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PITTSBURGH — Each week, Michael Foglia and his team of distillers at in the city’s Strip District spend their days creating some of the finest craft whiskeys in the nation. Following the distillation process, those spirits find themselves barreled in 53-gallon casks and stored at a location in Pittsburgh, spending the next 1,460-plus days — at least four years — gaining color and flavor.

Whiskey distilled and barreled four years ago is just now reaching maturity when it comes to taste and color. The finest of the lot at Wigle are now being bottled into a new line — Wigle Reserve. Foglia said this top-shelf sampling of spirits showcases his team’s love, attention and passion for craft whiskey.

“In creating Wigle Reserve, our focus was to really lean into the exceptional craftsmanship of our distillers and present that work in a way that’s recognizable and easy to see,” said Foglia, Wigle’s senior director of production. “It’s easy to be distracted right now by all the different products that are available. But we’re whiskey people — we’re really serious whiskey people — and we wanted to reflect on that expertise in this offering to our customers. Wigle Reserve is an elevated product line that reflects all of the decisions that we make — the grains we use, the soil those grains come from, the region’s farmers that we work with — to showcase an exceptional level of craftsmanship and taste.”

Wigle has long been heralded in the craft distilling industry for getting it right.

The new Wigle Reserve line will only further those accolades.

“We chose our most serious core whiskeys to launch Wigle Reserve. We’re talking about four-year bourbon, four-year rye, single-barrel expressions and cask-strength expressions,” Foglia said. “These products will really resonate with serious whiskey aficionados.”

The distilling process

How do you create a whiskey that meets the standards of the Wigle Reserve line? It’s all about attention to detail, Foglia said, and also an understanding that each bottle on the shelf has had at least a four-year journey from the start of distillation to reaching the market.

That journey plays an important role for Foglia and his team — a role that’s bigger than just the time it takes for the whiskey to receive its deep brown color and its flavoring. When a new barrel is opened and the contents made ready for bottling, Foglia said he often researches some of the events from the day the whiskey entered the cask — he’ll look at a picture on his phone from that day and also check the newspaper headlines. It’s a way to remain humble in the approach to making something truly unique, and also to keep perspective that each day’s processes are part of something bigger.

During a tour of Wigle’s production facility on Smallman Street in Pittsburgh, Foglia discussed just how Wigle’s whiskey is made, and the hands-on attention his team takes to ensure each batch meets the company’s standards. It all starts with sourcing grains from local farmers.

“Whiskey is a really agricultural product,” Foglia said. “The grains that we use here … malted barley is in practically every type of whiskey we make. … So we really focus on the grains that are going into our whiskey. We source our grains from within about 200 miles of our distillery. So not only is this an agricultural product, but it’s an agricultural product that’s reflective of our region. We take a lot of pride in that.

“We get the opportunity every time we make a batch to take this local product and turn it into something that is delicious, fun and exceptional. We also love that we get to work with our region’s farmers, to take their grains and turn them into something we can be proud of, something that our customers love. That’s so important to who we are.”

The warehouse is filled with bags of rye, malted barley, dried corn (used in bourbon) and wheat. A combination of those ingredients are used to create each batch of new product, whether it be bourbon or rye.

The distillery’s process to take these ingredients and, using water and heat, turn them into something truly special begins with a trip to the hopper.

There, these grains are measured out — a typical bourbon might include 400 pounds of malt, 300 pounds of wheat and more than 1,000 pounds of corn — and dumped into a hopper, where they climb the line and meet their fate at the hammer mill, which pulverizes the mix into a really fine flour, or grist. That material then heads into a mash tun, then after the mash is made, it goes to a fermentation vessel, where water and steam convert those starches into simple sugars.

Yeast is added after the mix cools, and then it sits for three to five days to ferment. The mix then moves to another tank to start the distillation process.

At this stage, Foglia said he and his team have reached the “artful” side of the distillation.

“This is where we’re making cuts and deciding what is ultimately going to continue forward in our process,” he said.

Getting the right taste

When you’re still in the first week of what eventually will be a minimum 208-week journey that ends with a bottle of whiskey, there’s still much to be considered — and plenty of work to be done. Now moved to a new tank, water and steam are added to the fermented mixture, and when it hits 200 degrees, the alcohol will start to turn to vapor. That vapor is pulled into a line coming off the tank and into a condenser. The vapors are condensed back to liquid form, and then through several other processes including tasting and, if necessary, diluting with water, a more finished product — at least for the first week of many — starts to emerge.

