I respect your opinion Pilgrim, but allow me to share my thoughts and some information.
Bighorn and Old Elk are actually sourced bourbon. Both are distilled, aged, and bottled from a company called MGP in Indiana. Bighorn and most Old Elk's are blends, meaning they take 2-3 different barrels of different mash bills and blend them. With MGP that's going to be done well, but also include at least one high rye blend that gives me headaches. I do have a bottle of the Old Elk Wheated Bourbon bin my shelf. It's good, but at $65 it's way overpriced. Pretty sure it's identical to Redemption wheated at $45 a bottle as both are sourced from MGP and taste identical to me.
Willie's actually distills vodka and moonshine and their little distillery in Ennis Mt is supposed to be cool. But they're not really doing anything other than marketing the bourbon.
I love Wyoming Whiskey. They distill, age, and bottle everything in house at the distillery in Kirby, WY. When they got started, they hired the recently retired master distiller from Maker's and use a very similar mash bill. They never sourced anything and waited 3-4 years after starting to sell their first drop.
In the beginning it apparently was not good and the owner bought all of the inventory back from bars, restaurants, and liquor stores in 2013 to improve quality. By all accounts it was hit or miss until about 2018-2019 when they found their groove. I had first bottle in 2019 and have never had a bad one. I pick it up when it's on sale ($35 vs $40) and snag the single barrel anytime I see it. It's amazing.
It's a wheater and I don't think I will argue that it's any better than Larceny or Maker's (even though I enjoy it more personally), but I also respect the **** out of guys starting a real distillery from scratch in BFE Wyoming and struggling through the growing pains to do it right. I'm not knocking sourced bourbon, but it's honestly something anyone with a checkbook can do.
Also, Wyoming Whiskey is really doing some cool stuff. Every year they have a National Parks bottle release to donate money to the parks. They also did a special auction on 4 one of a kind bottles with Harrison Ford for the National Parks Foundation last year.
Just this fall, the Mule Deer Foundation auctioned off special bottles of Wyoming Whiskey to raise money as well.
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If you like wheated bourbon, National Parks, mule deer, and the idea of a truly craft bourbon distillery that does it all in house, you should buy a bottle of Wyoming Whiskey. They sent me a free hat and whiskey glass last year after I sent an email telling them how I had always enjoyed Larceny, but switched to Wyoming Whiskey as my primary daily drinker.
