

Batch 4, the 2022 release of Bottled in Bond Centennial Straight Wheat Whiskey, was an average of five years and five months old. Batch 5’s additional two years of maturation add a pronounced oak profile layered with the spicy, sweet bread, and citrus notes this whiskey is known for. The additional barrel character interacts nicely with notes of strawberries, orange marmalade, jasmine tea, and pink peppercorn.

Al Laws, Founder, says, “we celebrate the grain and the role our farmers play in our whiskey more than most distilleries. This is a whiskey that showcases a unique wheat grain that is grown in a unique place, the San Luis Valley of Colorado. The Cody Family grows this soft spring wheat for us for the balance it offers between flavor and sweetness. Soft spring wheat has more starch than hard winter wheat, adding sweetness and aiding with fermentation. Like our San Luis Valley Straight Rye Whiskey in particular, you can taste the influence of the land in this whiskey. It has a minerality that comes from the soil that, combined with the whiskey’s sweet, fruity profile, makes this whiskey the perfect summer sipper.”