“You’re just really discerning about what is going into that tank. Everybody on the production team spends a lot of time just standing and evaluating and saying, ‘Hey, is this where I expect it to be? Is this what I want to bring into the process moving forward?'” he said.

“But it’s good to remember that this is still just the beginning of the process — and the process lasts four years. So we’re talking about a lot of transformation that still is waiting to happen.”

Each batch takes about a week to go from whole grain to finished spirit that’s ready to barrel, Foglia said. It’s the barreling process — and what happens over that four-year period — that makes each batch really stand out in terms of its flavor.

Wigle’s barrels come from Louisville, Kentucky, in either a Char 3 or a Char 4. Once barreled, the whiskey will pick up color. The flavors will round out, and the alcohol actually will metabolize some of the wood features into the finished product. The whiskey at this point truly is on its own journey, which is part of what working at a craft distillery such as Wigle so intriguing, Foglia said.

“For us to say that we can fully control the flavors would be a gross overestimation. We try to corral it a little bit, but it’s on its own for at least the next four years,” he said.

Those decisions actually start at about three and one-half years after being barreled. The whiskey is evaluated based on a number of factors. It could end up as a blending whiskey. Or it could be so smooth and unique that, as Foglia put it, “it literally just stops you in your tracks.” This could be an entire batch or just one single barrel from a batch that stands out from the rest.

“With a single barrel, that one barrel has to have gone through its journey in such a way that the flavors are all positive and complementary; and on its own, the whiskey provides a fully rounded and exceptional experience. So you start tracking that barrel and say, ‘OK, at three and a half years, this was a showstopper. Let’s see how it is at four and a quarter years.’ And things could change greatly in those nine months. Again, each barrel is on its own journey,” Foglia said.

“When we do find that barrel that is exceptional, after four years we might decide we’re going to harvest it immediately and get it in front of our customers. Or we could choose to let it sit for four or even eight more years. We’re talking about a process that started at least four years ago. … It gives you good perspective on life.

“When we open a cask, I always look at the barreling date and consider what was happening that day. I’ll look at my pictures, pull up the newspaper archive. Why does this taste the way it does? Did we have a drought that year? If there were drought conditions, you might have different sugar levels, different flavors coming through. It’s so interesting to not only be part of a team that makes great whiskey, but to also understand and appreciate just what was taking place that allowed that to happen.”

Crafting Wigle Reserve

As Foglia has noted, the team at Wigle is all about whiskey — and not just any whiskey, but excellent, exceptional whiskey. That’s why tackling Wigle Reserve — again, the top shelf of the top shelf whiskeys — has been just so much fun.

This is his team’s chance to really showcase just how good they can be with a product that is bottled in bond and ready for the most discerning of drinkers.

“For us, Wigle Reserve is really about showing off what we’re doing in the whiskey space at the highest level, and making products that really resonate with people,” Foglia said. “Wigle Reserve is more than just a name; it’s a testament to our enduring legacy of consistently setting the gold standard for American craft distilling. We have meticulously crafted this line to showcase the passion and expertise that goes into every bottle, from sourcing locally-grown ingredients to the careful aging process.”

The reviews from the team have been simple: Wigle Reserve is “astounding.”

“Wigle Reserve brings to light the way we’ve been doing things, our real legacy. We’ve learned a lot of lessons over 12 years — and we think we’re getting better. We strive for that each day, and we want Wigle Reserve to reflect our commitment to making a truly unique whiskey,” Foglia said.

Wigle Reserve lines include:

Wigle Reserve Pennsylvania Straight Rye

Wigle Reserve Pennsylvania Straight Bourbon

Wigle Reserve Cask Strength Rye

Wigle Reserve Cask Strength Bourbon

Wigle Reserve Single Barrel Rye

Wigle Reserve Single Barrel Bourbon

“The Wigle legacy is deeply rooted in rich American history and tradition,” said Alex Moser, Wigle’s COO. “Wigle Reserve is not just a whiskey; it’s a celebration of the craft, the history, and the unwavering commitment to excellence that defines us.”