Wilderness Trail Distillery: Danville, Kentucky, Heist and Baker and the Campari Deal
Wilderness Trail is a distillery in Danville, Kentucky, started in 2013 by Dr Pat Heist and Shane Baker. Before distilling their own whiskey they spent over ten years as consultants, supplying yeast and optimisation services to much of the industry.
Quick facts
Location: Danville, Boyle County, Kentucky
Started: 2013
Founders: Dr Pat Heist and Shane Baker
Campus: 163 acres, moved into the 1869 Willis Grimes House in 2015
Ownership: Campari took a 70% stake for 420 million dollars in October 2022
Whiskeys
Wikipedia lists a single barrel bottled in bond bourbon, a wheated small grain straight bourbon, a bottled in bond bourbon, a small batch rye small grain bourbon of 12 barrels, and a single barrel cask strength Kentucky straight rye. They are aged 5 to 7 years. The distillery calls itself Danville's oldest legal distillery.
Restoration
The Willis Grimes House, an 1869 home, was restored for offices. Main distilling and warehousing moved there in 2015.
Frequently asked questions
Where is Wilderness Trail?
Danville, Kentucky.
Who owns it?
Campari holds 70 percent since October 2022.
Who founded it?
Dr Pat Heist and Shane Baker.
Founders and timeline
Shane Baker and Pat Heist met as students at the University of Kentucky. After degrees in mechanical engineering and plant pathology, they founded the fermentation consultancy Ferm Solutions in 2006. In 2012 they founded Wilderness Trail Distillery in Danville, Kentucky, which the distillery says was Danville's first legal distillery since Prohibition.
2016: named Kentucky Manufacturer of the Year, per the distillery
2018: first batches of its three core whiskeys bottled and sold
2020: named the 18th stop on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail
Production and scale
The distillery uses a sweet mash process rather than the more traditional sour mash, and says its flagship was the first bottled in bond, wheated, sweet mash bourbon released in Kentucky since Prohibition. The Kentucky Bourbon Trail lists the distillery as producing 215 barrels a day with locally sourced grain. The distillery says more than 100,000 barrels age across its 168 acre campus.
Visiting
The distillery is at 4095 Lebanon Rd, Danville, Kentucky 40422. Tour times and prices were not confirmed, so check the distillery site before publishing.
Recent recognition
A September 2026 article from The Manual, seen as a search snippet only, reports that Pat Heist and Shane Baker were inducted into the Kentucky Bourbon Hall of Fame's 24th class.
Sources and gaps
Gaps for Filip: core range names and ABVs, stills, mash bill details, current owner structure and visitor hours and prices were not found on the pages that loaded. The Hall of Fame item rests on a search snippet and should be checked. Set the URL slug in SEO settings.
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