Bill Wofford
William Alexander "Bill" Wofford was born in July of 1962, and while not much has been made public regarding his early life, as a young adult, he attended Texas A&M University, and ultimately earned a doctorate in physical chemistry there. He then built a professional career as a physicist with Texas Instruments. That scientific background eventually became important as a distiller a few years later, where the controlled interaction of grain, yeast, heat, water, copper, wood, and time demanded both careful measurement and practical judgment.
In concert with his professional achievements, William Alexander Wofford was also a dedicated whiskey enthusiast. After one 2010 trip to Kentucky that Wofford embarked on with three Texas friends, John Freeman, James Jolly, and Dave Coussens, it was decided that it was time to embark on a new adventure as a group. The conversation that followed led to the creation of Five Points Distilling in 2011. The partners acquired rural property near Forney, east of Dallas, Texas, and began constructing a distillery. Wofford was appointed to be the company’s first master distiller, and it was his job to assume primary responsibility for translating the group’s idea into a workable production system. In regard to the name of the enterprise, Five Points Distilling is the physical production facility and official company name, while Lone Elm is the specific brand name of the product which they craft and bottle there; however, both are used interchangeably.
Soon, Vendome Brassworks was brought in to help design the production equipment needed to get the distillery running. For their grain, the partners deliberately chose wheat rather than corn, since wheat was readily available from farms surrounding Forney, where soft red winter wheat was grown as part of the local agricultural economy. It was also determined that Five Points Distillery would procure all of its grain products from local farmers in their area. The residual spent mash would then returned to the farmers for use as cow feed. Working with such a high percentage of wheat presented significant production challenges. Wheat produces a thick, adhesive mash that can be more difficult to move through distilling equipment than a conventional corn-heavy bourbon mash. But Wofford’s scientific training ultimately proved well suited to the process of refining the recipe, controlling fermentation, and operating the pot still. The mash underwent a seven-day fermentation with a proprietary combination of yeast strains, followed by a distillation run that could last as much as 12 hours.
Water became another distinctly local part of the production system. Five Points installed a rainwater-collection system, protected the collected water with ultraviolet treatment, and purified it through reverse osmosis. This approach gave the distillery control over a crucial ingredient while reducing its dependence on conventional water sources. Wofford combined his specific resources on Lone Elm’s purpose-built equipment to give the distillery an identity tied closely to its place of production.
After considerable blood, sweat, and tears were shed, the distillery made its first batch of whiskey in 2013. Every principal stage—mashing, fermentation, distillation, maturation, and bottling—took place at the Forney property, establishing Lone Elm as a grain-to-glass Texas whiskey. The operation maintained direct relationships with nearby farmers for its wheat, rye, and barley, and after distillation, the spent mash went back to area farms as cattle feed, returning organic material to the local agricultural cycle.
The whiskey entered new American oak barrels with a medium char. Five Points initially used 15-gallon barrels, partly because full-sized 53-gallon barrels were difficult to obtain when the company began production. The smaller vessels increased the proportion of whiskey in contact with wood, while the intense Texas climate accelerated the movement of spirit into and out of the oak. Wofford acknowledged that the heat also imposed costs: evaporation was high, and whiskey occasionally leaked completely through the barrels.
Lone Elm Small Batch Texas Straight Wheat Whiskey emerged as the distillery’s foundational expression. Bottled at 90 proof, it was assembled from selected barrels to preserve consistency while retaining the character of individual batches. In 2015, Lone Elm received 95 points and the Chairman’s Trophy at the Ultimate Spirits Challenge, an early confirmation that Wofford’s unconventional wheat-centered approach could compete beyond the Texas craft market. Five Points later added Lone Elm Single Barrel Texas Straight Wheat Whiskey. Wofford selected individual barrels with sufficient character to stand on their own, and the whiskey was bottled at approximately 120 proof rather than reduced to the Small Batch strength. The distillery also produced wheat vodka, providing an unaged expression of the same central grain, and broadened its whiskey work with rye and limited barrel-finished releases.
Wofford’s standing within Texas whiskey grew with the distillery. Five Points became a founding member of the Texas Whiskey Association and participated in the development of the Texas Whiskey Trail. Lone Elm represented a particularly independent branch of that movement because its identity rested on wheat rather than corn, malted barley, or rye. Wofford called it the “antithesis of corn bourbon,” a concise description of a whiskey intended to establish its own flavor rather than imitate a familiar formula.
The strongest recognition arrived in consecutive years. At the 2023 World Whiskies Awards, Lone Elm Four-Year-Old Single Barrel was named the World’s Best Wheat Whiskey. Lone Elm Single Barrel repeated the achievement in 2024, when it again received the title of World’s Best Wheat Whiskey, this time with a profile built around what judges determined to be cherry liqueur, violet, grass, and a viscous, syrupy texture.
Those two awards placed Wofford’s Forney whiskey at the head of its international category more than a decade after the first experimental batches entered the still. In the end, Wofford’s work joined scientific discipline to a grain readily available outside the distillery door. The result was not a Texas copy of an old bourbon recipe from another state, but a mature, straight wheat whiskey with a production history, flavor structure, and international reputation of its very own.
Sources:
Hook & Barrel Magazine, “Lone Elm Whiskey,” Jenny Adams, August 27, 2020, hookandbarrel.com
The Bourbon Life, “Episode 45: Bill Wofford—Lone Elm Whiskey,” December 18, 2020, thebourbonlife.libsyn.com
Bourbon Real Talk, “Lone Elm Whiskey: History and Surprise Announcement,” October 9, 2020, bourbonrealtalk.com
Rickhouse Ramblings, “Review: Lone Elm Small Batch Texas Straight Wheat Whiskey,” Christian and Mike, December 20, 2021, rickhouseramblings.com
D Magazine, “How to Spend a Day in Forney,” Catherine Wendlandt, July 21, 2022, dmagazine.com
Five Points Distilling official website, lone-elm.com
World Whiskies Awards, “World’s Best Wheat—Lone Elm Four Years Old Single Barrel,” 2023, worldwhiskiesawards.com
World Whiskies Awards, “World’s Best Wheat—Lone Elm Single Barrel,” 2024, worldwhiskiesawards.com
Contributed by Tracy McLemore, Fairview, Tennessee
