My first visit to Wyoming eight years ago was during elk mating season. On a brisk early October day, I ventured to Yellowstone National Park with a naturalist guide, who explained the fierce mating ritual I was witnessing en masse. The high-pitched shriek of bugling bulls was entirely unexpected, and in just one day, I saw multiple battles as bulls violently crashed antlers to prove their power to females.

Wyoming conjures images of cowboys, cattle and big blue skies, far from the rolling hills, racehorses and whiskeys of Kentucky. There hasn't historically been a tradition of whiskey-making in Wyoming. In fact, when Wyoming Whiskey sold its first bottle 10 years ago, it was the first legal distillery in the state.