Wheel Horse Whiskey Drops Two New Limited Releases: A Rum-Finished Double Mash and Its First-Ever Double Oak Bourbon
Wheel Horse Whiskey has built a loyal following by doing something most brands won't: releasing genuinely interesting, seasonally rotated limited editions at prices that don't require a second mortgage. The Owensboro, Kentucky-based brand has quietly become one of the more intriguing players in the affordable craft space, and its latest pair of drops — a Rum-Finished Double Mash and the brand's maiden five-year Double Oak Bourbon — underlines exactly why that reputation has stuck.
Wheel Horse Bourbon was one of the first whiskeys to come out of Green River Distillery, and the Wheel Horse brand, which is owned by independent bottler Latitude Beverage Co., built its name on core bourbon and rye releases with aggressively low price points — though those prices have inched upward in subsequent years. The limited release calendar has become the brand's proving ground, where Barrel Master Stephen Corrigan gets room to push the whiskey in directions the flagship expressions can't go.
The Distillery Behind the Bottle: Green River's Deep Roots
To understand what goes into a Wheel Horse release, you have to start in Owensboro. Wheel Horse whiskeys are crafted at the iconic Green River Distillery, which was founded in 1885 and stands as one of the oldest distilleries in Kentucky along the westernmost point of the renowned Kentucky Bourbon Trail. That history matters — it's not window dressing. Barrels aged at a site where bourbon has been made for well over a century benefit from the accumulated knowledge of generations of distillers who understood that Kentucky's climate, limestone-filtered water, and dramatic seasonal temperature swings are ingredients in their own right.
All Wheel Horse whiskeys are distilled at Green River Distilling in Owensboro, Kentucky, and are then blended and bottled at Wheel Horse's facility in Rhode Island. That split geography — Kentucky for production, New England for blending and bottling — is an unusual arrangement that gives Wheel Horse's team a different vantage point on the whiskey than a traditional single-site operation might have. The sour mash whiskeys are distilled in copper stills and aged in 53-gallon new charred oak barrels for a minimum of four years.
All of Wheel Horse's whiskeys are produced in small batches and bottled at a minimum of 101 proof without chill filtration, to preserve the true flavor of the spirit. That commitment to 101 proof and non-chill filtration isn't just marketing copy — it means every bottle carries the full fat and fatty acid content that chill filtration strips out, preserving the mouthfeel and the flavor compounds that express themselves when water or ice hits the glass.
The brand's flagship expressions, Wheel Horse 101 Rye and Wheel Horse 101 Bourbon, have acquired numerous accolades since hitting the market in 2020, including being named one of WhiskyAdvocate's Top 20 Whiskies of 2021. For a brand that launched only a few years ago, landing on that list is no small thing. It set the stage for Wheel Horse to pursue a more ambitious limited-release program, one that 2024 has pushed further than any previous year.
Double Oak 5-Year Bourbon: A First-Ever Milestone for the Brand
Image credit: Wheel Horse Whiskey
On December 10, 2024, Wheel Horse Whiskey announced the release of their new Double Oak 5-Year Bourbon — a release that carries more significance than the average seasonal drop. The new Wheel Horse Double Oak is the first five-year expression from the brand. In other words, this is the oldest bourbon Wheel Horse has ever put in a bottle, and the double-oak treatment was designed to mark the occasion with something more complex than a straightforward age statement.
The Barrel Program: Char 4 Into Char 1
Aged for over 4.5 years in its original Char 4 oak barrels, the whiskey was re-casked into new Char 1 oak barrels for another 6 months of finishing. The movement from a heavily charred barrel to a lightly charred one is a deliberate and somewhat counterintuitive choice. Most distillers who pursue double oak either move into a used barrel of some kind — wine, port, sherry — or into a toasted but not charred barrel. Going from Char 4 into a brand new Char 1 means the whiskey exits a heavily carbonized environment, where caramel and vanilla are being pulled aggressively from the wood, and enters a softer, more porous oak environment where the raw wood sugars and tannins interact with the spirit more gently.
Double Oak Bourbon was distilled from a mash bill of 70% corn, 21% rye and 9% malted barley. It was then aged for more than four years and subsequently transferred to char level 1 barrels made from staves which had undergone extensive air seasoning. After a little more than 6 months of additional aging in those barrels, the bourbon was dumped, blended and bottled, without chill-filtering. The air-seasoned staves are key — wood that has been dried naturally over a long period loses the harsh green tannins that kiln-dried staves can contribute, which is why the barrel selection here was so deliberate.
