Chicken Cock Whiskey Unveils First Wheated Bourbon
The historic Chicken Cock Whiskey brand, which dates back to 1856, has introduced its first-ever wheated bourbon. The new release adds a wheated mash bill to its core portfolio, marking a significant product expansion for the Kentucky distiller.
By swapping rye for wheat in its grain recipe, Chicken Cock's new five-year-old bourbon offers a softer and sweeter flavor profile than its traditional rye-heavy mash bills. This wheated bourbon is bottled at 94-proof (47% ABV) and is made from a mash bill of 68% corn, 20% wheat, and 12% malted barley. The brand, originally established in Paris, Kentucky, in 1856, has a storied past. During Prohibition, it gained notoriety as the house whiskey of the Cotton Club, a famous speakeasy in Harlem. The whiskey was often smuggled in tin cans to avoid detection, a detail Duke Ellington noted in his memoirs. After a distillery fire in the 1950s, the brand disappeared for decades. In 2012, Grain & Barrel Spirits CEO Matti Anttila acquired and revived the historic label, aiming to restore it to its Prohibition-era prominence. Under the guidance of Master Distiller Gregg Snyder, the modern iteration of Chicken Cock is distilled at the Bardstown Bourbon Company in Kentucky. Snyder, a whiskey industry veteran of over 45 years, controls the entire process, from the recipe to hand-selecting the oak for the barrels.
