Fiddler Combine Bourbon and Fiddler Steel Plow Rye helps celebrate American ag
Spirit drinkers have two new options available to them which help celebrate American agriculture.
John Deere and ASW Distillery have partnered to bring Fiddler Combine Bourbon and Fiddler Steel Plow Rye to retailers.
The collaboration is headlined as “Soil to Still,” to highlight the complete journey from field to the distillation.
The partnership “honors the soil both brands have spent generations serving,” an ASW release says. “From American-grown corn to the oak in the barrels and finishing staves, every element pays homage to their history.”
These products come after two years of ASW and John Deere reps working together. This included an education about the history of whiskey, and committing to producing spirits that honor people who put in long hours.
Here’s how ASW describes the two spirits.
Fiddler Steel Plow Rye — A tribute to John Deere's original steel plow, this rye is the spirit of the founding generation. George Washington distilled it at Mount Vernon and it fueled the westward expansion the plow made possible. Bold, spicy, and rooted in the same American grit that broke the Illinois sod.
Tasting Notes: Complex, robust rye with notes of dark chocolate, raisin, and clove.
Fiddler Combine Bourbon — A nod to the 1947 debut of the self-propelled combine harvester, this wheated bourbon features 45% wheat content — more than double that of most premium wheated bourbons on the market. The high-wheat mash bill delivers the softness and sweetness that makes wheated bourbons among the most sought-after in the world.
Tasting Notes: Heavy caramel on the nose with tasting notes of dates, nougat, and almond.
The coming together of spirits and John Deere seemed like a predetermined event.
It was in 1964 that John Deere opened its headquarters in Moline, Ill. That same year Congress officially declared bourbon as a distinct product of the U.S. to prevent foreign imitators.
For a spirit to be legally called bourbon, it must be made in the U.S. with at least 51 percent corn.
In the U.S., about 1 percent of national corn harvests are directed for beverage alcohol.
The USDA’s Grain Crushings and Co-Products Production report from July 1 showed “corn consumed for beverage alcohol totaled 3.98 million bushels, down 7 percent from April 2026 but up 5 percent from May 2025.”
In all of 2025, about 42.22 million bushels of U.S. corn were used for alcohol production.
To put that into context, farmers in Delaware and Florida combined for more than 40 million bushels of corn in 2025.