Barrel Master Stephen Corrigan was clear about the intent behind the project. "Double oak Bourbons have gained in popularity over the last few years," Corrigan said. "Our goal when crafting Wheel Horse Double Oak was to complement the underlying cherry note of the whiskey with bold flavors of raw sugar and cocoa." To achieve this, he hand selected a group of new Char 1 barrels whose staves had gone through extended air seasoning, and after a little more than 6 months finishing in these casks, the end result is complex and balanced.
Tasting Notes: What's Actually in the Glass
On the nose, the whiskey is rich with aromas of chocolate-dipped toffee and pound cake. Once sipped, sweeter flavors of demerara sugar and vanilla custard appear before revealing notes of dried cherries and cocoa. The finish lingers, featuring hints of chocolate cake, pipe tobacco and brown sugar.
The dried cherry note is particularly worth dwelling on. It's a natural outcome of the Char 4 maturation — heavy charring caramelizes the wood sugars and produces that deep, almost maraschino cherry quality that distinguishes Kentucky bourbon from other whiskey categories. The move into the Char 1 barrel then layered in raw tannins and a fresher oak character that pushed the flavor profile toward something richer and more dessert-like, without smothering the spirit's inherent spice from that 21% rye content. The demerara sugar note bridges those two barrel experiences elegantly, sitting at the intersection of deep caramel and raw cane sweetness.
Production Numbers, Proof, and Price
With just 2,100 bottles produced, this bourbon joins the Wheel Horse family of limited edition, seasonal whiskeys. Like all Wheel Horse small batch whiskeys, Double Oak Bourbon is bottled at 101 proof, non-chill filtered, with an SRP of $34.99. For context, the double-oak category has become crowded with releases priced well north of $50, many of them using used wine or spirit casks rather than genuinely new wood. Getting a five-year, double-new-oak bourbon at $34.99 — 101 proof, no chill filtration — represents the kind of value proposition that built Wheel Horse's audience in the first place.
Wheel Horse Double Oak 5-Year Bourbon is available for purchase online nationally, along with limited availability on shelves in select markets. Given the bottle count of 2,100, shelf availability will be genuinely limited rather than the nominal "select markets" language that bigger brands sometimes use to imply scarcity without delivering it.
Rum-Finished Double Mash: Caribbean Barrels Meet Kentucky Grain
Image credit: Wheel Horse Whiskey
The second release in this pairing takes a different direction entirely — one that reflects a broader trend in American whiskey but executes it with the specificity and sourcing credibility that separates serious releases from lazy novelty plays. The limited release bottling is a Kentucky Straight Rye Whiskey finished in Caribbean Rum barrels previously used by Appleton Estate. The Appleton Estate provenance is significant. Appleton is one of Jamaica's most storied rum producers, and their barrels carry the aromatic legacy of Jamaican rum — funk, tropical fruit, overripe banana, and that characteristic molasses-forward sweetness that distinguishes Jamaican production from the lighter rums of Puerto Rico or the Dominican Republic.
What Makes It a "Double Mash"
The rye is made from a mash bill of 95% rye and 5% malted barley. Like the standard Wheel Horse Rye, the whiskey was distilled in copper stills then matured in hand-selected, 53-gallon, charred American oak barrels. A 95% rye mash bill is among the most aggressive rye grain bills in American whiskey production. At that concentration, the grain asserts itself relentlessly — spicy, grassy, floral, with a peppercorn bite that doesn't back down. That character is precisely what makes the rum barrel finish so interesting: it sets up a genuine tension between the dry, spiced rye grain character and the sweet, tropical-tinged rum barrel influence. These two flavor worlds do not naturally coexist, and the skill of the finish lies in finding the balance point where they amplify rather than cancel each other.
The Breaking Bourbon review of the Summer 2024 rye-rum release offered useful context on how that tension plays out in practice. This rum-finished rye was surprisingly light smelling and tasting right out of the bottle. After a week of being opened, the whiskey noticeably opened up, loosening its tight grip on its rum finish. In return, large amounts of brown sugar are featured on its nose, almost overshadowing its caramel, oak, and molasses scents. That behavior — tight at first, opening dramatically with air — is a hallmark of high-rye whiskeys finished in sweet casks. The rye oils and the rum barrel sugars need time to integrate, and patience rewards the drinker.
