By james art 
CJ Box author protagonist Joe Pickett loves to drink bourbon, and now he’s going to have 1,000 bottles named after him.
That’s the secret that was spilled in an X (formerly Twitter) post by Box late last week and confirmed Monday by the author, who said he was approached by Wyoming’s Pine Bluffs Distilling about the idea of the Wyoming Breakfast at the National final rodeo last year.
Joe Pickett is the main character in more than 20 novels that Box has written, beginning with Open Season in 2001. The series pits Pickett, an everyday family man as the hero, against people such as “environmental terrorists, rogue federal land managers, animals mutilators, crazed killer cowboys, corrupt bureaucrats, killers of animal rights activists and violent dysfunctional families,” according to the Box website.
Box was approached by Chad Brown, co-owner of Pine Bluffs Distilling, about the idea of creating 1,000 bottles of a special blend of bourbon in honor of Joe Pickett. A portion of sales will be donated to a charity of Box’s choice.
“I just thought it would be really cool if we had this bourbon-drinking warden from Wyoming in the book, if he had his own bourbon,” Brown said.
After Box agreed to the idea, Box, his wife, along with Gordon and others went to the distillery in Pine Bluffs to try different whiskey barrels to create the right flavor that reflected Joe Pickett.
“You know, Joe Pickett drinks bourbon and I drink bourbon,” Box said. “My wife is on the board of the Wyoming Hunger Initiative, Jenny Gordon’s group. So the proceeds will go to what is a great cause. I’m very excited about it.”
Brown said he had the idea to contact Box because of the iconic character he created in Joe Pickett and the stories of Pickett’s life, which now await the publication of the 25th book, “Battle Mountain,” in the spring of 2025.
Special mix
Box, Brown and others spent an afternoon at the distillery tasting a mix of different rye bourbon blends. Brown said each barrel has its own flavor profile, which can be sweet or different.
“Chuck said I wanted a sweeter bourbon,” Brown said. “And I said, let’s try to find some barrels that have the flavor characteristics that you like. So that’s what we spent the afternoon doing.”
Once the barrel selection and blend for the 1,000 bottles were determined, Brown said he began the process of working on a label design. Once designed and approved by Box, it will have to get approval from the U.S. Treasury Department’s Bureau of Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade, which oversees the labeling of distilled spirits.
Brown plans to hold a bottling event in the spring and have Joe Pickett’s bourbon available as Box releases its next novel in the Joe Pickett series and embarks on a book tour.
Box said he continues to work with Brown on the label and “so far what they’ve shown me looks pretty cool.”
The author of Wyoming Character said it was important that a Wyoming distillery be the one to produce Joe Pickett’s bourbon. Box said knowing that Pine Bluffs uses local grains is “very important.”
Box said he had a hard time remembering the formation of the character and all the decisions he initially made about whether and what Pickett should drink.
“I mean, it goes back a long way to when he was drinking bourbon and water at night, and for a while he and his friend Nate Romanowski were drinking Wyoming whiskey,” he said.
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A barrel is sampled in preparation for Joe Picket bourbon at Pine Bluffs Distilling. (Courtesy of Pine Bluffs Distilling) -
First Lady Jenny Gordon signs a barrel at Pine Bluffs Distilling. A portion of Joe Pickett Bourbon sales will benefit the Wyoming Hunger Initiative, which Gordon leads. (Courtesy of Pine Bluffs Distilling) -
Taste testers for Joe Pickett’s bourbon, which will be released in 2025, include, from left, Jenny Gordon, Lori Box, CJ Box, Teresa Brown and Pine Bluffs Distilling co-owner Chad Brown. (Courtesy of Pine Bluffs Distilling)
Choice of bourbon
But the real reason Pickett drinks bourbon is because Box said it’s his own drink of choice.
“And it fits the character, too,” he said.
Box said that usually with each book she produces, her daughter will create different themed products for fans to purchase, but this is the first time one of her characters has generated a product on such a large scale.
Brown said that depending on how the Joe Pickett project goes, he and Box have talked about another product next year about another of Box’s characters, potentially Romanowski.
The Joe Pickett bourbon product is the first Pine Bluffs Distilling has done with a character from a book, but Brown said they’ve done projects with companies that want to do a 1,000-bottle project for their employees at Christmas or a special event.
The tentative release date for the Joe Pickett bourbon is April 19.
Following his post on X’s social media, Box said he has already heard from fans.
“I have a lot of followers who have said they can’t wait to get it, buy it and try it,” he said. “So I guess it will go well.”
Dale Killingbeck can be reached at [email protected].