WhistlePig’s New ‘Boss Hog’ Whiskey Is Inspired by a Recipe Found on an Ancient Egyptian Tomb

(Photo: WhistlePig Whiskey)

On Wednesday, WhistlePig opened presale on the 13th release in its Boss Hog series, and this one traces its origins to a tiger nut cake recipe found carved into an Egyptian tomb more than 3,000 years old.

The Boss Hog XIII: The Golden Pharaoh is a straight rye finished in barrels seasoned with Egyptian black honey and tiger nuts. It’s the first Boss Hog release to draw its inspiration from Africa, and the brand’s first time opening a presale window for the series.

The recipe is something of a study in misnomers. Egyptian black honey, or asal eswed, is a sugarcane molasses rather than bee honey, and remains a staple ingredient in Egyptian cooking today. Tiger nuts, meanwhile, aren’t nuts at all, but edible tubers with a flavor closer to almond or coconut, long used across Egypt and the wider Mediterranean and Middle East for food, medicine and ritual offerings.

“Through our research, we came across a tiger nut cake recipe carved into the side of a tomb dating back more than 3,000 years,” WhistlePig Whiskey Head Blender Meghan Ireland said in a news release. “We recreated the recipe on our farm and fell in love with the flavor combination. That led us to experiment with the finishing for this year’s The Boss Hog to see what those flavors could do to Rye whiskey. We were not disappointed!”

An aside for whiskey nerds: this is the first Boss Hog I can remember that was distilled in Kentucky, a departure from the series’ more common Canadian roots (last year’s edition was distilled in Indiana) — and it comes a few months after WhistlePig opened The Vault, its bar in Louisville. Coincidence?

As always, WhistlePig says the release holds to the Boss Hog series’ five promises: single barrel, bottled at proof, powerfully complex, distinctly unique, and “Stupendous.”

Presale opens Wednesday ahead of a nationwide launch on Sept. 29. The whiskey carries a suggested retail price of $599.99 for a 750-milliliter bottle, bottled at cask strength between 102.6 and 105.6 proof (51.3-52.8% ABV).Each bottle is topped with a pewter Golden Pharaoh-inspired topper, with a limited number of bottles receiving a rare gold topper for collectors.

Review: How Does The Boss Hog XIII Golden Pharaoh Stack Up?

WhistlePig was gracious enough to send me a bottle of The Boss Hog XIII ahead of its launch for review. It’s a dense, nuanced pour that opens with warm holiday spice, honey and molasses up front, with a long finish that delivers dark chocolatey/coffee goodness and plenty of spice.

Find our full tasting notes, score and our take on how it compares to last year’s Boss Hog are available in our complete review.