The palate is simple and straightforward with its overall sweet flavors of molasses, brown sugar, and coffee cake before charred oak sets in. This charred oak note carries over to the finish where things get more interesting. Apple pie, fruit cake, and leather combine with heavy charred oak and lingering rye spice to make for a flavorful conclusion. The coffee cake and molasses call-back on the palate is a direct conversation between the rye grain and the Appleton barrels — both elements contributing to the sweetness but from entirely different flavor lineages. The apple pie and fruit cake on the finish are pure rye, the spice from that 95% mash bill burning through the rum-soaked sweetness to deliver a classically long, warming rye finish.
Tasting the Nose: Apple Pie, Maple, and Molasses
On the nose, this whiskey is fruity with aromas of apple pie and dark maple syrup. Once sipped, rich flavors of molasses and espresso are apparent before revealing notes of spiced fruit cake and root beer. The finish lingers with hints of candy apple and brown sugar. The espresso note is a gift from the Appleton barrels — aged rum barrels develop a richly bitter, roasted note over time that integrates beautifully with the naturally herbal and spiced rye. The root beer note is unexpected but entirely logical: both root beer and high-rye whiskeys share a licorice-adjacent, spiced botanical character, and when that meets molasses from the rum barrel, the reference point becomes almost uncanny.
With a $43 price point, Wheel Horse is once again focused on bringing as much value to their releases as they can. Though there are many more rum-finished whiskeys than ever before, the majority of them are priced higher, and more times than not, many of them use bourbon as their base. That last point is worth underlining for serious enthusiasts. Most rum-finished American whiskey on the market today uses bourbon — corn-forward, sweeter, more supple — because bourbon's natural sweetness plays more easily against rum's molasses notes. Wheel Horse Rye Finished in Rum Barrels doesn't do anything other rum-finished ryes haven't done before, but if you've ever wanted to give the style a try, Wheel Horse's low cost of entry and decent quality makes it a good place to look. A rye base with Jamaican rum finishing is a harder needle to thread, but when it lands, the result is more dynamic — more friction, more interest.
A Full Year of Limited Releases: The Seasonal Calendar in Context
These two releases don't exist in isolation. They're part of a now-established seasonal rhythm at Wheel Horse that Latitude Beverage has built into the brand's identity. The Double Oak Bourbon Winter 2024 release joined the brand's family of limited edition whiskeys, which that year also included Cigar Blend Bourbon in Fall, Rye Whiskey finished in Caribbean Rum barrels in Summer, and Toasted Barrel Bourbon in Spring. Four limited releases in a single calendar year, each hitting a different flavor register, each targeted at a different whiskey enthusiast — that's a remarkably productive and diverse output for a brand of Wheel Horse's size.
The Spring 2025 Toasted Barrel Bourbon followed the same formula: the limited release Spring 2025 bottling is a 4-year Kentucky Straight Bourbon finished in toasted oak barrels. The bourbon was matured for over four years in original charred oak barrels before being transferred to toasted oak barrels for finishing. On the nose, the whiskey has aromas of cherry pie and marshmallow. Once sipped, flavors of toffee and vanilla appear before revealing richer notes of mocha and chocolate cake. The finish is long, featuring hints of creme brûlée, toasted almond and espresso.
The pattern that emerges across these releases — Toasted Barrel in Spring, Rum Finished in Summer, Cigar Blend in Fall, Double Oak in Winter — suggests a brand that's thinking carefully about seasonal flavor profiles and how different finishing techniques map onto different times of year. Light and dessert-forward in spring, tropical and sweet-spiced in summer, deeply complex and smoke-adjacent in fall, chocolatey and warming in winter. Whether that's intentional programming or happy coincidence, it creates a coherent release calendar that gives enthusiasts a reason to check back in every season.
The Broader Trend: Cask Finishing in American Whiskey
Wheel Horse's limited release strategy taps directly into one of the most significant trends reshaping American whiskey over the past decade. Cask finishing — the practice of moving a matured spirit into a second barrel of a different origin to add flavor layers — migrated from Scotch whisky to the American market slowly at first, then all at once. Wheel Horse's unique cask-finishes and small batch selections are available seasonally and in limited quantities — a positioning that keeps demand high and allows the brand to experiment without alienating core bourbon drinkers who want consistency from the flagships.
