Owned by fifth-generation farmers, the first estate distillery in Illinois is proving that details matter when it comes to creating unique, high-quality spirits

Whiskey Acres Distilling Co.
11504 Keslinger Road
DeKalb, IL
WhiskeyAcres.com

Friday: 4:30-8:30 p.m. with a 6 p.m. tour
Saturday: 1:30-8:30 p.m. with tours at 2, 4 and 6 p.m.
Sunday: 1:30-5:30 p.m. with a tour at 2 p.m.

Background
It all starts with the father-and-son tandem of Jim and Jamie Walter, whose family has been farming the land on which Whiskey Acres resides since the 1930s. Jim, personally, has been farming there since the 1970s. Jamie attended the University of Illinois and Drake University, earned a degree in agricultural law and came back to the farm with an entrepreneurial spirit.

Jamie, who partnered in a wine label out of Sonoma in the early 2000s and longed to recreate a similar experience back in Illinois, arrived at the idea of opening a distillery as a way to extract more revenue out for the grain they were growing.

Enter a third business partner, Nick Nagele, the district manager of a seed company at the time, who also grew up on a small-town farm and had a deep-rooted passion for agriculture. In another shrewd decision, they brought in the late Dave Pickerell, former master distiller at Maker’s Mark and WhistlePig, to teach them the ropes early on. The first spirits rolled off the still in late 2014.

Everything we do, and the way we think, is as if we operated an estate winery in Napa. We care about the land, what we plant, how we plant it. The details all matter.”

The focus
With a deep understanding of corn genetics, everything Whiskey Acres does in relation to growing grain is an attempt to get away from the commodities market, and instead focus on breeding unique and proprietary varietals of corn in order to create and showcase different flavor profiles of whiskey and rye.

“Everything we do, and the way we think, is as if we operated an estate winery in Napa,” Nagele explains. “We care about the land, what we plant, how we plant it. The details all matter. … Our goal is to create whiskeys and ryes that are different than what is out there in the market and what everyone else is offering.”

Another goal: Creating an environment where people can come and enjoy and have a candid conversation about what they do as farmers, how they do it and why they do it.

The venue
Whiskey Acres, located in rural DeKalb about 60 miles west of Chicago, started production at the end of 2014, with a small tasting room (supported by original stone and timber from the dairy farm), opening in summer of 2015.

A new larger tasting room opened in January of 2019, and the Covid pandemic actually forced them to invest in an outdoor “whiskey garden,” complete with seating for 200, regular live music and string lighting (weddings, class reunions and parties too).

Products that caught our attention:
Blue Popcorn — Whiskey Acres is the first distillery in the world to make bourbon from the type of corn that is generally used to make gourmet popcorn. Caramel apple, toffee popcorn and fruit candies complement the rich, warm oak and vanilla notes, all with a complex wood spice finish. Sounds pretty good, no? And for those traditionalists out there, don’t worry, it’s still bourbon.

Bottled-in-bond rye — This bonded whiskey is an older, higher proof expression of their straight rye and was a big hit at a recent festival we attended. Expect vanilla and butterscotch on the nose and a creamy mouthfeel with baking spices, brown sugar and a slight hint of dill. Labeled “a bourbon drinker’s rye,” it was a double gold winner at the 2021 San Francisco World Spirits Competition.

The Whiskey Acres team will be scaling up the release of their maple bourbon cream liqueur, which utilizes barrel-aged real maple syrup and fresh Wisconsin cream

What’s new
Thanks to a partnership with the award-winning Dunn Vineyards in Napa Valley, Whiskey Acres released a bourbon earlier this fall that was finished in juicy cabernet casks.

They also will be scaling up the release of their maple bourbon cream liqueur (using barrel-aged real maple syrup and fresh Wisconsin cream), which has proven to be a product bourbon drinkers appreciate while also serving as a gateway for those who may not be fully into bourbon yet.

Final thoughts: “We want to be approachable and create an unpretentious way to experience what is a complicated product. We’re very proud that we’ve gone from the concept of creating an estate distillery to being one of the leaders in terms of creating and serving estate-distilled products.” — Nick Nagele