The Art of the Blend: A Masterclass with Wendy Peveich and Archer Eland
This installment of our Beyond Bourbon series skipped bourbon entirely. Instead, the Central Ohio Whiskey Society spent the night on rye. Leading the evening was Wendy Peveich, Founder & Blender of Archer Eland Rye Whiskey. She walked the club through a hands-on blending experience.
First, though, the club got a crash course in rye’s history. Rye was America’s original whiskey grain, born in colonial New England. It survived the Whiskey Rebellion. Then Prohibition nearly wiped it out. Decades later, the craft cocktail boom brought it roaring back. This backdrop set the stage for Wendy’s own rye origin story.
Wendy’s path to whiskey was anything but traditional. She trained as a cardiovascular nurse practitioner and spent years treating heart failure patients, including on the front lines during COVID. Before that chapter closed, though, she’d already found a second calling: for five years, she was the national face of Penelope Bourbon. Then, in 2023, LuxCo/MGP acquired the brand. Rather than stay in bourbon, Wendy followed a longtime love of rye instead, sparked in part by Leopold Brothers’ three-chamber rye. So she launched her own hundred-percent-rye brand.
The name is deeply personal. Archer honors her own zodiac sign, Sagittarius. Eland is the Shona word for the giant eland antelope, one of the most resilient animals in Africa. Together, the name pays homage to her Zimbabwean mother’s tenacity and work ethic. Wendy distills and blends Archer Eland in partnership with Middle West Spirits in Columbus. The whiskey is made from Ohio-grown rye, using a 95% rye / 5% malted rye mash bill.
You Are the Blender
Rather than run a standard guided tasting, Wendy turned the room into a blending lab. Members worked through samples in pairs: first A and B, then C and D. They nosed and tasted each pour blind. Along the way, they called out notes and voted on favorites. Only then did Wendy reveal what was actually in the glass. The result was a lively, hands-on look at how differently the same grain can express itself. Proof, barrel age, and blending technique all played a part.
The Pours
Solstice — The Archer Eland flagship. This citrus-forward rye is blended from 4–7 year barrels and bottled around 104 proof. Wendy built it as an easy, sessionable entry point into rye, the kind of pour you can pour over ice or mix into a cocktail on a summer evening. In fact, she joked it’s built for sipping on the golf course, tucked in a back pocket for good luck. During the blind tasting, the room actually picked Solstice’s finish as the longer of the first two pours, a sign of just how much flavor it packs in at a relatively approachable proof.
Aurora — A cask-strength pour around 110 proof and the spicier, more traditional rye drinker’s choice. Wendy called it her “problem child,” and for good reason. She reworked the blend calculations four times before it came together. Along the way, she used a partial-barrel blending technique, pulling only a portion of each barrel rather than the whole thing. She even played with warehouse placement, aging some barrels on the hotter, eastern side of the building to sweeten them up before blending. The result lands on notes of green apple, fudge, coffee, chocolate, and chicory, layered over real heat and spice.
Archer Eland “14” — A limited annual release timed to her mother’s May birthday. For this one, Wendy leaned on a solera-style technique, letting a portion of leftover whiskey concentrate in a pot still vessel over a hot summer before folding it back into the blend. The result bottles around 123 proof. The room picked up floral, almond, chocolate, and citrus notes, a tongue-in-cheek nod to “moms get flowers” on Mother’s Day. Wendy considers it one of her most personal releases, and only two cases remain.
Dark Skies — A Virginia-exclusive custom blend. Wendy created it as a thank-you when Archer Eland entered the Virginia market, drawing inspiration from the state’s reputation for dark-sky stargazing along the East Coast. She built it using another solera blend, landing around 118 proof. On the palate, it comes across thick and creamy, with dark tart cherry notes reminiscent of Cherry Garcia ice cream. Wendy made only 60 cases, and just a handful remain today, so this was a rare pour even by Archer Eland standards.
Suede — A rare pour that closed out the night. This 7-year, 100% rye comes in at 126 proof, and Wendy called it a “happy accident” she stumbled into rather than planned. Expect notes of leather, sweet tobacco, nutmeg, cocoa, white pepper, brown sugar, and coffee, with just a whisper of mint and pine underneath. She has no plans to make it again, so once it’s gone from shelves, it’s gone for good.
It was a rare chance to taste an entire brand’s range side by side, straight from the person blending it. Overall, it was a fitting way to kick off the club’s deeper dive into rye whiskey as the Beyond Bourbon series continues.