The double-oak category in particular has seen explosive growth. Stephen Corrigan, Barrel Master of Wheel Horse, acknowledged that double-oak bourbons have gained in popularity over the last few years. The appeal is easy to understand: new American oak — the only barrel type required for straight bourbon production — delivers vanilla, caramel, and char notes efficiently but can feel one-dimensional in younger whiskeys. A second barrel pass, whether into new lightly charred wood, toasted oak, or a used wine or spirit cask, adds dimensionality without fundamentally altering the spirit's bourbon identity. It's the whiskey equivalent of a finishing salt — a final touch that sharpens and complicates without overwhelming.
The Appleton Estate rum barrel connection in the rye release points to another growing segment: the marriage of American grain whiskey with Caribbean barrel provenance. Jamaica's funky, ester-heavy rum tradition produces barrels that are genuinely distinctive in their flavor contribution — the esters that make Jamaican rum smell of overripe fruit and tropical sweetness are absorbed into the wood and transferred to whatever spirit sits in those barrels next. A high-rye Kentucky straight rye is about as far from Jamaican rum as two spirits can get, which is exactly what makes the pairing intellectually interesting and, when executed well, genuinely delicious.
Latitude Beverage's Play: Value and Volume
Latitude Beverage is the Massachusetts-based wine and spirits company behind a growing portfolio of national brands, including Wheel Horse Whiskey, 90+ Cellars, Steel 43 Vodka, Tequila Zarpado and Copper & Cask Spirits. The parent company's model — high quality at accessible prices across multiple categories — aligns perfectly with what Wheel Horse delivers. The limited release program functions as a halo for the flagship 101 expressions, demonstrating craft and creativity while the core line handles volume. It's a smart two-tier strategy that lets the brand compete for shelf space in the mass market while simultaneously courting the collector and enthusiast audience that drives Instagram traffic and word-of-mouth.
The brand is owned by independent bottler Latitude Beverage Co. and consists of core bourbon and rye releases. The Barrel Master Select Batch 1 is a blend of 12 barrels ranging in age from 5 to 6 years, producing a total of 2,100 bottles — that consistent 2,100-bottle production run across multiple limited releases appears to be something of a house standard, keeping each release genuinely scarce without making it impossible to find for those who look.
Green River's Legacy and What It Means for the Whiskey
The site of the distillery, on the westernmost edge of the Kentucky Bourbon Trail, has housed distilleries for over 130 years. That continuity of place is more than romantic history. The soils, the local grain suppliers, the microbial environment inside older warehouse facilities, the rickhouse microclimates built up over more than a century of seasonal expansion and contraction — all of these contribute to flavor in ways that can't be replicated by dropping a brand-new distillery anywhere in the country and running grain through a still. Green River's legacy is baked into what Wheel Horse produces, even when that whiskey is being finished in Jamaican rum barrels or hand-selected Char 1 casks.
Wheel Horse Bourbon was one of the first whiskeys to come out of Green River Distillery, now owned by Bardstown Bourbon Company. The change in ownership at the distillery level has not altered Wheel Horse's production relationship with the site, and the brand continues to draw on Green River's distilling tradition and infrastructure. For enthusiasts who care about provenance — and in today's market, more of them do every year — knowing that this whiskey comes from one of Kentucky's oldest active distilleries carries real weight.
What These Releases Mean for Enthusiasts and Collectors
Both of these releases were already listed as sold out on the Wheel Horse website shortly after their respective launches, which tells you something about demand. The Double Oak 5-Year Bourbon Winter 2024 and the Rye Finished in Rum Barrels Summer 2024 are both listed as sold out on the limited releases page. At 2,100 bottles apiece, there was never going to be inventory sitting on shelves for long, but the speed of sell-through reflects a consumer base that has learned to move quickly on Wheel Horse limited drops.
The market dynamics here are favorable for the brand and at least initially fair for the consumer. At $34.99 for the Double Oak and around $42-$43 for the Rum-Finished Rye, these are priced to sell rather than to sit. Secondary market pricing has not yet pushed Wheel Horse into the speculative tier where bottles move purely as investment vehicles, which means that for now, the people actually buying these releases are generally the people who want to drink them. That's a healthy state for any limited release program to be in.
For anyone who missed either of these drops, the lesson is simple: sign up for Wheel Horse's release notifications and treat every seasonal drop as time-sensitive. The brand has demonstrated, across four releases in 2024 alone, that it has both the sourcing relationships and the production craft to deliver something genuinely worth seeking out at each seasonal turn. The Rum-Finished Double Mash and the Double Oak 5-Year Bourbon are two very different expressions — one tropical and spice-driven, one rich and dessert-like — but both represent the same fundamental proposition: serious whiskey at a price that respects the buyer's wallet as much as their palate.
