Celebrate Tax Day With Local Distillery's "Rebellious" Whiskey

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- As we all know, April 15 is income tax day. A tax on whiskey in 1794 led to rebellion, in western Pennsylvania.

Now, a Strip District distillery has brought back a beverage from that era.

"We have the capacity to produce about 70,000 bottles of whiskey a year," says co-owner Alex Grelli. He says the family business is named for Phillip Wigle, a leader of Pittsburgh's rebellion against a tax on whiskey, 220 years ago.

"One of two men who were sentenced to hang during the Whiskey Rebellion for treason," Grelli adds.

He was pardoned by President Washington, who led federal troops to quash the uprising.

The whiskey made in those days of rebellion was Monongahela Rye, which spends only one day in the barrel. Wigle Whiskey calls it a "rebellious white rye."

"It can be a very different flavor, whether or not you're drinking the flavors of the oak barrel or what comes out of fermenting the starch or sugars from your raw ingredients," the co-owner says.

Grelli says they've also begun to make Dutch gin.

"There were a lot of Dutch immigrants in Pennsylvania, and we found some recipes about how to make a Dutch style gin from a rye whiskey base," Grelli said.

On tax day, April 15, the Wigle distillery will introduce another classic: Deep Cut Rye. Rebellion or not, it will be taxed.

Find out more at wiglewhiskey.com.