Frey Ranch in Fallon, Nevada was started after a farming family decided to get into the whiskey business. The Harvester Series, then, must be named after the grain harvest, yes? In this case, “harvest” refers to removing barrels of mature whiskey from the rickhouse for blending and bottling. This particular blend was created by Master Blender Nancy Fraley, who had hundreds of barrel samples from numerous different mash bills to work with. Rather than using her typical blending pyramid technique, she opted instead for a new technique of taking away components that didn’t belong. Soon she ended up with this blend.
This is a $300 bottle from a farm distillery in Nevada. All the grains are grown on the ranch and the barrels are stored on-site for a ground-to-glass whiskey. It has a derived mash bill of 36.14% corn, 27.92% rye, 26.66% triticale, 4.80% malted barley, and 4.48% wheat. All grains were grown on the Frey Ranch by the Frey family, and this batch was blended by blending superstar Nancy Fraley. It’s a little different than your standard American whiskey. For starters, there’s not a predominant grain so it’s just a straight whiskey, not a Bourbon or a rye or a wheat whiskey. There’s also triticale in the mash bill, which is a plant that crosses wheat and rye that is not often used in whiskey-making.
“Our Harvester Series was born out of a desire to offer unique whiskey blends that put our grains front and center. First Harvest centered on rye whiskey, Second Harvest turned the spotlight on wheat whiskey, and this year we are introducing triticale to the blend for the first time ever in Frey Ranch’s history. We sent our blending partner Nancy (Fraley) hundreds of samples, including the triticale, and she really gravitated towards the complexity it added to the final blend,” says Frey Ranch Whiskey Farmer and Co-Founder Colby Frey.
The silo package is replicated from a silo on the farm that Colby Frey’s grandfather built in the 1900s. 150 bottles will be released Saturday in the dsitllery tasting room.
Photos Courtesy of Maggie Kimberl
